Earlier this week, Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, tweeted a story about Lia Thomas, the biological male UPenn swimmer who is crushing all sorts of records in NCAA swimming competing against actual women, with the comment, “No matter what one thinks of Lia’s ability to swim with women her story deserves our compassion. It will be interesting to hear Lia’s pov in 30 years.”
No matter what one thinks of Lia’s ability to swim with women her story deserves our compassion. It will be interesting to hear Lia’s pov in 30 years. https://t.co/NLY9f6TO6I
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) March 6, 2022
This prompted former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis to call out Schlapp for caving to the woke mob. “No. None of this is remotely conservative, principled, or truthful, Matt,” she tweeted. “What are you doing?! It’s sad to see CPAC leadership and the GOP establishment cave to the LGBT agenda. I will not support this.”
Jenna followed up by announcing that she’d no longer attend CPAC. “I’m done with CPAC,” she said. “Like the RNC, it’s not conservative anymore.”
Schlapp responded to Jenna by insisting that he believes that “in the end trans people deserve our love and compassion.”
I find it difficult to feel compassion for Thomas when he thinks he’s entitled to flash his male genitalia to his teammates in the locker room. Where’s Thomas’ compassion for his teammates? You know, the ones who spent their lives training only to get crushed by someone who has a biological advantage over them. But Schlapp insists that he’s opposed to biological males competing in women’s sports.
“We should defend girls sports against competing w men aggressively but in the end remember that all people deserve respect,” he added. “Kinda simple. If showing decency makes you boycott @CPAC I’m good w it.”
Jenna all I am saying is in the end trans people deserve our love and compassion. We should defend girls sports against competing w men aggressively but in the end remember that all people deserve respect. Kinda simple. If showing decency makes you boycott @CPAC I’m good w it. https://t.co/0A1nReOTzS
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) March 8, 2022
But that didn’t convince Jenna. “You can’t walk back calling a man ‘her’ under the guise of ‘love and compassion.'” she said. “Love and compassion requires speaking truth.”
Is it compassion to use a person’s “preferred pronouns”? I don’t think so. We’re not showing trans people compassion by validating their delusions.
As the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said earlier this year, “You can’t expect me to take part in this charade, or this theatrical production. You don’t get your own pronouns just like you don’t get your own prepositions or adjectives. It’s like if I were to tell you my adjectives are handsome and brilliant and whenever time you talk about me you have to identify me as handsome and brilliant because that’s how I identify. That makes no sense.”
Using a transgender person’s “preferred pronouns” is not an act of decency or compassion; it’s an act of validation. We can’t validate their gender identity while simultaneously arguing that a biological man who identifies as a woman can’t compete in women’s sports. If you give the radical LGBTQ movement an inch, they will take 500 miles.
So what does compassion for transgender people look like? To me, the answer is obvious. Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder, and until the radical-woke left took over everything, it was widely accepted as such. These people need help through their gender dysphoria. We’re not being compassionate by legitimizing preferred pronouns. The conservative movement must always affirm the simple truth that men are men, women are women, and nothing can change that.
