Old comments recently brought to light have Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee in the headlines. Speaking to the trend in our society toward integrating transgendered individuals into opposite-sex facilities, Huckabee stated the obvious. From Politico:
“For those who do not think that we are under threat, simply recognize that the fact that we are now in city after city watching ordinances say that your 7-year-old daughter, if she goes into the restroom cannot be offended and you can’t be offended if she’s greeted there by a 42-year-old man who feels more like a woman than he does a man,” Huckabee, in an apparent reference to transgender rights, said in a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville earlier this year. The remarks were first reported on Tuesday by BuzzFeed News, which found them in a video that was uploaded last week to World Net Daily’s YouTube channel.
“I wish that somebody would have told me in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E. I’m pretty sure I would have found my feminine side, and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today,” Huckabee said to laughter and applause.
These comments are somehow newsworthy. We now live in a society where suggesting that boys ought not shower with girls has become controversial.
Note how Politico evokes “transgender rights” as the issue, presupposing that Huckabee stands opposed to said rights. Of course, the real rights dynamic in play favors Huckabee’s position.
Transgendered individuals hold the same rights as any other individuals, including the right to free association, a two-way street that requires mutual consent. To the extent “transgender rights” as defined by radical activists prescribe forcing association upon unwilling parties, they violate rights rather than uphold them.
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