I don't think this story shows the Democrats to be in any serious trouble. As far as I can tell, no Democrat called for the use of this form. It was the brainchild of some company trying to be "sensitive."
In any event, a Democrat running for Senator in a swing state in 2026 or for president in 2028 can easily disagree with this New Jersey policy, assuming it even comes up. And voters would believe his or her disagreement because the policy is, indeed, insane.
In addition, this isn't the kind of LGBTQ issue that upsets voters to the point it would influence their vote. The policies that resonate are ones that seem grossly unfair (boys competing in girls' sports); that intrude on privacy (boys in girls' locker rooms and bathrooms); and that place safety or health at risk (men in women's prisons, boys in girls' locker rooms and bathrooms, boys competing in certain girls' sports, and certain surgeries).
The New Jersey policy doesn't fall into any of these categories. It's stupid and annoying, but that's all.
I should add that a Gallup poll taken after the 2024 election showed that transgender issues ranked 23rd in importance to voters. And, again, I believe those who considered it important were focused on the kinds of policies described in my second paragraph.
At the margin, Democrats running in tough aces need to get on the right side of hot button cultural issues like boys in girls sports and in their bathrooms. This, they can do, and already seem to be doing it.
I think examples such as the New Jersey law draw ridicule to the whole woke agenda and cause people to wonder: if the Democrats are so obviously clueless on a fundamental matter as biology, why shouldn’t the rest of their agenda be questioned?
Bravo. Insanity, for sure. Maybe even a form of mass psychosis. And I don't see how the word "liberal,' or what it used to mean, aligns with the trans agenda.
Worse than the idea itself that gender is a social construct has been the totalitarian effort in federal, state and local governments to force people to embrace the idea and adopt it in schools, hospitals, office and every aspect of life.
Pushing cross-dressing boys to compete in girls' sports may have sparked the rebellion, but that is only one manifestation of the trans agenda
For the last few years, the veterinarian's office has been the last island of sanity.
I do have one small quibble with your observation: "I frequently hear that there’s no very big difference between the parties, just tweedle dumb and tweedle dee. They’re all owned by “the establishment” and just wear slightly different masks. So ask yourself: Has a Republican politician, even a RINO, ever supported this kind of identity- and gender-obsessed legislation? Has it ever been adopted in a Republican-controlled jurisdiction? Will it ever be? No, no and no."
Indeed, this issue has been a sharp differentiator between the parties. Republicans have not supported boys in girls' sports, genital mutilation and chemical castration as forms of therapy and most have been vocal in opposing them. However, in the early days of the the public emergence of gender theory and its public policy initiatives, many republicans were tepid on the issue. They were very slow to oppose it.
Before 2016 there were republicans in NC who supported allowing trans men in women's bathrooms. Even Donald Trump, before his first primary, said that he wouldn't object if the bathrooms in Trump Tower were so designated. In the controversy of Pete Hegseth's nomination, Joni Ernst and Lisa Murkowski insisted that the military had to embrace transgenders in the military.
Until recently, the predominant instinct of the GOP has been to "stay out of the culture wars." The predominant instinct of the democrat party has been to lead the culture wars - adopting every effort to destroy traditional culture and every grievance movement as "the civil rights issue of our time."
And it worked for them, until they reflexively embraced crackpot ideas about sex and gender that were hatched in the fringes of academia and John Money's Kinsey Institute.
Gender theory, which seeks to change how we define humanity itself, acted like a litmus test on the culture. It is not an idea with which compromise is even possible.
The forced adoption of gender theory in the schools forced ordinary people who had no idea that such an idea existed to reckon with it. They forced the republican party to confront it on their behalf. Along the way, republican legislators in NC, TN and other states were divided, but finally came down on the right side of the issue (TN probably being the breakout).
On this issue, it was the culture that finally pushed back against the war on traditional culture, finding strong voices in social media and conservative cultural commentators like Matt Walsh, Charlie Kirk, Caitlin Jenner (neé Bruce), Riley Gaines and second generation feminists like J.K. Rowling, Martina Navratoliva and Camille Paglia.
But you can count on one hand the number of republicans who were outspoken on it in 2020. My memory dwells on the spectacle of Dr. Rachel (neé Richard) Levine's confirmation hearing, where Rand Paul uniquely brought the heat, challenging the fake science of gender theory only to hear Levine - wearing a blond wig and pantyhose - recite the same canned non-answer about the WPATH "standard of care" after every question. I even remember a reader comment one of the posts I read, from a woman: "Why is everyone just sitting there and acting like this is normal?"
Trump and other GOP politicians took up the cause and they deserve great credit for that. But here, let it be remembered it was moms, dads, students, and some squeaky wheels in social media - not politicians, lawyers, doctors, corporations - who led the revolt against a repulsive totalitarian movement, championed by one of our major political parties and its President, that was becoming institutionalized through law. Virtually all of our "institutions" failed us.
I live in one of the reddest states in the country, one where trans surgery on minors is illegal. It took four years to make it illegal, despite the overwhelming majority of republicans in the legislature. And yet last year, a family in Idaho Falls who objected to recommended "gender affirming care" for their son while he was being observed for depression in a hospital, woke up the next day to learn their son was spirited to a hospital in neighboring Montana were it was legal, against their will.
I don't think this story shows the Democrats to be in any serious trouble. As far as I can tell, no Democrat called for the use of this form. It was the brainchild of some company trying to be "sensitive."
In any event, a Democrat running for Senator in a swing state in 2026 or for president in 2028 can easily disagree with this New Jersey policy, assuming it even comes up. And voters would believe his or her disagreement because the policy is, indeed, insane.
In addition, this isn't the kind of LGBTQ issue that upsets voters to the point it would influence their vote. The policies that resonate are ones that seem grossly unfair (boys competing in girls' sports); that intrude on privacy (boys in girls' locker rooms and bathrooms); and that place safety or health at risk (men in women's prisons, boys in girls' locker rooms and bathrooms, boys competing in certain girls' sports, and certain surgeries).
The New Jersey policy doesn't fall into any of these categories. It's stupid and annoying, but that's all.
I should add that a Gallup poll taken after the 2024 election showed that transgender issues ranked 23rd in importance to voters. And, again, I believe those who considered it important were focused on the kinds of policies described in my second paragraph.
At the margin, Democrats running in tough aces need to get on the right side of hot button cultural issues like boys in girls sports and in their bathrooms. This, they can do, and already seem to be doing it.
I think examples such as the New Jersey law draw ridicule to the whole woke agenda and cause people to wonder: if the Democrats are so obviously clueless on a fundamental matter as biology, why shouldn’t the rest of their agenda be questioned?
Bravo. Insanity, for sure. Maybe even a form of mass psychosis. And I don't see how the word "liberal,' or what it used to mean, aligns with the trans agenda.
Worse than the idea itself that gender is a social construct has been the totalitarian effort in federal, state and local governments to force people to embrace the idea and adopt it in schools, hospitals, office and every aspect of life.
Pushing cross-dressing boys to compete in girls' sports may have sparked the rebellion, but that is only one manifestation of the trans agenda
For the last few years, the veterinarian's office has been the last island of sanity.
I do have one small quibble with your observation: "I frequently hear that there’s no very big difference between the parties, just tweedle dumb and tweedle dee. They’re all owned by “the establishment” and just wear slightly different masks. So ask yourself: Has a Republican politician, even a RINO, ever supported this kind of identity- and gender-obsessed legislation? Has it ever been adopted in a Republican-controlled jurisdiction? Will it ever be? No, no and no."
Indeed, this issue has been a sharp differentiator between the parties. Republicans have not supported boys in girls' sports, genital mutilation and chemical castration as forms of therapy and most have been vocal in opposing them. However, in the early days of the the public emergence of gender theory and its public policy initiatives, many republicans were tepid on the issue. They were very slow to oppose it.
Before 2016 there were republicans in NC who supported allowing trans men in women's bathrooms. Even Donald Trump, before his first primary, said that he wouldn't object if the bathrooms in Trump Tower were so designated. In the controversy of Pete Hegseth's nomination, Joni Ernst and Lisa Murkowski insisted that the military had to embrace transgenders in the military.
Until recently, the predominant instinct of the GOP has been to "stay out of the culture wars." The predominant instinct of the democrat party has been to lead the culture wars - adopting every effort to destroy traditional culture and every grievance movement as "the civil rights issue of our time."
And it worked for them, until they reflexively embraced crackpot ideas about sex and gender that were hatched in the fringes of academia and John Money's Kinsey Institute.
Gender theory, which seeks to change how we define humanity itself, acted like a litmus test on the culture. It is not an idea with which compromise is even possible.
The forced adoption of gender theory in the schools forced ordinary people who had no idea that such an idea existed to reckon with it. They forced the republican party to confront it on their behalf. Along the way, republican legislators in NC, TN and other states were divided, but finally came down on the right side of the issue (TN probably being the breakout).
On this issue, it was the culture that finally pushed back against the war on traditional culture, finding strong voices in social media and conservative cultural commentators like Matt Walsh, Charlie Kirk, Caitlin Jenner (neé Bruce), Riley Gaines and second generation feminists like J.K. Rowling, Martina Navratoliva and Camille Paglia.
But you can count on one hand the number of republicans who were outspoken on it in 2020. My memory dwells on the spectacle of Dr. Rachel (neé Richard) Levine's confirmation hearing, where Rand Paul uniquely brought the heat, challenging the fake science of gender theory only to hear Levine - wearing a blond wig and pantyhose - recite the same canned non-answer about the WPATH "standard of care" after every question. I even remember a reader comment one of the posts I read, from a woman: "Why is everyone just sitting there and acting like this is normal?"
Trump and other GOP politicians took up the cause and they deserve great credit for that. But here, let it be remembered it was moms, dads, students, and some squeaky wheels in social media - not politicians, lawyers, doctors, corporations - who led the revolt against a repulsive totalitarian movement, championed by one of our major political parties and its President, that was becoming institutionalized through law. Virtually all of our "institutions" failed us.
I live in one of the reddest states in the country, one where trans surgery on minors is illegal. It took four years to make it illegal, despite the overwhelming majority of republicans in the legislature. And yet last year, a family in Idaho Falls who objected to recommended "gender affirming care" for their son while he was being observed for depression in a hospital, woke up the next day to learn their son was spirited to a hospital in neighboring Montana were it was legal, against their will.
That is what we're up against.
THE question is, Will they Get The Message?