One of President Donald Trump's first actions after being inaugurated was to sign an executive order recognizing a government-wide “two sexes” policy. The party of science, of course, melted down, with the Washington Post reporting that "experts and scientists" assert that sex is non-binary.
The Bulwark is at the forefront of "conserving conservativism" and has made the declaration that Trump's executive order, which dehumanizes transgender people, is "unjust and dangerous." That avatar of conservatism Bill Kristol posted a piece from The Bulwark arguing in favor of trans rights.
Stand with trans Americans. You don’t have to understand everything about the transgender experience to know that Trump’s acts of humiliation and dehumanization are unjust and dangerous.https://t.co/xK5htWWgIr
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) March 4, 2025
If Trump is one one side of an issue, the Never Trumpers must reflexively be on the other side. I don't consider Trump's acts to be "humiliation" or "dangerous." Are we going to get the suicide argument now? That trans people will kill themselves if their passport has their gender on it?
If anything, we've learned over the past couple of years that trans violence is violence. There's been a parade of trans or nonbinary mass shooters and a call for a Trans Day of Vengeance in response.
Marc Solomon, who conserved conservatism by fighting for the right to same-sex marriage, writes:
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Donald Trump's and his administration's dehumanization of transgender people—literally denying their existence—is deeply harmful to a small group of Americans who face discrimination already. As someone who helped lead the fight to win marriage for same-sex couples, I’m familiar with the playbook of sowing fear, though I have never seen it carried out as viciously as the Trump administration is now doing. The question for all of us is whether we go along with it or, instead, question it, listen to the stories of transgender people and their families, and see if we can connect, empathize, welcome, and push back.
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Trump is trying to trick the public into thinking that his administration is trying to protect girls or children. But he is merely following the well-worn blueprint of scapegoating a small minority of misunderstood people who simply want to be able to live their lives freely.
Oh, and Solomon does play the suicide card, saying that 86 percent of trans youth reported suicidality and 56 percent have attempted suicide. Obviously, the compassionate thing to do is pump them full of puberty blockers and hormones and then mutilate them so they can be more likely to commit suicide anyway.
The solution?
"It starts with conversation. Reasonable people can have honest questions about what it means to be transgender—and there must be space for discussion and room for people to grow," Solomon writes. OK, let's start with conversation. What it means to be transgender is to be deluded and expecting the rest of the world to accommodate your delusion. Oh, but starting the conversation from there will get you banned from social media. For someone advocating conversation, they certainly have a lot of rules about what you can and cannot say.
"Trump is trying to trick the public into thinking that his administration is trying to protect girls or children," Solomon writes. So it's a trick that wanting to keep biological males out of women's locker rooms and showers is not an attempt to protect girls. Men can decide they identify as a woman during a trial so they can serve their sentence in a women's prison. Is that protecting women? Just last night, all Democrat senators voted to block a law that would prohibit men from participating in girls' sports teams. Do the girls' feelings count at all? No — a tiny minority trumps their opinion.
The four years of the Biden administration seemed to do nothing but shine a bright spotlight on transgender people, and frankly, I grew sick of it. The majority of the U.S. public has had it.
Solomon invokes the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Does this rule apply to trans people too? Using the girls' locker room will make them feel unsafe … maybe I shouldn't force it.
The Bulwark … enough said.
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