As a matter of principle, I believe in the “live and let live” way of life. So long as people aren’t hurting anyone else, their choices about how to live should be tolerated at least and respected at best.
Governor Tim Walz used a memorable phrase that captures the same idea. “It’s none of your damn business!”
That’s my response when Republicans whip up the public to hate or fear transgender people.
Why do they do it? It’s a sure fire winner. It appeals to base instincts. (“How dare they flaunt society’s norms?”) They made it a big issue during the 2024 Presidential campaign.
But it’s overdone.
According to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, about 1% of the population over the age of 13 identifies as transgender. Or, 2.8 million people.
I understand the outrage about biological males competing in women’s sports, most especially, sports where men have a physical advantage, like swimming or track and field.
But I do not understand why Trump and Hegseth have expelled members of the military who are transgender. Many of those who have been booted from the military are decorated veterans who have served their nation with courage and distinction. Some are high-ranking officers with medals and multiple commendations.
I truly don’t understand why the military would expel officers or enlisted personnel who want to serve their nation and who are willing to risk their lives for our protection.
What does their sexual identity have to do with their ability to perform their duties? Does it give them an unfair advantage? I have not heard a convincing argument from Trump or Hegseth to justify their purge of transgender personnel from the military.
It seems to me that this is an open and shut case of bigotry, no different from discrimination based on religion, race, or gender. The transgender members of the military have been discharged because of who they are, not because of any dereliction of duty.
The Republican Party seems intent on banning the very existence of transgender people. In the states, Republican legislatures have passed laws mandating that there are only two biological genders, and you are whatever your birth certificate says. No matter what laws they pass or what executive orders Trump signs, transgender people are not going to disappear. But these official actions can make them miserable and ruin their lives.
A recent article by M. Gessen in The New York Times described the unnecessary harassment of transgender people in Kansas. There, transgender people must have their birth gender on their driver’s license. Why? What governmental purpose does this serve? None.
For 1% of the population, this bifurcation is not true. A tiny percentage of people born male live as females. A tiny percentage of people born female live as males. This is who they are.
Why not let them live the life they want?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“I understand the outrage about biological males competing in women’s sports, most especially, sports where men have a physical advantage, like swimming or track and field.”
If transwomen have such a physical advantage, then they should dominate every sport they participate in. Can you name me a sport where the reigning champion (or any historical reigning champion) has been trans?
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I said I understand the outrage. I didn’t say I agreed with it. Situations differ, people differ. Different situations require different responses. Decisions should be made locally, not by legislatures. If a trans woman has high levels of testosterone, bulging biceps, and has a wingspan a foot longer than any female competitor, accepting that participant in a swim contest is probably a bad decision because unfair.
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What about someone like Castor Semenya who was identified female at birth, identified herself as female, was not trans in any way, but who nonetheless was accused of being “too masculine” for women’s sports? Where do we draw the line? Most transwomen athletes are in fact less “masculine” than Semenya precisely because they are trans – the process of transitioning reduces male hormones and muscle mass.
It’s basically just a right-wing trope that “men” are just “putting on a skirt” to compete in women’s sports, which is ridiculous. What man would do that? What would he get out of it? The respect of other men? The adoration of women? If transwomen are women (and they are), they should be treated like women.
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The Republicans are, trying to shape the country into an “all-Christian nation”, denying the rights of those who don’t share their same ideals, beliefs, neglecting the FACT, that the U.S. is built on the idea of freedom of RELIGION, because, that is, what their leader, Trump’s vision for the U.S. is: disallowing any and ALL ideals, ideas, beliefs that are different from his own, and, because he thinks that WHITE is the, most superior RACE in the world, that is why, he’s reinforcing WHITE SUPREMACY ideals in the, U.S., not realizing that, DIVERSITY is, what will, make America, truly, great!
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It’s a polarizing issue that often dominates political debate and can draw attention away from bread-and-butter concerns like the cost of living, wages, healthcare, and retirement security. I saw an interview with an elderly retired farmworker who cares for a disabled family member. She was distressed that she expected to lose benefits under policies enacted by President Trump—even though she had voted for him. Yet she said she still wouldn’t vote for Democrats because she believed they didn’t represent “family values.” It struck me that cultural issues, including the debate over transgender rights, may have influenced her political decision more than the economic policies that directly affected her family’s financial well-being.
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The myth around the GOP is quite unbelievable. Family values, seriously? There have been far more Republican politicians indicted and convicted of crimes than Democrats. Another myth is the GOP is better for the economy when, in fact, the GOP runs up the debt when elected, and Democrats clean up the mess when they win. Unfortunately, many so-called conservatives attach their political affiliation to their identity like this poor, “true believer” woman.
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The Republicans have used culture war issues for many years. They use racist tactics, gay issues, transgender issues, “family values” to distract from pocketbook issues.
Trump is no model for family values. He has been married three times, cheated on all of his wives, lived the life of a wanton playboy, and is grabbing all the money he can for himself and his family. Last year his income was $2.2 billion. Government contracts were awarded to companies owned by his sons. Well, he has showered millions on his sons. Barron already has a fortune of $150 million. That’s Trump family values.
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There are two reasons the GOP uses anti-trans rhetoric and legislation. First, it has proven to be an effective way to whip up the base and pull in others who may be uncomfortable about it. The second, and more significant, is that is their socially acceptable way into dismantling laws that protect women from discrimination. Their main goal is the removal of women from public life. That’s to extreme to push through without a cover. The trans issue is the cover.
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Lisa,
Do you think the GOP will want us to wear a veil?
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I think the answer to your question (Why focus on this tiny percentage of people) lies in Republican Party strategy over the last 40 years. This evolution began when Ronald Reagan and others who hunted communists back after WWII fueled the McCarthy period, which was never eliminated, but continued like human prejudice to simmer, boiling off impurities.
Gradually, through the political process, republicans tested the effectiveness of this or that bugbear, until they had a toolbox of ideas they could rely on that were subtle reminders of fears that guided an electorate. Then, beginning with the 1980 election, they visited this list continually to make people afraid of this and that thing that haunted their imagination. Willie Horton made fearful people afraid of their neighbors who had African heritage. New Dealers, now growing long in the tooth, became radical socialists.
It worked. Frightened Democrats disavowed what was ridiculous to begin with, looking weak and losing elections. Soon there was Republican Party domination. Then came gerrymandering. But there was still a need to scream and fear monger. So who was left?
I bet we all can guess.
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So pathetic and sad. Many of these haters are the same people who can’t tolerate those who are gay and want to take away their rights too –but should mind their own “damn business” regarding them as well.
We must be prepared for that next though, because when you no longer live in the “land of the free,” it’s especially important to ensure it remains the “home of the brave” –who are willing to stand up for the rights of all at-risk people…
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Diane, you really need to take a deep dive into The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and its teachings which has swept through the MAGA movement. Then you will understand the vehement, multi-targeted hatred that permeates MAGA. Donald Trump, Jr., is deep into NAR antichrist belief and Pete Hegseth’s personal pastor Doug Wilson is one of NAR’s most prolific apostles. House Speaker Johnson is NAR, as are many members of Congress.
NAR leaders claim biblical authority to author “New Revelation” that supersedes the “Old Revelation” of the New Testament based on what they call “the Fivefold Ministry”, which is a seriously distorted interpretation of Eph. 4:11-12 to preach “new teachings” — new revelation by new contemporary “apostles” — that change the teachings of Jesus. NAR founder C. Peter Wagner preached that the year 2000 marked the start of a “New Apostolic Age” in which God renews the Fivefold Ministry for this new millennium and provides Christianity with a new generation of apostles and prophets who advance beyond the teachings of Jesus and the “old apostles”.
Millions of MAGA minions in every walk of American life now hold that traditional Christian empathy that Jesus shows us in Matthew 25:41-46 is obsolete today, therefore the need for people to follow the New Apostolic Reformation gospel of the New Apostles.
WORDS OF THE ANTICHRIST — at a 2021 Turning Point USA rally, Donald Trump, Jr., declared to a crowd roaring approval that “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing, while we’ve ceded ground in every major institution in our country.”
The teachings of Christ are quaint but are for a time in human history that has passed, and, as Trump Jr. declared to Turning Point USA’s cheering crowds, no longer “work” for America — or for the world.
The “Christian nationalist” NAR leaders claim that they have a “better” way than The Way of Jesus: Instead of the humility that Jesus taught and lived, the NAR Christian nationalists have decided on pride, as in The Proud Boys.
Instead of love, they preach hate.
Instead of freedom, they demand total obedience to what the “new evangelical apostles” teach through “new revelations”.
That’s not Christianity.
That leads directly to violence and oppression of anyone who disagrees with them.
Jesus told Peter to put away his sword and that “those who take the sword shall die by the sword” (Matt 26:52). But NAR Christian nationalists view Christ’s teaching of putting away the weapons as having failed, so they have turned to arming themselves with more and more guns and with punishment for those who engage in constitutional Free Speech.
BEWARE OF THE NAR’s “SEVEN MOUNTAINS MANDATE”
NAR claims that today’s Christian nationalists have been given a mandate by God through NAR’s New Apostles. It’s called “The Seven Mountains Mandate”.
This mandate is to “invade” and take over the seven crucial segments of society: Religion, Family, Government, Business, Media, Education, and Entertainment. For members of the Christian NAR movement, their objective is: Invade, Take Over, Rule.
NAR uses the word “invade” because the mandate they claim that they have from the NAR’s New Apostles is a military-type mandate and requires military-type tactics through the ICE army that Trump has formed. ICE is NAR’s Sturmabteilung, and ICE will soon be unleashed in a way no political pundit is anticipating because they just can’t conceive of that happening in America.
But it will.
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There is a huge difference between people born with genetic abnormalities and those who “believe” they are born and identified as the wrong sex. Biology is real, and chromosomes do not always behave as they should, resulting in confusion or ambiguity regarding the sex of a newborn. Do your homework regarding genetic issues as a result of such chromosomal issues, CAH for example. Sorry, but “Identifying” as a different sex is totally mental and not considered as real/valid biologically.
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As I was reading this article, I heard a story about a Tennessee pastor being busted for child sex crimes. Also, in my town of West Palm Beach, a Republican Clerk of the Court was arrested for child sexual abuse. Last June, a Long Island pastor was also arrested for child sexual crimes. I haven’t seen one incident of a trans person molesting children. Hmmm. So, I guess we should conclude that all pastors & Republican elected officials are likely to molest children, based on these few cases, which is more reasonable than worrying about trans people with no actual reporting of such child molestation.
And let’s not even draw conclusions about rounding up any young white males due to the frequency of them being mass shooters. That demographic is way overloaded with examples vs any other groups. So there’s that………
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