That Hurts My Feelings
by Joseph Backholm
Yesterday, the body that governs high school athletics in the state of Minnesota voted to eliminate gender distinctions in high school athletics.
While
the new policy does not change the reality that boys and girls will
still mostly be competing against athletes of the same gender, it allows
students to choose their own gender for the purpose of sports and
breaks the ice for much more.
As
a matter of state policy, it is now forbidden for schools to account
for sex differences on the field, in the locker room, in the hotel
rooms, or in the bathroom.
If
a boy decides he wants to be treated as a girl and be part of your
daughters sports team, the school is required to cooperate.
This
isn't just a Minnesota issue. Several school districts in Washington
State are quietly changing local policies to make bathrooms available to
students based on their declared gender rather than their actual
gender.
One
Washington State dad has expressed his frustration that his daughter's
teacher has decided he now wants to be a woman. The school expects the
parents and the elementary aged children to act as if there's nothing to
see here.
How did we get here?
It wasn't an accident.
The
sprint toward same-sex "marriage" has been frantic. Those campaigning
to restructure marriage have insisted all the while that it doesn't
fundamentally alter the way we view family and gender, it just makes
marriage available for everyone.
So really, everyone wins and no one loses.
"If
you don't like same-sex marriage, don't get one," they tell us. "The
only people who will be affected are the loving, committed same-sex
couples who can emerge from the shadows of second class citizenship."
But
Minnesota is demonstrating that there are much broader implications for
taking the position that heterosexual and homosexual relationships are
indistinguishable.
After all, it forces you to take the position that men and women, boys and girls, are not different in any meaningful way.
These are the implications of that position.
What may be most surprising about the assault on gender in Minnesota is how quickly this next move has come.
Apparently they wanted to strike while the iron is hot.
And the iron is hot.
But why?
Because right now they have a secret weapon for which the country has no response.
Whenever
they are exposed as dishonest, whenever their arguments crumble under
the most basic analysis, whenever their policies are exposed as harmful
for children and society as a whole, they still carry the trump card.
"That hurts my feelings", they say.
Game, set, match.
The most powerful argument in America today isn't an argument at all. It's a sentiment.
But now that simple statement can stop any honest question, discussion, or inquiry.
We are being governed by a nation of three year-olds.
Three
year-olds don't think, they emote. They don't even understand the
concept of thought because they're overwhelmed by what they're feeling.
My three year-old believes he's a superhero, but as the adult in the room, I stop him before he jumps off the roof.
But
we live in a room where the adults are so taken by the joy their child
receives from their fantasy that we have become participants in the
fantasy. We prefer to watch him plunge to his death than burst his
bubble.
Growing up should include an appreciation for the difference between a fact and a feeling.
But when truth no longer exists, my feelings are my facts.
That
is why a nation of otherwise intelligent (and certainly well meaning)
adults can argue with a straight face that sexual desires are impossible
to change but gender is malleable.
And they have the nerve to lecture us about science.
Sure,
there are plenty of people who have been persuaded by this parade of
nonsense (and I mean nonsense literally not pejoratively), but for the
most part, middle America understands it's crazy.
We just don't know what to do about it.
When
a 90 lb anorexic girl tells you she's fat, the proper response is to
kindly help her view herself in a way that conforms to reality. There is
no reason to treat gender differently, unless, "that hurts my feelings"
is your kryptonite as well.
Surely,
somewhere in the bowels of an asylum, a man is roaming around on hands
and knees fully convinced he is a cat and offended by the fact that
people treat him like he's crazy. All he needs is an appearance on 60 Minutes and soon he'll be Grand Marshall of his own parade with throngs of people meowing as he struts by.
What happened in Minnesota is just the beginning.
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