Transgenderism: The Ultimate Triumph Of Ideology Over Reality

grasstopsusa.com ^ | 08/28/2016 | Don Feder 

The 2009 film "The Invention of Lying" is set in a world where everyone tells the absolute truth. One day, the protagonist accidentally discovers that you can tell people something that's palpably false and, no matter how outrageous or absurd, they'll believe you, because they can't comprehend the idea of lying.
To test his new insight, he has a conversation with a couple of his buddies in a bar, with hilarious results. Protagonist (who's clearly Caucasian): "I'm black." First friend: "Great, I always wanted a black friend." Protagonist: "I'm an Eskimo." Second friend: "I didn't know they had those, black Eskimos." Protagonist; "I invented the bicycle." First friend: "If I buy one, can I get a discount?"
This is the essence of transgenderism: I am whatever I say I am and you must accept my assertion and behave accordingly, otherwise you are a bigot who is oppressing me.
Last week, a U.S. district court judge in Texas ruled that the Obama administration lacks the authority to order school districts to allow students to use the bathrooms and changing rooms that conform to their "gender identity."
The judge said the word "sex" in Title IX (which prohibits discrimination in education based on sex) refers to what's on your birth certificate, not what's in your mind.
On Friday, a district court judge in North Carolina reached the opposite conclusion – ruling that, a state law notwithstanding, students and employees at the University of North Carolina can't be stopped from restroom shopping.
Transgenderism is the ultimate triumph of ideology over reality – but only until something even loonier comes along. The creation of the transgendered, and demand for special rights for same, satisfies the ceaseless quest for new sexual minorities and furthers the goal of making ethical norms obsolete.
A report, also released last week, by two eminent social scientists (one a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University), posted at The New Atlantis, found, "The hypothesis that gender identity is an innate, fixed property of human beings that is independent of biological sex – that a person might be 'a man trapped in a woman's body'... is not supported by scientific evidence." It also found that "only 0.6% of U.S. adults identify as a gender that does not correspond to their biological sex."
The left believes reality is flexible – that it can be twisted and bent into any shape (made to conform to the dictates of ideology) – and that, in the name of equality or compassion, others can be compelled to affirm it.
Reality tells us that a person is born a man or a woman and will remain so till their dying day, even if they have themselves surgically altered.
Gender ideology tells us that we can develop a "gender identity" different from the one we were "assigned at birth."
Reality tells us that women and girls have a right to privacy, especially in situations where they feel particularly vulnerable, like a restroom, locker room or showers.
Gender ideology tells us that the so-called right of an individual to use the restroom etc., that conforms to his or her "gender identity," takes precedence over modesty and safety.
Reality tells us that when a human sperm fertilizes a human egg, the result is a human being.
Choicers tell us that this new life is human only if the mother wishes it to be so. For many, this is true up to the moment of birth. Thus, the nature of the unborn child is based on whim – I want it to be human, so it is. I want it not to be human, so it isn't.
Reality tells us that there are demonstrable differences (psychological as well as physical) between the sexes – differences that are biologically determined.
Feminism tells us that what is scientifically verifiable can be ignored, because it offends the notion of "gender equality," and that to acknowledge, for instance, that the average woman is weaker and less coordinated than the average man – or that males lack the nurturing instinct of females – is chauvinistic and oppressive.
Reality tells us that children need mothers and fathers, that each plays a vital role. Study after study validates this, demonstrating that children do better physically, emotionally and intellectually in a two-parent home, especially when the children are with their biological parents.
Gender ideology tells us that men are unnecessary, and that one parent (almost always a woman) is just as good as two – also that same-sex couples can raise children with no ill effects.
The left's denial of reality (or insistence that individuals can create their own private reality) isn't limited to sex.
Reality tells us that if the overwhelming majority of terrorist acts are committed by adherents of one religion – and these crimes are in accord with the teachings of their faith – it's reasonable to conclude that there's something wrong with the creed and we would do well to keep our distance from it.
The left calls this Islamophobia and says we must never generalize about any religion, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, unless that religion is Christianity and the generalization is negative.
Since leftists are totalitarians at heart, they have no problem with forcing others to affirm their ideology in the name of fairness, even when it violates their conscience. Christians are compelled to participate in same-sex ceremonies (by furnishing cakes, photography or floral arrangements), literally forced to deny the tenets of their faith, and nobody blinks an eye.
The left is terribly tolerant of men who decide, deep down inside, that they're women – and are willing to reorder the universe to support this delusion – but equally intolerant those who refuse to go along with the fraud.
The classic statement of do-it-yourself reality was a phrase in Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), where Kennedy explained, "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of reality, of the meaning of the universe and of the mystery of human life." This lyrical nonsense was derided by Antonin Scalia as Kennedy's "sweet mystery of life" passage.
To "define one's own concept of reality"? Really? I thought reality was defined objectively. To define reality for yourself is a type of schizophrenia.
I can't wait to see where this will take us – trans-racialism? You were born a Caucasian. But deep down inside, you've always identified as an African-American. Should blacks who were born that way be forced to affirm your chosen identity?
Hillary Clinton is the queen of DIY reality. To wit: Donations totaling $156 million to the Clinton Foundation had nothing to do with 85 meetings Hillary had with donors as Secretary of State. The allegations that her husband was a sexual predator who lied under oath were part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." Because he didn't move fast enough to disavow David Duke, Trump abets white racism.
Clinton is often portrayed as Pinocchio in a pantsuit. But it's just possible she actually believes her fantasies, based on the ideology she first embraced at Wellesley College in the 1960s.
If the former first lady said she was a black Eskimo who invented the bicycle, in her parallel dimension, it would be true.