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Jim Mattis Faces a Difficult Decision on the Military’s Transgender Policy

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The Pentagon is prepared to implement a new policy clearing the way for transgender men and women to join the armed forces, Military Times has learned, but final approval rests with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who could endorse, revise, delay or even abandon it.

Mattis faces a July 1 deadline, according to the parameters defined by his predecessor as defense secretary, Ash Carter. But the sensitive matter has become much more urgent for two transgender students now within days of graduating from the Army and Air Force military academies.

As USA Today first reported May 10, the unidentified cadets were recently informed that, absent a policy formalizing new accession standards, they won’t be commissioned as military officers with the rest of their graduating class. Those proposed guidelines were sent to the defense secretary’s office but Mattis has yet to act on them, according to multiple sources familiar with discussions surrounding the policy’s implementation.

Meanwhile, neither the Army nor the Air Force has granted waivers to the cadets so they may proceed to serve in the active-duty military, causing some to question whether Mattis might decide against the proposed policy. Already, the Trump administration has moved to scale back federal protections for transgender students attending public schools, sending a strong signal it opposes further expanding such rights.

The Air Force Academy holds its graduation May 24 in Colorado Springs. West Point’s ceremony, at which Mattis is slated to provide the commencement address, will be held May 27 in New York. (Read more from “Jim Mattis Faces a Difficult Decision on the Military’s Transgender Policy” HERE)

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Transgender Conundrum: Massive Genetic Differences Between Men and Women Uncovered in Recent Study

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Men and women differ in obvious and less obvious ways – for example, in the prevalence of certain diseases or reactions to drugs. How are these connected to one’s sex? Weizmann Institute of Science researchers recently uncovered thousands of human genes that are expressed – copied out to make proteins – differently in the two sexes. Their findings showed that harmful mutations in these particular genes tend to accumulate in the population in relatively high frequencies, and the study explains why. . .

[The scientists] looked closely at around 20,000 protein-coding genes, sorting them by sex and searching for differences in expression in each tissue. They eventually identified around 6,500 genes with activity that was biased toward one sex or the other in at least one tissue. For example, they found genes that were highly expressed in the skin of men relative to that in women’s skin, and they realized that these were related to the growth of body hair. Gene expression for muscle building was higher in men; that for fat storage was higher in women. . .

Less obvious locations included genes that were found to be expressed only in the left ventricle of the heart in women. One of these genes, which is also related to calcium uptake, showed very high expression levels in younger women that sharply decreased with age; the scientists think that they are active in women up to menopause, protecting their hearts, but leading to heart disease and osteoporosis in later years when the gene expression is shut down. Yet another gene that was mainly expressed in women was active in the brain, and though its exact function is unknown, the scientists think it may protect the neurons from Parkinson’s – a disease that has a higher prevalence and earlier onset in men. The researchers also identified gene expression in the liver in women that regulates drug metabolism, providing molecular evidence for the known difference in drug processing between women and men. (Read more from “Transgender Conundrum: Massive Genetic Differences Between Men and Women Uncovered in Recent Study” HERE)

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The Tip of the Transgender Spear

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One Virginia school district was ahead of the curve. Even before President Obama issued his “transgender bathroom” rule, Fairfax County was planning to allow students access to bathrooms and locker rooms that did not correspond to their sex. They rushed the vote on the policies without giving parents the chance to respond. Now parents are fighting back. Last week, the Family Research Council hosted a panel led by FRC senior legal fellow Cathy Ruse to help equip parents for the fight.

Parents Fight Back

On May 7, 2015, Fairfax County School District voted 10-1 to allow transgender students to access bathrooms and other facilities that did not correspond with their biological sex. At a meeting, parents were told that the policies were necessary to protect transgender students and required by law. Neither were true, said Ruse. Parents requested a public hearing about the policies, but the school board refused. Normally, it would take months to make policy changes. It took the school board all of two weeks to vote to install these policies.

Some parents want to know why.

Rushing to Embrace Transgenderism

It takes a systemic approach to implement changes, said Elizabeth Schultz. Schultz is a Fairfax County School Board Member and a parent. They are not quick procedures. “From origination to full implementation of the adoption of gender identity within Fairfax County happened in a matter of weeks,” Schultz said. In this case, there was no study or community engagement. People on both sides of the issue are dissatisfied. They’ve “never … seen a consultant report” or had a data-driven discussion on how to address transgender issues.

“I was stunned,” said Meg Kilgannon, Executive Director of Concerned Parents and Educators of Fairfax County and a parent. “How could something so very extreme have happened? And how was it done in two weeks?” It took ten years to put in place new school start times, she said. Kilgannon’s organization has taken steps to reverse the implemented policies. Kilgannon warned that if this could happen in Fairfax, it can happen anywhere. She suggested ways for other parents to fight changes in other school districts. Kilgannon encouraged both parents and concerned members of the community to get involved.

Transgender Students and the Law

Josh Hetzler is the Legislative Counsel for the Family Foundation of Virginia. He said that Virginia has been the epicenter of the transgender issue. Particularly Fairfax County, as it is the 10th-largest school district in the nation. Hetzler said there’s been a lot of confusion regarding the law. “Depending on who you talk to, you’re going to hear totally different things,” he explained. Part of the confusion has to do with Title IX and the Obama administration’s reinterpretation of the 1972 law regarding sex of students. “What they said was basically, ‘We are going to reinterpret the word sex to now include sexual orientation and gender identity,’” said Hetzler. “In 1972 they didn’t think they needed to define ‘sex.’”

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals questioned whether federal agencies, state or school boards would have the final say on the issue. The law has not yet been settled, he said.

Besides working with federal law’s Title IX, Virginia also has the Dillon Rule, which limits the power of Fairfax County. The county admits that “the Dillon Rule narrowly defines the power of local government. It also states that if there is any reasonable doubt whether a power has been conferred on a local government, then the power has not been conferred.” Fairfax County doesn’t have the power to revise nondiscrimination or harassment categories, Hetzler said. That’s especially true of those “that the General Assembly hasn’t included in the Virginia code.”

The transgender issue was “hanging by a thread,” but it “was beginning to infiltrate school boards over a lawless letter.” At just the right moment it seemed, Hetzler noted, a new administration came to town. The Trump administration revoked the letter. But people at the grassroots level are still needed to make a change.

The main takeaway, Hetzler said, is that elections matter. The rule of law is only as good as those who enforce and uphold it. “We’ve got to elect people who have the right values and who have the courage to uphold them when it’s difficult, because it’s a lot of pressure.” (For more from the author of “The Tip of the Transgender Spear in Virginia” please click HERE)

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Caitlyn Jenner Is Not the ‘Former Stepmother’ of Kim Kardashian

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If anything underscores the confusion of transgender activism, it is Kim Kardashian’s recent interview with Ellen DeGeneres about (Bruce) Caitlyn Jenner’s new book.

Kim spoke in a gracious, non-condemning way, and she made clear to Ellen that she only wanted the best for Caitlyn. That was not the problem. The problem lies with the words she used and how those words were reported.

As reported on Pink News, “Kim Kardashian hits out at ‘untruthful’ stepmother Caitlyn Jenner on Ellen.” Yes, “Kim Kardashian has lashed out her former stepmother Caitlyn Jenner.”

Well, here’s a breaking news alert. Bruce (or, Caitlyn) Jenner was not Kim Kardashian’s stepmother. Not ever. You can believe that Bruce Jenner is now a transwoman. You can decide to refer to him as “her.” You can even say that “Kim Kardashian’s former stepfather is now a transwoman named Caitlyn Jenner.” But don’t recreate the past and say that Bruce Jenner is Kim’s “former stepmother.”

Bruce was married to Kim’s mother, Kris, and Bruce was Kim’s stepfather. End of story, simple and clear. What is not simple and clear, however, is the way this must now be described. (I’ve italicized some of the words for emphasis.)

She Was my Stepdad

Kim said to Ellen, “I’ll always love her. That was my stepdad for so many years. She taught me about character growing up, and I just feel like I don’t respect the character she’s showing now.”

Yes, she was my stepdad.

Sigh.

What about Bruce’s biological children, Kendall and Kylie? What did Kim have to say about their relationship to Caitlyn?

“For Kendall and Kylie, that’s their dad,” Kim said.

Bingo! She hit the nail on the head. Bruce (Caitlyn) Jenner is the father (not mother) of Kendall and Kylie Jenner, and no matter who Bruce has become, he will not be their mother. Ever.

It Takes a Mother and a Father

This leads to a second breaking news alert. If Bruce Jenner fathers two girls named Kendall and Kylie, then has “sex-change” surgery and becomes a transwoman, he does not become Kendall and Kylie’s mother. They already have a mother, named Kris, and Bruce is their father, not their mother.

You see, fathers provide the seed and mothers provide the egg. And fathers don’t carry babies in their wombs and give birth to them. Mothers do. (Sorry for the advanced biology lesson, but it appears some people have forgotten this.)

That means that no matter how Bruce Jenner identifies today, he/she will never be Kendall and Kyle’s mother, nor do I believe that he/she would ever claim to be their mother.

But in the mad, mad world of extreme LGBT activism, Bruce Caitlyn Jenner is now the “former stepmother” of Kim Kardashian.

When will society wake up?

Modern Madness: A Ticking Time Bomb

In the book 50 Ways to Support Gay and Lesbian Equality, Noelle Howey spoke about her dad, who years earlier had sex-change surgery. Although Howey completely embraced her father’s new identity, there were some problems to overcome:

Names, like pronouns, were initially a challenge for us. The conundrum might have been solved by defaulting her title to ‘Mother,’ as most kids of transsexuals are inclined to do. Call us old-fashioned, but my father and I had little intention of altering the name of our relationship, regardless of peer pressure. I already had a mother, who was more than a bit proprietary about the title. Also, I had a father. She might have changed her gender, but that didn’t change who originally brought the sperm to the party.

And it’s the one who brings “the sperm to the party” who is the father.

No amount of activist pressure or semantic doublespeak or deconstruction of reality will alter this simple fact.

This is another reason why I still believe that LGBT activism will ultimately defeat itself. The cultural madness can only go so far before something snaps. (For more from the author of “Caitlyn Jenner Is Not the ‘Former Stepmother’ of Kim Kardashian” please click HERE)

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The ‘Trans’ That God Really Cares About

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Hardly a day goes by where we don’t hear about “trans” — as in transgender. Whether it’s a trans child or a trans celebrity or a trans lawsuit, trans is ever before us.

But it’s not just transgender that’s in the news. We also hear about transracial and transabled and transhuman and trans-species — all of which leads me to focus on the trans that matters most to God: transgression.

I don’t mean that God doesn’t care about people who identify as transgender or who wrestle with other variations of trans. I simply mean that the “trans” that matters most to Him is the trans in transgression — as in disobedience, sin, wickedness, evil.

What Does Transgression Mean in the Biblical Sense?

What is the actual definition of transgression?

In our English Bibles, “transgression” has a very specific meaning: intentionally breaking God’s laws.
The English verb “transgress” comes from two Latin words, trans meaning “across” and gradi meaning “to go,” coming into English by way of Old French. So, to transgress is to “go across, step across,” while a transgression is the act of going across or stepping across.

In short, to transgress is “to act in violation of some law,” and you can transgress boundaries, customs, codes or guidelines.

In our English Bibles, “transgression” has a very specific meaning: intentionally breaking God’s laws. This means there is a willful nature to our actions. We know something is wrong, yet we do it anyway. We know God forbids it, but we disobey. We don’t just fall short of the mark while making our best efforts. We determine to do what is wrong. This is self-will. This is pride. This is rebellion.

Accordingly, the Hebrew word translated as “transgression” in most of our English Bibles means “an act of rebellion,” and it is related to a verb meaning “to rebel.” It’s not surprising that both the verb and the noun occur many times in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament, there is a more specialized word for “transgression,” and it carries the meaning of “stepping over” or “violating,” with specific reference to God’s law.

To explain this further, let’s say you’re driving 100 mph on a narrow, winding road that has no speed limits since it’s on private property. You are driving dangerously and foolishly and you might crash and even die, but you are not breaking any law because there is no law. But if you’re driving 100 mph on a public road with a 40 mph speed limit, not only are you driving dangerously and foolishly. You’re also breaking the law. You’re guilty of transgression.

That is the state of the human race.

The Penalty for Such Transgression is Death

We’re not just like a curious toddler, innocently touching something we shouldn’t touch. We’re like a rebellious toddler, looking Mommy in the eyes defiantly, and touching the very thing she forbade us to touch. Only we’re not toddlers. We’re adults, and we’re fully responsible for our actions — for our transgressions.

Whether or not we like it or acknowledge it, God has given us His laws, His holy standards. They tell us what is right and wrong.

The most important ones are not just written in the Bible. They are written on our hearts. And when we sin against these laws, we sin against God and we transgress. Our sin is an act of rebellion against the Lord.

Of course, it is possible to harden our hearts to the point of insensitivity — where we no longer have any sense of guilt. But that’s not how it starts. A normal man who steals from an elderly woman and then, in fear that she’ll report him to the police, beats her to death, knows that he has done wrong. A normal woman who lies to her husband and deceives her children to carry on an illicit affair knows that she has done wrong.

Even atheists have consciences (some have very sensitive consciences). It is because the God they deny gave them a conscience. And when any of us sin against those internal, divine standards, we transgress God’s laws. The penalty for such transgression is death.

That’s the bad news.

Living in the Light of the Gospel

The good news is that Jesus paid the death penalty for us. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:5-6).

Our sins and transgressions are incredibly ugly — just look at the ugliness of the cross. But they have been paid in full by the Lord Himself, and if we turn to Him in true repentance and faith, He will completely forgive us.

That is what we have just celebrated during this Passover-Easter season, and that’s the trans issue that God really cares about — dealing with our transgressions.

And when our sins are forgiven through the cross, something else happens — the best “trans” of all. We experience radical transformation, going from death to life, from condemned to forgiven, from lost to saved, from unclean to holy. Our God is a God who transforms!

For my own story, “From LSD to Ph.D.,” which describes my transformation from a heroin-shooting, LSD-using, 16-year-old, Jewish, rebellious hippie rock drummer to a husband and father and grandfather and minister and professor, click here.

By God’s grace, you can have your own story too! (For more from the author of “The ‘Trans’ That God Really Cares About” please click HERE)

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Trendy to Be Transgender: Child Psychologist Reveals Something Terrifying about Many Kids

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An Australian child psychologist said that to some children, being transgender “is the new black.”

Many of the children Stephen Stathis sees in his gender clinic are actually confused about their sexuality. They could also be desiring to stand out, Heatstreet reported Monday.

Stathis runs his gender clinic at the Lady of Cilento Children’s Hospital in the state of Queensland, Australia. It began after Stathis received so many referrals for gender issues that his appointment waiting list jumped to two years.

Gender “Variant,” Not Dysphoric

Stathis has diagnosed children as genuinely transgender — including a 3-year-old boy (now 9) who identifies as a girl. But he says not all his patients are actually gender dysphoric.

In a recent interview with Brisbane Times, Stathis said many children are “getting their sexual identity mixed up with their gender identity.” Others are “gender variant.” This means they enjoy activities associated with the other gender, but don’t identify with it.

This is especially common among boys, he said. Girls who enjoy masculine toys or activities are usually considered tomboys. Boys “put on a pink tutu and you’re off to see the doctor.”

Some girls who had been sexually abused told Stathis they wanted to transition. They thought they wouldn’t have been abused as a boy.

“It became really, really complex,” he admitted.

Social Contagion

In 2016 the American College of Pediatricians released a study of gender dysphoria in children. It confirmed Stathis’ experiences.

According to the study, many children “self-diagnose” as transgender after social media “binges.” “This suggests that social contagion may be at play,” the study says. “In many schools and communities, there are entire peer groups ‘coming out’ as trans at the same time.”

The study further suggests that factors like parental abuse and social reinforcement influence a child mentally. These factors can “contribute to the development and/or persistence” of gender dysphoria.

After Puberty, Nevermind

Stathis supports giving puberty blockers to children entering puberty. (Blockers stall the development of sex-specific characteristics.) He says they help children who identify as transgender avoid depression.

He’s seen many children attempt to cut off body parts or avoid regular hygiene because they are ashamed of their genitalia, he told the Times. But he’s also seen children who aren’t really “gender dysphoric” obtain hormones illegally.

“There may be other issues going on and that needs to be worked through,” he said.

Stathis requires prepubescent children to live transgender for six months before taking puberty blockers. At 16 they can choose to start cross-sex hormone treatment. But most of them don’t.

“About 75 per cent of boys and girls who present with gender variant interests and behaviours” don’t follow through, Stathis told the Times. (The American College of Pediatricians says 80-95 percent of gender-disphoric children without “social affirmation” come out of puberty fine.) He continued:

You might get a six or seven-year-old girl wanting to dress as a boy. She may even say she wants to be a boy. When she hits puberty, she says ‘no, I’m just a girl who likes to do boy things’.

A 2008 study concluded the same thing. It noted that “most children with gender dysphoria will not remain gender dysphoric after puberty.”

Dangers of Blockers and Cross-Sex Hormones

The full effects of puberty blockers are unknown, but they are generally considered safe. Even so, the American College of Pediatricians warns against their use. The study claims that over 40 gender clinics in the U.S. support the use of blockers and even cross-sex hormones. Cross-sex hormones present a myriad of known health risks. They can also irreversibly damage one’s fertility.

PBS reported in 2015 that some children in the U.S. started cross-sex hormone treatment as young as 13-years-old. Official guidelines suggest 16 as the minimum age. This is despite the fact that there is no “single large, randomized, controlled study that documents the alleged benefits and potential harms,” the American College of Pediatricians finds.

“The should give everyone pause,” the study says. (For more from the author of “Trendy to Be Transgender: Child Psychologist Reveals Something Terrifying about Many Kids” please click HERE)

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Transgender Inmates Should Have Bras, Make-Up, Corrections Department Says

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Transgender California prison inmates would be allowed to have bras, cosmetics and other personal items corresponding to their gender identities under proposed rules filed with state regulators on Tuesday . . .

Transgender female inmates housed in men’s facilities could have feminine undergarments, lip gloss and mascara, for instance, while transgender male inmates in women’s prisons could wear aftershave and boxers.

A federal magistrate previously ordered the state to provide some of the items. However, attorneys for transgender inmate Shiloh Quine are still sparring with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation over the details, with another court hearing set for April 27. (Read more from “Transgender Inmates Should Have Bras, Make-Up, Corrections Department Says” HERE)

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A Painful Transgender Warning Against Transanity

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In response to my latest article on “transanity,” I received an email from an individual whom we’ll call Irene and who identifies as a transgender woman. The story Irene shared with me is poignant and painful. It’s a strong warning against transgender activism. It also presents a major moral dilemma.

Irene was born male, then had sex change surgery while running from God. Irene has now changed his legal identity to female and married a man. Since then, Irene has come to faith. Now both Irene and Irene’s husband want to follow Jesus together.

Irene’s Story

This is the first email Irene sent me:

Dr. Brown,

Just read your Transanity article. Thank you for curt and scripture based article on this. I am a transgendered person. I struggled all my life. I turned from God and did what I knew was wrong many years ago. I was born a male, and now live as female for the last 15 years. God started calling me back a couple years ago. I rededicated my life to following Jesus, and living for him, and what he can do for a lost person. I can’t change the things I’ve done to myself, and ones that loved me. God showed me that I should not promote, or be in that community because of the insanity of thinking. God forgiving me for taking my life in my hands was easy. It has always been forgiving myself that has been hard. I am still a work in progress. I spend time with my Lord and Savior everyday. My past is not mine anymore. My future is in God’s hand. Again thank you for your article. I get tired of articles and news promoting the lifestyle.

So, Irene, who self-identifies as “a work in progress, expressed regret for transitioning from male to female. Irene also spoke of the “insanity of thinking” among transgender activists.

I wrote back, asking Irene, “Do you feel that God ultimately wants you to identify as female?”

How God ultimately wants me to identify is confusing. I am married* to a loving husband who shares my faith, and have been for the last 13 years. It was his mother who got me going back to church, and ultimately rededicating my life to Christ.

What about the choice to transition? How does Irene view that choice now?

Was my choice to transition what God wanted for my life? No I don’t believe it was. I believe I had let so much sin into my life that I made selfish sinful choices in my life. At this point I don’t see God wanting me to destroy a second marriage, and destroy a person, my husband.

I don’t live a life of promoting my choice. In fact I cringe each time I see on television, online, or read about how great it is for transitioning. I know the pain, the sin, the hurt, and how confused the people are. Before they make a choice that changes their life forever, they need to have a God conversation instead of a Selfish conversation with themselves, or some group promoting and encouraging them.

For all those celebrating the likes of Bruce Jenner and Jazz (the teenage, transgender reality TV star), and for all those promoting transgender ideology, I urge you to read these words again: “I cringe each time I see on television, online, or read about how great it is for transitioning. I know the pain, the sin, the hurt, and how confused the people are.”

What are the lasting effects of Irene’s choice?

There are residual damages from my choices that don’t go away. Consequential Sin I call it. I have to live with the consequences of my choices, pain I caused myself, others, and the way I ran away from God. God is slowly healing my life, and relationships I ruined with sin. Can God still use me to impact others. Yes, He can and He does.

And where does that leave Irene today?

I am not trying to justify myself or choices. That’s what I did 18 years ago to justify my choices. I have an intimate relationship with God, and He directs my path at this point in my life. Ultimately He will put me where he wants me, and use me as He wants. I pray for His direction in my life constantly.

Praying for Irene and Others Struggling With Gender Identity

Join me in praying for God’s best for Irene and Irene’s husband. Pray that God would make His will known and that He would pour out His all-sufficient grace to walk out the hard choices that lay before them. I don’t know if they’re in a celibate, best-friend relationship right now or actually living as a married couple. Let’s continue to pray for those who struggle deeply with their gender identity while also opposing the transanity of our culture.

We need hearts of compassion and backbones of steel. We need true compassion to stand with those who are hurting and confused. We also need steely courage to stand against those who are advancing a hurtful and confusing agenda.

*I understand that, in God’s sight, this is a marriage between two biological males, but I share this to help readers realize how difficult these issues are for people to work through.

(For more from the author of “A Painful Transgender Warning Against Transanity” please click HERE)

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In New Zealand, “Transgender” Wins Weightlifting Contest, River Becomes Person

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Is it strange that in a country where a woman pretending to be a man wins a weight-lifting contest, that the government would declare a river to be a person?

Wait. It might have been a man pretending to be a woman. You can never tell in these “transgender” stories which part of Reality has been affronted.

What we do know is that the New Zealand Herald reported that a “transgender” person named Hubbard won a weight-lifting competition. Hubbard beat the second-place finisher by hoisting about 40 additional pounds.

Maybe this was a man pretending to be a woman. In that case, then a man lifted more weight than a woman. So Dog-Bites-Man. Or it was a woman pretending to be a man. In that case it must have been a woman juiced on various drugs, like anabolic steroids and testosterone, to make her competitive with real men. And that makes it a story of performance-enhancing illegal drug use.

Both stories are depressing.

As What Gender Does the River Identify?

So is the story that New Zealand’s Parliament has recognized the Whanganui River as a legal person. Yes, the river, also called Te Awa Tupua, is to be treated the same as hot dog hawkers and college professors. According to BioEdge:

Riverine personhood is an untested concept in a Western legal system. According to the government, Te Awa Tupua will now have its own legal personality with all the corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a legal person. Lawyers say that the river cannot vote and cannot be charged with homicide if people drown in it. But it will have to pay taxes, if liable. The gender of the river is unspecified at the moment.

How this riverine person will pay taxes is something to be watched. Maybe in the spirit of Finders-Keepers, the river will offer up rings and other jewelry lost by actual people while swimming. But will swimming even be allowed? Unless you’re still preborn, you can’t swim in an actual person. May you swim in a riverine person?

That brings up the natural question: How will we know Mr. — or Ms.? — Whanganui’s opinion about swimming? We don’t even know his or her preferred “gender.” Obviously, like in Hubbard’s case, people are free to call themselves whatever “gender” they wish. Thinking anything else is rank bigotry. But we at least have the advantage of asking Hubbard’s opinion whether she is a he or he is a she, or whatever. We can assume that Whanganui gurgles, as all rivers do, but who speaks River? Who can tell us Whanganui’s preferred gender?

We’ll have to rely on hydromancy. That’s the “method of divination by means of water, including the color, ebb and flow, or ripples produced by pebbles dropped in a pool.” Or in this case, dropped in a river.

Hydromancy requires a hydromancer. That’s an actual human person who can interpret the wiggles and waves of (Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. or Mx.) Whanganui into human commands and desires. Since New Zealand’s Parliament says that these human-like desires exist, they’re going to have to fund the position of Official Hydromancer (which, in a way, they are).

The person-river also now has rights.

One politician said, “The river itself has the right itself not to be polluted. It has the right not to be degraded. It has the right not to be overdrawn before it can replenish itself.”

So Rivers Have Rights. Do They Have Duties?

These are fine rights, sure to swell in number as time passes, as all rights do. But it does seem unfair that the river gets only rights but has no duties. It can commit homicide but can’t be held accountable for it? Wait and see: this leniency will encourage bad behavior, like flooding. Don’t anger Whanganui!

There are, of course, deep tangled sensitive politics behind New Zealand’s move to call a river not a river but a man (or woman). Yet these motivations, weighty as they are, fail to explain the full enthusiasm of the Parliament for its ruling. For instance, the government could have ceded control of the river or applied vast quantities of money to those who hold the river sacred. Instead, they insisted that all of New Zealand call the river a person.

Or it could have agreed that those who wanted could call the river a person. Instead, it gave freedom to those who wanted to follow Reality to call the river a river.

Yet if a man can call himself a woman (or vice versa) and expect all must agree with his choice of “gender,” it follows that a river can be a man and that all must agree that a river is a man.

Or a woman. (For more from the author of “In New Zealand, “Transgender” Wins Weightlifting Contest, River Becomes Person” please click HERE)

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The Unforeseen Consequences of Transgenderism

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Determining one’s own sex or that of another used to be a simple matter.

First, there was the matter of appearance, whether a person looked like a male or looked like a female. If appearance produced some uncertainties, one could determine sex by examining a person’s birth certificate.

If appearance and a birth certificate produced uncertainties, the ultimate, absolute proof of sex was a person’s chromosomes; XX marked a female, and XY marked a male. Case closed.

But those old-fashioned, simple methods of identifying sex have changed. In fact, relying on those old tried-and-true methods of sex identification qualifies one for opprobrium, with the charge of being homophobic.

Today—independent of appearance, genitalia, birth certificate, and chromosomes—one is a male or female based on how one labels oneself.

This new liberty applies to not only sex but also race.

Rachel Dolezal, born Caucasian, chose to be a black person. By becoming a black person, she became the president of the Spokane, Washington, office of the NAACP and an instructor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University.

As far as she is concerned, she’s still a black person now, and she has a new legal name, Nkechi Amare Diallo, which means “gift of God” in Ibo.

A notable beneficiary of racial fakery is Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who claimed that she was of Cherokee Indian ancestry. That helped her land a $430,000 job for a year at diversity-hungry Harvard University as a professor of law.

If Diallo and Warren were not leftist, learned college professors and students would condemn their behavior as racial appropriation.

But let’s explore further the idea of freeing oneself from the oppression of biological determinism. There is no better testing ground than America’s colleges, which are at the forefront of transgenderism, for seeing how this might work.

How tolerant would college administrators be of conservative male students, if they said that they feel womanish, going into the ladies’ bathroom and showering facilities? Would these men, claiming to be women, be eligible for tryouts for the women’s basketball or field hockey team?

Suppose a college honored the right of its students to free themselves from biological determinism and allowed those with XY chromosomes to play on teams formerly designated as XX teams.

I would anticipate a problem competing with other colleges. An unenlightened women’s basketball team might refuse to play against a mixed-chromosome team whose starting five consists of 6-foot-6-inch, 200-pound XYers.

The NCAA should have a rule stating that refusal to play a mixed-chromosome team leads to forfeiture of the game. It’s no different from a team of white players refusing to play another because it has black players.

It’s not just college sports that would yield benefits for those escaping biological determinism. What about allowing XYers who claim they are women to compete in the Women’s International Boxing Association?

Then there are the Olympics. The men’s fastest 100-meter speed is 9.58 seconds. The women’s record is 10.49 seconds.

What about giving XY people a greater chance at winning the gold by permitting them to compete in the women’s event? They could qualify by just swearing that they feel womanish or suffer from gender dysphoria.

You say, “There you go, Williams, picking on colleges again!”

I applaud the fact that some colleges are taking a leadership role in fighting biological determinism. Barnard College President Debora Spar wrote:

There was no question that Barnard must reaffirm its mission as a college for women. And there was little debate that trans women should be eligible for admission to Barnard.

With that announcement, Barnard College joined a growing list of women’s colleges—along with Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Mills College, and Simmons College—that have updated their admissions policies to take transgender women’s applications into consideration.

The question that remains is just how much equality these enlightened colleges will permit between XXers and XYers.

Will they sexually integrate all of their facilities? Or will they endeavor to develop the morally repugnant policy of “separate but equal”? (For more from the author of “The Unforeseen Consequences of Transgenderism” please click HERE)

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