It would seem to fly in the face of good sense that some things have to be litigated over and over. But despite the best efforts of activists, there are objective realities in this world, and some of those realities are biological: Humans are mammals, mammals are sexually bipolar and dimorphic, and men and boys are larger, faster, stronger, and with greater endurance than women and girls.
These are facts. These are objective realities, and they can't be wished away or ignored.
Unless, of course, you are New York Attorney General Letitia James, who along with the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), is suing Nassau County over their transgender athlete policy.
Independently, New York Attorney General Letitia James and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) sued Nassau County on Monday. It’s the NYCLU’s second lawsuit against the county since County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s February executive order concerning transgender athletes.
According to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), they sued to invalidate what they called a transphobic and discriminatory law, as well as to prevent future attempts to enforce similar statutes. “The law directly conflicts with state laws protecting New Yorkers from discrimination based on their gender identity or expression,” they said when announcing the lawsuit. “It discriminates against transgender girls and women, as well as teams that welcome them.”
County Executive Blakeman had ordered that any application to use a Nassau County Park property for organized sports must gender designate their league or team for either:
- Males, men, or boys
- Females, women, or girls
- Coed or mixed, allowing both men and women
This seems an eminently fair policy. It discriminates against no one; it sets aside any ephemeral concerns about how people "identify," being based instead on biological reality. Men play on men's teams, women play on women's teams, and if sex wouldn't make a difference (as in, say, chess) there are coed teams. It's a sane, rational policy.
Which is why transgender activists hate it.
See Related: Washington State Girl's Track Coach: 'Obviously a Male Running'
Hulking, Lantern-Jawed 'Transgender' Rugby Player Complains Female Team Members Are 'Unwelcoming'
But take a look at this breathless reporting by MSN:
Blakeman’s order...would deny a permit to any group that boasted more inclusive enrollment processes. It defined gender as one’s biological anatomy at the time of their birth. (Transpeople and their allies generally use the acronyms AMAB—assigned male at birth—and AFAB—assigned female at birth—to mark these distinctions when necessary.) The order specified that sports for males could include “biological females” or AFAB people.
This is not reporting. This is advocacy. Once again, there are biological realities involved that this ignores:
- Gender is a term properly used for language. When discussing matters of biology, one is discussing sex.
- Sex is not solely a matter of biological anatomy. It is a matter of genetics. Except for some rare trisomic or polysomic abnormalities, humans have two sex genotypes which are determined not at birth, but at conception: XX is female, and XY is male.
- Sex is not "assigned." It is determined, genetically.
- Humans are sexually dimorphic. There are significant differences between males and females in terms of speed, strength, and endurance.
These are facts.
Facts, however, often seem to be laid by the wayside when a tiny minority of extremely vocal activists begin shouting.
New York is now considering something called "Proposal Number One," which would:
- Force schools to let AMAB people play female sports
- Let AMAB people use female locker rooms, restrooms, and facilities
- Let minors undergo gender confirmation surgery without parental consent
- Override limits on medical interventions for children
- Ban schools from outing a transgender child
- Give constitutional protections to illegal immigrants
- Destroy parental oversight in kids’ education and medical decisions
In other words, a laundry list of leftist pet peeves, from overriding parental rights to allowing the genital mutilation of minors without parental consent to allowing boys in girls' locker rooms and on girls' sports teams. It's unconscionable. It's unfair to girls and women, and where the "gender-affirming surgery" crap is involved, it's insane.
It seems unfathomable that we are still in a legal and social battle to acknowledge something as fundamental as biology, and yet, here we are. Hopefully, New York's Proposition One will die the horrible, twitching death it deserves. Hopefully, New York's lawsuit against Nassau County will fail, and some semblance of sanity will remain in place. But in today's world, we can't always count on sanity prevailing, and that's too bad.
