Gender Follies
March 9, 2025 — Steven Hayward
We noted here the other day that Gavin Newsom had his own “Sister Souljah moment” over transgender women in women’s sports (and several other issues), which has ignited a predictable new front in the civil war inside the Democratic Party. Democrat grandee Debbie Wasserman Schultz has dissented already, saying “We have to stand on principle and make sure that everyone is treated equally. I’m not shrinking away from this issue.”
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March 7, 2025 — John Hinderaker
We, and pretty much everyone else, have expressed puzzlement over the Democrats’ choice of men playing in women’s sports as their signature issue–the hill they were willing to die on, in the face of 80% opposition from voters. But now it appears that they are beating an orderly retreat. First it was Gavin Newsom, who said while inaugurating his own podcast with Charlie Kirk, that allowing men to play in
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February 26, 2025 — John Hinderaker
This story from London illustrates the far-reaching effects of the Trump administration’s cutbacks at USAID: Stonewall could be forced to cut up to half of its staff after President Trump’s decision to freeze foreign aid, The Times understands. Workers at the LGBTQ+ charity were told on Thursday that restructuring would take place, and that only roles with dedicated funding would be safe. I guess “dedicated funding” means funding by someone
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February 25, 2025 — John Hinderaker
This story is from Rochester, Minnesota. Some would say it is a narrative of narrow-minded oppression. Why shouldn’t elementary school students be instructed–by the public schools–in the gay S/M culture? The local newspaper headlines: “Rochester Pride cancels reading by Emily Neilson, whose book was removed from Franklin Elementary.” After planning to travel halfway across the country to visit the community where her book was removed from the shelves of an
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February 22, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Minnesota, like California and Maine, has announced that it will not follow President’s Trump’s executive order which takes various measures to prevent men from competing in women’s sports. The Minnesota State High School League asked Attorney General Keith Ellison for guidance, given its view that Minnesota’s civil rights act requires schools to permit men to compete in women’s sports. Attorney General Ellison has now responded with a letter opinion telling
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February 21, 2025 — John Hinderaker
This could be huge: Target was sued on Thursday by the state of Florida for allegedly concealing the risks of diversity and social initiatives that led to a customer backlash and wiped billions of dollars from the retailer’s market value. The securities fraud lawsuit by the State Board of Administration of Florida, an agency overseeing public pension funds that own Target stock, was filed in the federal court in Fort
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February 10, 2025 — John Hinderaker
President Trump has issued an executive order that, in various ways, seeks to prevent men from competing on women’s sports teams. The state of California has announced that it will not abide by Trump’s executive order, and will continue to allow men in women’s sports. That has gotten quite a bit of publicity; what is less well known is that the Minnesota State High School League has said the same
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February 7, 2025 — Steven Hayward
I noted here a couple days ago that the Babylon Bee—America’s most trusted news source, partly because it receives no USAID funding—has an astonishing track record of prophecy. You’d almost think they had some Old Testament mojo going or something. Little did I know that the Telegraph would report on yet another Bee prophecy coming true: And the Bee, back in 2021: As someone—maybe Malcom Muggeridge was the first—once said,
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February 6, 2025 — John Hinderaker
President Trump’s executive order banning men from women’s sports has gotten a lot of attention, most of it positive. But, as with many of his orders, I had questions about what exactly it said. Does the president actually have legal authority to “ban men from women’s sports?” No. So what, exactly, did he do? And will it stand up in court? In my view, the order is impressively specific and
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February 2, 2025 — John Hinderaker
I remember this case, because it was so horrible: in July 2007, Steven Hayes and a younger accomplice invaded the Connecticut home of Dr. William Petit in Connecticut. They held the family prisoners for hours, after tying up Dr. Petit and beating him with a baseball bat. Hayes forced Petit’s wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to withdraw $15,000 in cash from an ATM. He brought her back to the house, where he
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January 26, 2025 — Steven Hayward
A few propositions on the present moment: • Someday we’ll look back on this period as we do 1950, with some demagogue saying, “I have in my hand a list of 57 genders and pronouns. . .” (With the due caveat that the first guy was more right than wrong. . .) • What prompted this was an amazing self-own by Bruce Bartlett, a once-sound supply-side economist who succumbed somehow
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January 23, 2025 — Scott Johnson
In his inaugural speech on Monday, President Trump let the word go forth to friend and foe alike: “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.” In the video clip below Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre responds to questions about this controversial statement of policy in an interview with the CP24 news channel.
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December 26, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Associated Press announced its awards for the top women athletes of 2024. Caitlin Clark won the title, as you would expect. But then you have this: Olympic gymnast Simone Biles was second with 25 and boxer Imane Khelif was third, getting four votes. What is odd about this is that Imane Khelif isn’t a woman. He is a man who boxed in the women’s division in the Paris Olympics.
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December 14, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The entire country met Minnesota’s own Tampon Tim Walz this past August when Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate. The more the country saw him, the less it liked him. Walz thrilled Democrats in convention assembled when he called Trump running mate J.D. Vance “weird.” That proved an unfortunate choice of words on Walz’s part. The more the country saw Walz, the weirder it thought he was. He
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December 6, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
In U.S. v. Skrmetti, the Biden-Harris administration seeks to strike down Tennessee’s law restricting “transgender” procedures for minors. As Steve noted the case has revealed that the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), has taken direction from Admiral Rachel Levine, Biden’s Assistant Secretary For Health. The admiral is on record that cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, are gender reassignment surgeries are “medically necessary, safe, and effective for trans and non-binary youth.”
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December 5, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Supreme Court hearing in United States v. Skrmetti featured several highlights. As framed by the Biden administration, the case raised the question: Whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB1), which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow “a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or to treat “purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity,”
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December 4, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Oral argument is underway at this hour at the Supreme Court in the case of U.S. v. Skrmetti, in which the Biden Administration is seeking strike down a Tennessee law restricting transgender treatment of minors. The case will be argued along the traditional lines of whether minors suffering from “gender dysphoria” constitute a “protected class” under civil rights law, and related questions of whether “strict scrutiny” review applies, etc. I’ll
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