It is too early to declare victory just yet, but the transgender movement is definitely having a very bad year. As I noted recently, there is a good case to be made that transgender activists won the election for Donald Trump — and Democrats know it. In fact, many more moderate liberals are on the warpath, demanding to know why the Left is beholden to a handful of men in skirts and LGBT extremists. Last week, for example, an irate Bill Maher took on Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who identifies as a science expert.
Maher noted that progressives have discredited themselves by refusing to admit that there are real biological differences between males and females, and that these differences matter in sports. No matter how hard he pushed, Tyson ducked and weaved and tried to use what he clearly thought were witty responses to avoid answering the question. The exchange ended with Maher finally telling Tyson: “Well, I’m going to file you under ‘part of the problem.’” Watch for yourself — it’s a great bit of TV:
More common, however, was the response of John Oliver, the alleged comedian who hosts “Last Week Tonight.” Oliver has been all-in on the transgender agenda for quite some time, and he was close to despair, yelling at his audience that only weird people care about this issue (yeah, you’re telling us), that there is “no evidence” of any issues with males playing in female sports, and that the issue of “safety” is also merely a bigoted illusion:
John Oliver explains how Democrats can respond to the trans issue.
All they need to do is tell people there's no evidence that trans girls are at an unfair advantage or pose a threat to safety in athletic competition. pic.twitter.com/ndbpgfVaci
But facts, as they say, are stubborn things. There are scores of examples one could cite to prove that John Oliver and the other Baghdad Bobs of late-night TV are merely extremists bunkered down in a state of denial, but one recent example will suffice. A group of female players and an assistant coach are suing San Jose University over the deprivation of their privacy and scholarship opportunities as well as the fact that female players were placed at risk of physical harm. National Review’sreport is worth reading in its entirety, but this section in particular stood out to me:
Brooke Slusser, a plaintiff who transferred to San Jose State University in 2023 on a scholarship for the women’s volleyball team, similarly expressed discomfort that she had undressed in his presence. Slusser claims that she was not informed by university staff that (Blair) Fleming is male, and she was often assigned to room with him on trips. Slusser later learned that she was frequently assigned to board with Fleming during road trips because Kress and other staff had asked Fleming who he wanted to room with, and he chose her.
“Due to her personal convictions and religious beliefs, Slusser would not have roomed with Fleming or changed clothes in front of Fleming if Slusser had known Fleming was male,” the lawsuit reads. “Slusser’s right to protect her bodily privacy was violated by SJSU, (Coach Todd) Kress, and the MWC through actions, policies and practices that caused her to lose her right to bodily privacy without consent and against her will.”
To sum up: A girl was assigned to room with a male, whom she did not know was male, at that male’s specific request. Now, perhaps John Oliver doesn’t see the problem with that. In fact, I’ll bet he doesn’t. He and the other celebrity vassals of the Human Rights Campaign probably think this — Brooke, was it? — needs some re-education to check her transphobia. Because to men like Oliver, there is no such thing as a violation of a young girl’s dignity if a trans-identifying man is doing the violating, and there is no such thing as privacy if it means shielding your body from the eyes of a trans-identifying man.
Fortunately, the public has gotten woke to what they’re defending here, and they’re losing — most recently, in Missouri, where a circuit court just upheld that state’s ban on gender mutilation for minors. Again, it is too early to tell where we are in this ugly culture war. But one can feel, perhaps, the high tide — and the turn.
