Posted on 12/21/2016 6:42:08 AM PST by Altura Ct.
Kentucky governor Matt Bevin said last week that he hopes the Kentucky legislature won’t consider a transgender-bathroom bill in the upcoming legislative session; according to Bevin, “the last thing we need is more government rules.” He’s absolutely right, and I think it’s worth offering a conservative defense of transgender rights — which ought to be a conservative issue.
On the American political spectrum, conservatism is the mind-your-own-business ideology. I know smoking is unhealthy, but I enjoy smoking, and my health is none of your business. I know motorcycles can be dangerous, but I like the wind in my hair; whether or not I wear a helmet is none of your business. I realize that fireworks can blow up before they’re supposed to, but they’re fun and my fingers are none of your business. Don’t tell me what sort of car to drive, or what kind of light bulb I can buy, or what kind of milk I can drink, or how to raise my kids.
There’s a reason, when push comes to shove, most libertarians vote Republican. The Republican party is — more often than not, and should invariably be — the party of individual liberty. So conservatives have to ask, is it a good idea to empower the government to start lifting up people’s skirts?
The response, from many conservatives, is that it’s not a question of interfering with personal freedom — the freedom to live one’s own life however he’d like — but of preserving personal freedom — that is, the freedom to go to the bathroom among only people of the same biological sex. Allowing mixed-biological-sex bathrooms risks making adults uncomfortable, and risks opening the door to child predators, or so the argument goes. I’m afraid neither of those positions strikes me as well thought-out. Certainly not from a conservative point of view.
Unfortunately, the door is already open to child predators. So long as there are public bathrooms, bad people will use them (if for no other reason than evacuation). If child predators using your kids’ bathroom is your concern, you should be worrying about the male predators in the boys’ bathroom right now, not the male predators who might claim to be transgendered to get into the girls’ bathroom. (Or vice versa.)
Furthermore, it is a fundamental position of American conservatism that you don’t penalize innocent people in anticipation of criminal activity. It’s not my fault, as someone who wants a gun for self-defense, that someone else may want a gun to shoot his neighbor. Crime prevention does not preempt my right to self-defense. It’s not my fault, as someone who wants to contribute to a candidate he supports, that someone else might contribute to a candidate in order to buy political influence. Crime prevention does not preempt my right to political speech.
anecdotes are the trolls and the lefts propaganda tool.
I know [insert left wing useful idiot class here] and they are very nice.
Teenage years are awkward. They have always been awkward. Where do I belong within a group? Who am I? I’m not a typical jock, nerd, brainiac, cheerleader ect. I’m special and different.
I’m trans!! That’s my kind of people. Well, maybe. It can be a long-term mental handicap for a short term phase.
I was merely stating both sides of an argument.
I, personally, think that most gender confusion is a result of a mental illness. There is an entire spectrum of “mental illness” from extreme paranoid schizophrenia to triskaidekaphobia and we react to them accordingly.
I would never allow a paranoid schizophrenic to babysit my child, but I would have no problem with a trisaidekaphobic doing so.
The AMA, in their infinite wisdom, moved all homosexual and gender identity issues off the list of mental illnesses. I think that is a mistake.
As for your well reasoned, researched argument linking homosexuality to child molestation...a liberal would say it is poorly sited and certainly not peer reviewed, thus unbelievable. They would counter with statistics showing the thousands of people killed by guns every year.
I am not stating this in support of their argument, I am just pointing out how reasonable (in their minds anyway) people can be on polar opposite stands and how...in my own way...I try to come to grips with it.
It burns my soul to say it, but if a guy dressed as a girl wants to pee in a ladies room, and he keeps his hands (and other body parts) to himself, so be it.
By the same token, if I want to carry a concealed weapon wherever I please, as long as I don’t use it to break any laws, I should be allowed to do so.
Who in their right mind considers measures protecting women from harm to be punishing anyone?
Agree completely. The Gay Lobby has been around for decades, but Obama put the agenda on steroids in his lat 4 years. I KNEW he would be more dangerous if he was reelected. And I believe all the LBGTQXWYZ adherents have a personality disorder. Pray for our country.
The APA (American Psychiatric Association) did not remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders as a result of "wisdom", they did so out of fear. Mobs of homosexuals were showing up at their annual meetings and threatening them with bodily harm if they did not do so. Enough of them were intimidated to make a majority, and at an APA annual meeting (1973 I think) they voted to remove homosexuality from the list.
As for your well reasoned, researched argument linking homosexuality to child molestation...a liberal would say it is poorly sited and certainly not peer reviewed, thus unbelievable.
Here is a source listing various studies. I've read various JAMA articles on the subject. Here's one. (Journal of the American Medical Association.)
If they want to argue the validity of the numbers, there is plenty enough scientific study out there to back up the numbers.
I am not stating this in support of their argument, I am just pointing out how reasonable (in their minds anyway) people can be on polar opposite stands and how...in my own way...I try to come to grips with it.
This is actually a pretty widespread phenomena, and it is not confined to disputes between liberals and conservatives. I have found that many people are simply unpersuadable by any facts or evidence. They have made up their minds what they wish to believe, and they will not change their minds regardless of what you throw at them.
Post 53 BTTT Bump
National Review, the “conservative” publication constantly making the “conservative” case for non-conservative issues and positions.
What a joke they have become.
I’d be willing to bet that the percentage is a lot higher than they’d like to admit.
The issue in the article is whether we want someone outside bathrooms checking the genetalia of people entering. And while I know nobody’s suggesting that, he’s using reducto ad absurdum to make his point.
If nobody knows before you go in and nobody knows after you get out then nobody needs to know.
However, that works best as an unspoken rule. Once you speak it, someone will abuse it.
You need not always check a person’s genitalia to know the difference between a man and a woman. But the author is not just talking about “lifting up people’s skirts”, he is furthering the idea that there is nothing wrong with people from using the wrong bathroom. This furthers the liberal narrative that there are no real difference between men and women.
It should also be pointed out that the “transgender” movement is using the issue bathroom access to force society to accept their premise that there is a thing called “transgenderism” rather than just people with a mental disorder who refuse to accept the reality of their sex. There would be no issue if the “transgenders” had not made it one. Once they have I am unwilling to cede to their point. This whole transgender farce need to be put to rest.
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