The Messy Politics of Teaching Gender
Plus, Mike Lee’s Role in Trump’s Attempted Coup
Recently at The Bulwark:
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CATHY YOUNG: The Messy Politics of Teaching Gender.
A full analysis of today’s gender identity debates is certainly beyond the scope of this article. However, it is worth noting that extremism in the transgender rights movement is being increasingly challenged across the political spectrum. Jonathan Rauch has recently written a thoughtful essay on the subject for the American Purpose, arguing that the movement needs to reject ultra-radicalism the way the gay rights movement did to win its civil rights victories. The Los Angeles Times last week reported on clinical psychologist Erica Anderson, who is herself transgender and has worked with numerous transgender patients; Anderson has broken ranks with the trans advocacy community by arguing that too many teenagers are being rushed into transitioning and that being transgender or “genderqueer” has, in some cases, become a trendy thing among progressive young people. Science journalist Jesse Singal, who is no one’s idea of a conservative or a right-winger, has been writing for several years about the bad science and bad ideas of radical trans advocacy.
There has been extreme and genuinely bigoted rhetoric about transgender people, both from the right and from radical feminists—but there has also been a disingenuous and deeply counterproductive campaign to equate all dissent from transgender-movement orthodoxy with bigotry and hate. It is entirely possible to believe that transgender identities are valid and worthy of social respect and that gender transition is in many cases the best solution to gender dysphoria, and yet also to believe that transgender advocacy in its current form raises many difficult issues that are far from settled—including hard questions related to gender transition for minors.
AMANDA CARPENTER: Mike Lee’s Role in Trump’s Attempted Coup.
What’s amazing is how desperately Lee was still trying to make Trump’s dream of flipping the election come true as late as January 4, 2021.
That day he attended Trump’s rally in Georgia to help “Stop the Steal” Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler get elected. There, he also met with Trump’s legal team. According to Peril, Lee told Trump’s lawyers that they should be making their case in courts and state legislatures, not to members of Congress.
And the newly released texts show Lee wrote to Meadows a lot between January 3 and January 4. He firmly insisted to Meadows that he was helping Trump and was very upset that people were saying otherwise. For his trouble, Trump depicted Lee as someone who wasn’t really a team player.
At the event, Trump said: “Mike Lee is here, too. But I’m a little angry at him today. . . . I just want Mike Lee to listen to this, what I’m talking [about], because you know what, we need his vote.”
Lee texted Meadows: “I’ve been spending 14 hours a day for the last week trying to unravel this for him. To have him take a shot at me like that in such a public setting without even asking me about it is pretty discouraging.”
Tucker Carlson’s hyper-masculinity flex, Mike Lee’s coup scheming texts, and the Biden administration’s chill on Covid. Plus, Will Saletan and Charlie Sykes have a radical disagreement about how much we’re arming Ukraine. Today’s edition of Charlie and Will Monday.
Supreme Court nominations are polarizing nowadays, and President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was no exception. Dr. Ted Johnson joins Sarah to discuss how voters reacted to Jackson (and to President Biden pledging ahead of time to pick a black woman for the seat). They also discuss why conversations about race in this country can get real unproductive real fast.
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SHAY KHATIRI: It Looks Like Genocide.
I am no Biden apologist. I have been plenty critical of the president. I agree with [Rich] Lowry that the administration has not supplied Ukraine with enough military supplies quickly enough. And reasonable people can disagree on whether President Biden should have said that Putin “cannot remain in power.” (I happen to think he was right.) But to argue based on the facts we now know that Biden was wrong to call Russia’s actions in Ukraine “genocide” is at best ignorant and at worst cynical partisan politics.
Is that really the hill—or the pile of rubble and bodies—Lowry wants to die on?
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
For Easter… My sister brought us two Pysanky Ukrainian Easter eggs, gifts for our twins. We’ll keep them up high (but visible) until they’re older. But they are beautiful.
From Friday… After OVERTIME went out, my item on Trump’s endorsement of J.D. Vance and what that means for Josh Mandel went out. Give it a read.
Speaking of Vance… Fresh off his Trump endorsement, old texts from friends are coming out about his views on Trump.
The costs of Greg Abbott’s border stunt… Are adding up and people are not happy.
Putin buzzes Ukraine with nuclear bombers… Given what we’ve seen happen to other precious Soviet/Russian technology, given that they have fewer than 30 of these… Does he want to take the risk bringing it any closer to Ukraine?
Memories of an old house… Joe Ragazzo shares his. I was reading this right after helping a family member pack up and looking back on my memories. A fellow Clevelander, I highly recommend his newsletter.
I wasn’t able to get back to CLE or STL… So here’s a nice tale about delicious Provel cheese product, a St. Louis favorite.
A day in the life… Of Adam Kinzinger.
Alex Jones’s operations are facing Chapter 11… After lawsuits from his insane and harmful conspiracy rhetoric caught up with him. Good.
Oh no… There’s a Tucker Testosterone Trailer Remix.
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