Tempest in a Pee Pot

Cruelty is the point.

Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to punch out newly elected Rep. Sarah McBride if she saw her in the women’s bathroom. McBride, if you missed it, is the first trans woman elected to Congress.

The grandstanding Rep. Nancy Mace started the ball rolling by introducing a resolution banning any person from using a bathroom other than that aligning with their biological sex. Mace, who was apparently “pro-trans” in a former life, found mileage and money to gain by quite intentionally targeting her new colleague. Speaker Mike Johnson cheerily endorsed the measure. Welcome Wagon this is not.

The success of Trump’s re-election campaign is at least partially attributable to tapping into anti-trans sentiments. The campaIgn spent $21 million on ads falsely attacking Kamala Harris’s record on transgender issues. Harris has been far from trans-friendly although, to be fair, she hasn’t threatened to punch anyone.

I have written previously about my experiences with a handful of brave, sensitive, intelligent transgender students – now adults. That a nation’s continued existence would pivot on this minuscule, powerless minority is a travesty.

The bathroom issue is, of course, a political sideshow. If there is reason for anyone to fear using a bathroom, it is evidently Marjorie Taylor Greene you should be on the lookout for. It does make me wish Caitlyn Jenner was the new representative in Congress. The Greene v. Jenner Netflix special would dwarf Jake Paul v. Mike Tyson.

We are in a precarious political and cultural time. Human rights progress is being peeled back, layer-by-layer and allegedly progressive folks are yielding with barely a whimper. As the saying goes, give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a mile. Daunted by accusations of “wokeness,” the entire Democratic establishment is conceding miles, not inches, and setting back social progress light years.

Even so-called trans activists are equivocating. A NYT article this week summarized the capitulation and was accompanied by scores of comments in the “It’s about time!” vein. Profiles in social justice courage are hard to find.

Universities are “cracking down” on pro-Palestinian protests. It would be a shame to have concern over the slaughter of 42,000 innocent humans interrupt campus decorum and distract hard-working MBA candidates from their selfless missions.

DEI programs are being abandoned. Affirmative action, already dead, is pilloried anyway, just in case it tries to rise from the ashes of conservative incineration. A significant majority of the population appears to believe that “reverse racism” is the real racial problem in America.

The whole damn liberal commentariat seems to believe that “identity politics” is the ruination of the nation. Even some Black, gay, women, Latinx folks and others of non-white-male identity have joined that chorus. Baffling.

Because what do we have but our identity? We straight white men have never been obliged to contemplate our “identity” because it confers nothing but advantage. I cannot for the life of me recall any instance where my “identity” was a disadvantage or drew me to seek common cause with other white men to protect our fragile rights or position in society. But to others, “identifying” with kindred spirits by race, sexuality, gender or other defining characteristics, is a crucial comfort in navigating a world that often seems inhospitable.

“Identity politics” is the act of assessing the overt and covert ways that one’s existence is under threat from the majority and organizing with others to seek justice and equality. The ones who revile and resist identity politics would erase your reality by insisting on colorblindness or defining you as aberrant. Such people cannot and will not acknowledge that there are ways to be in the world that vary from their own perception and experience.

It is difficult to imagine an area of political activity where identity is a neutral variable.

Economic policies disadvantage people of color.

Climate change disproportionately affects poor and Black people.

Health policies – especially post-Dobbs – disproportionately harm women.

Anti-gay legislation – well, duh.

Anti-trans resolutions get you punched by Marjorie Taylor Greene.

I could fill pages with more (and better) examples.

Yet when voters, students or others find common cause with those who endure the same systemic and systematic harm, they’re dismissed as engaging in “identity politics.”

When I observe people with power and privilege attacking trans folks I want to scream, “Pick on someone your own size!”

But really, that’s unrealistic. There aren’t many people as small as Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor not-so-swift Greene.