Can You Erase What Doesn't Exist?

Yesterday, the ACLU and other Left-wing advocacy organizations (including mainstream media outlets) attacked the Trump administration over a leaked memo which suggested that the administration may be looking to define the term "sex" scientifically for the purposes of federal laws. According to the political Left, this means that Trump wants to to "erase" transgender people.

This situation reminds me of something that happened two years ago in Canada, with the passage of Bill C-16. In that bill, Canada amended its human rights charter, broadening anti-discrimination law to such a degree that mere misuse of pronouns could become an actionable offense. Jordan Peterson's vocal resistance to the law launched him to fame throughout the world, and especially in America.

A law like Canada's Bill C-16 would never pass in the United States, and would be struck down by the Supreme Court even if it did. The American Left knows this, and so they have been attempting to smuggle transgender protections through the back door by redefining the legal definition of "sex" to include those who merely identify as that sex. This kind of legal redefinition inevitably leads to absurdities—for instance, a doctor who refuses to prescribe birth control to a biological man could end up facing charges of sex discrimination. This kind of thing can also hurt women.

Conservatives believe that social policy should be determined at the ballot box, not through the courts. But that is not how the political Left sees it, especially since their victory in Obergefell v. Hodges. The Left sees themselves as continuing the work of the Warren Court which hastened the progress of Civil Rights for black Americans through landmark legal decisions. To the political Left, Americans today are as bigoted as they were 70 years ago, and so they cannot be trusted to set social policy for themselves.

To find out which side of this issue you fall on, simply ask yourself the following question:

Can a biological woman be discriminated against because she's a man?

If you find this question to be absurd, then you agree with the Trump administration. Trump's memo does not threaten any of the Left's newfangled gender categories. The only thing he proposes to "erase" is absurdity—the situation that arises whenever Leftist activists insist that the legal system conflate "identity" with reality.