Response to The Transgender Republican
Updated: Nov 15
Cassandra Williamson, 11/14/2023
Sarah Colasanto, the CEO/Founder of The Transgender Republican and I have lots in common, and we have some big differences too. I am a former Republican but now an establishment liberal with some progressive leanings. She's a Republican. We do agree though that trading one extreme ideology for another is inherently wrong. You're still oppressed. Your liberty is still restrained and "the blessings of liberty" are denied you. Whether oppression comes from the right or the left, it's still oppression.
Where are the rational minds and the civil discourse we need today to make America better today than yesterday? Are there any good people left in America, or have we all become extremists? If you critically analyze your thinking, and your beliefs, have you fallen into an abyss on the left or the right? What are you going to do about that?
The recent statement by a representative of The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) about their objections to the inclusion of a transgender float in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is part of a larger narrative: one to silence those they don't like or want to see in the public square. It's a narrative that says only my way or the highway, and it's huge, well-funded, and very well-organized.
ADF, along with 75 other far-right extremist organizations, most of which espouse a type of theocratic authoritarian Christian nationalist takeover of our federal government, joined with The Heritage Foundation to create a $22 million dollar program called Project 2025. In the forward to Project 2025, Dr. Kevin Roberts, President of The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action, tells you exactly what they want to do and who they are after.
Transgender people: "... toxic normalization of transgenderism.." (2nd paragraph of the forward to Project 2025, A Mandate For Leadership, written by Dr. Roberts, Project 2025, p. 1, 2023)
Calls us unnatural >>> "Its purpose is to replace people’s natural loves and loyalties with unnatural ones" (Project 2025, p. 2).
Delete/ erase those they don't want to see or hear: " ..deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists" (Project 2025, p. 4).
Transgender people: " Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance,..." " It has no claim to First Amendment protection" (Project 2025, p. 5).
Ends separation of church and state: "...how much risk mitigation is worth the price of shutting down churches on the holiest day of the Christian calendar and far beyond as happened in 2020? What is the proper balance of lives saved versus souls saved?" (Project 2025, p.453).
Christian nationalism and opposition to marriage equality:"...maintain a biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family" (Project 2025, p. 481).
We on the left have our extremists too: a trans woman takes her top off at a White House Function, and some have undressed in sex-segregated spaces when their anatomical sex is not the same as those for whom the space is designated (if a trans person has had all their procedures, then their anatomical sex will match that of the space, thus no issue should arise), demanding that every person you encounter use your pronouns, expecting to be accepted as you claim you are when you've done nothing to respect that which you claim, and selfishly demanding to participate in a sex-segregated sport (not pool or chess, as have been reported in the news recently, etc) when you went through puberty as the opposite sex. Some seem to have no respect for others and are more focused on self.
So, I stand with my friend, Sarah. No hypocrisy! You can't have it your way if you exclude another way to get your way.
PS: After a friend pointed this out to me, I want to be very clear, I am not one to support or espouse transmedicalism (TRUSCUM): Trans women are women (it's a gender thing and not an anatomy thing) regardless of what procedures they have had or not had. But, if you haven't had those procedures, then you have no business showing your junk in sex-segregated spaces. It's wrong! It adds fuel to the fire used against us.