More Sports Bills Cross the Finish Line
“I never thought I would be here in the day that we had to have a statute to declare the differences between males and females in female sports.”
“It’s crazy we have to address it.” That was Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves’s (R) as he signed the second girls’ sports protection bill in the country. But, he pointed out, that’s where Joe Biden has forced this country: into a war over women’s rights, privacy, fairness, and competition. At least in Mississippi, he vowed, “young girls… [will] have a fair level playing field.” His daughters and every daughter will know — "their rights are worth fighting for.“
State Senator Angela Hill (R), who sponsored the bill and worked long and hard for Thursday’s victory, was elated. "I was so happy for the governor to sign this bill into law and for me to be joined by so many colleagues in the legislature standing there and applauding the governor,” she said on “Washington Watch.” “This is just… common sense. It is a shame that we even have to have a piece of legislation that says that biological males that identifies females cannot come in and take over women’s sports. I never thought I would be here in the day that we had to have a statute to declare the differences between males and females in female sports.”
But that day is here, thanks to a radical administration that thinks transgender “rights” are the most pressing issue of our time. In states like Mississippi, leaders are rushing to prove him wrong — introducing and debating a wave of proposals to stop girls from missing out on scholarships, opportunities, and well-deserved wins. When Idaho first passed a law like this one, they were one of the only ones considering it. Now, as many as 50 bills are making their way through 25 states to address the fire Biden started.
Hill, who says she had countless coaches call her and plead for help in dealing with this brave new sports world, is thrilled to see other parts of America follow their lead — and plans to do all she can to help other states move in the same direction. “I’m just happy that Mississippi has gotten this behind us, and that now we can focus on maybe helping colleagues in other states get this through their state legislatures.”
For Americans, she insists, this whole debate is an important lesson. “The Right has to learn that the Left fights. And when they get in charge, they roll [over our values] like a steamroller. And so we’re going to have to be a unified front… and we’re going to have to push as hard as we can back, because honestly, I think that they have tipped their pendulum too far and go really too far with this, because I think the polling in Mississippi is reflective of what most people think across the United States — that biological males don’t belong in female sports.” God created two sexes — male and female. “And if we have to put that down in a state statute,” Hill said, “that’s what we’re going to do.”
Let’s hope her courage and Governor Reeves’s is an inspiration to the parents, coaches, and elected officials across the country, who believe in the truth — and deserve laws that reflect it.
Originally published here.
Biden’s Fireside Splat
Joe Biden avoided talking to the American people longer than any president in the last 100 years. And when he finally did, it wasn’t exactly worth waiting for. If you didn’t watch the 23 minutes of this White House’s revisionist history on the virus, count yourself lucky. It was an exercise in the dismal, partisan, hopeless rhetoric this administration was supposed to rise above. After more than 50 days of silence, all Joe Biden proved by coming out of the White House basement is that he’s a sore and ungracious winner, who isn’t above taking credit for the vaccine successes he inherited.
Naturally, that isn’t how the media saw it. In fact, their glowing reviews (“Biden projects hope”) were confusing to anyone who actually saw the speech. “If you hadn’t watched the president’s… address,” Christopher Bedford writes, “you might think it was something — anything — other than the most depressing, defeated, and resigned speech since President Jimmy Carter held the office. You might think he hadn’t devoted his third sentence to a baseless attack on his predecessor, and the entire rest of his address to death, sadness, loneliness, and despair.” Apparently, when Joe Biden promised darker days ahead, he meant it.
“A year ago,” Biden said, “we were hit with a virus that was met with silence, and spread unchecked. Denials for days, weeks, then months, that led to more deaths, more infections, more stress, and more loneliness.” It was meant to be an attack on his predecessor, which makes it all the more unbelievable. Anyone with half a brain remembers that it was Democrats, not Republicans, who ignored the warnings about the pandemic. So consumed by their impeachment of Donald Trump, they refused to even listen to Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sound the alarm in late January. And when the 45th president took bold action, closing down our borders to protect Americans, Biden wasn’t silent. He called Trump a “hysterical xenophobe,” accusing him of “irrational fearmongering” — when in fact, the administration’s quick thinking probably saved thousands of U.S. lives.
It was breathtakingly self-serving, as Biden tried to pretend the entire virus response plan was his own — when in fact, “the only thing that has really worked in this entire coronavirus pandemic,” Mollie Hemingway points out, “is developing the vaccine” — which was entirely done on Trump’s watch. The fact that Americans everywhere will soon have access to those shots is because of the last administration, who decided to cut the red tape that liberals love swimming in and create free market solutions. If Democrats had been in charge, we’d still be looking for a firm to develop the vaccine!
It’s also astounding, as several commentators have pointed out, that Biden is taking credit for a vaccine that he spent months disparaging! Now, suddenly, not only are the drugs a miraculous accomplishment — they’re his accomplishment. “Even the media acknowledges the Trump administration’s role in spearheading vaccine development and procurement,” former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted with side-by-side screenshots of ABC News and New York Times’s headlines, “but President Biden REFUSES to say the truth.” By the end of the night, he’d so overinflated his role in the vaccine that even the Washington Post called him out.
He pumped up his vaccine record “a little too much,” the Post said, arguing that his attempt to sell it as a Biden success story were “overstated.” The paper also took issue with the goals he set, quoting Biden: “You may recall, I set a goal that many of you said was kind of way over the top. I said I intended to get 100 million shots in people’s arms in my first hundred days in office. Tonight, I can say we’re not only going to meet that goal; we’re going to beat that goal.” As the Post reminds everyone, “When Biden came into office, there had already been several days of 1 million people being vaccinated — the daily number required to hit 100 million in 100 days. In other words, to hit the goal, he mostly just needed to keep things moving in the direction they were going… [C]asting this as some unthinkable feat goes too far and detracts from legitimate claims to success.”
As if that weren’t outrageous enough, the president spent the better portion of his speech telling his subjects that “maybe… we’ll let you celebrate” on July 4th if people continue to get vaccinated. How wonderful. Our benevolent overlords will let us out of our cells for a few hours on good behavior “if we do our part.” If we don’t, President Doomsday warns, “we may have to reinstate restrictions.” Well, unfortunately for the White House, it’s not up to the president whether Americans have barbeques. And this is July 4th we’re talking about — the day we’re supposed to be celebrating independence from tyrants.
And if Biden is such a cracker-jack problem solver where the virus is concerned, then why is he nominating a man with zero health care experience to head up our COVID response? On the one thing this administration can claim ownership of in the pandemic — HHS’s new leadership — they’ve offered up pro-abortion extremist, Xavier Becerra — confusing even hardline Democrats like Pramila Jayapal (Wash.). “I would have liked to see the HHS secretary have public health experience,” she said. Instead, Americans may be getting a lawyer, who’s only involvement in the medical field is suing Catholic hospitals over their First Amendment rights.
“I am hard-pressed to see any way such a radical and underqualified nominee should fill such a critical post at this crucial time,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. So are we. Help us stop it! Contact your senators and urge them to vote no on Joe Biden’s Secretary of Health and Inhumane Services!
Originally published here.
Book Battle a Prologue to More Censorship
Amazon is the world’s biggest marketplace of everything — but ideas. When Jeff Bezos’s empire decided to de-shelve Ryan Anderson, dropping a book that it made plenty of money on as a best-seller, any illusions about the company being a “diverse, tolerant” business were already long gone. Now, a couple of weeks after the controversy, Amazon has decided to answer its critics. And there are a lot of them.
Like a lot of Americans, Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) were incredibly disturbed by the news that a well-researched book about transgenderism’s harms would be pulled from anyone’s bookstore — let alone the country’s largest. In a letter to the retail giant, the four Republicans demanded to know what led to that decision. On Thursday, Bezos’s vice president replied. The answer? Nothing but your garden variety conservative censorship.
“As a bookseller,” Brian Huseman started, “we provide our customers with access to a variety of viewpoints, including books that some customers may find objectionable.” (An interesting opening, considering that Amazon’s lack of viewpoint tolerance is what led to the uproar.) Still, he continued, “ Amazon works hard to ensure customers have… access to the widest and most diverse cross-section of written and spoken word in retail today.” (Subtext: as long as it adheres to our culturally extreme ideology). However, “We reserve the right not to sell certain content. All retailers make decisions about what selection they choose to offer, as do we.” In this instance, Huseman said, “We have chosen not to sell books that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.”
Then Amazon must not have read Anderson’s book, because nowhere in it does he refer to transgenderism as “a mental illness.” “Please quote the passage where I ‘call them mentally ill,’” Ryan fired back on Twitter. “You can’t quote that passage because it doesn’t exist.” Even if he had, it would have been entirely in keeping with the American Psychological Association’s own designation of gender dysphoria. Although the Left-leaning APA has radically altered its designations to satisfy its LGBT alliances, “Gender dysphoria is listed in the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” Ryan pointed out, “which Amazon sells.” For now.
The underlying issue, as the Wall Street Journal points out, is that Amazon’s monopoly on book sales makes this decision even more outrageous. Bezos’s company “is the country’s dominant book retailer, accounting for 53 percent of all books sold in the U.S. and 80 percent of all ebooks… Removing a title from Amazon’s platform can have a significant impact on its performance.”
And just as significantly — on the people struggling with this difficult issue. In a powerful article by Chad Felix Green on the Federalist, readers get a sobering look at how this new policy at Amazon could affect an already hurting population. He stumbled on the book after an emotional journey that took him right up to the point of reassignment surgery — which he didn’t go through with.
“Anderson shared deep, rich stories by people just like me who did transition and then realized it was a mistake. Then they faced rebuilding the body and the identity they socially and medically altered in pursuit of some intangible goal of idealized gender. Their understanding of discomfort in their bodies resonated loudly with me, even more than the initial concept of being transgender. I saw my struggle in their accomplishments, and I realized how truly grateful I was to have hesitated earlier in my life… I soon realized Ryan’s work offered me so much more than just a sense of personal validation in my journey. He also offered me answers…
For people like me who may have gone years feeling alone and completely ignored by the popular discussion of gender identity, Ryan’s book gives us hope and understanding of ourselves and the options we have for our future.
That, in its simplest form, is the best argument for keeping this book and others like it available for people to consider and decide for themselves how to respond. Instead, LGBT activists seem to feel entitled to decide what information we should have access to so that we only make the choices they believe are best for us.”
This isn’t just about censorship. It’s about cruelly depriving people of the truth they desperately need. And, as Allie Stuckey argues, “When a company has as much power as Amazon & other Big Tech companies do, their censorship of viewpoints is not just ‘the free market doing its thing.’ It is a corporate oligarchy cracking down on speech & is nearly as dangerous as the government doing so.”
Originally published here.
A Blunt Interview with the Missouri Senator
He’s spent almost three decades in Washington, so the news that Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) has decided to retire was bittersweet. Don’t miss our conversation looking back on his time in Congress, including a glimpse at what he might do back home in Missouri.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
