“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules”, Saul Alinsky advised. Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas made American Bar Association (ABA) President Michelle A. Behnke live up to her own set of rules in a House Oversight Committee hearing, “The Future of DEI in Law School Accreditation and the Legal Profession”, yesterday.
Gill’s enemy is the intersectional oppression hierarchy. He is adept at twisting its administrators into pretzels with leftist logic.
Rep. Gill started with an examination on the subject of ‘implicit bias’, which the ABA website exists in all of us like original sin. Gill challenged Behnke to name her implicit biases. She filibustered instead. Then he switched topics.
“Do you think it’s important that the next Supreme Court justice be transgender?” Gill asked. Then, over Behnke’s filibustering, he continued to ask questions over her.
“Have transgenders been included on the US Supreme Court?” Gill asked, establishing that in fact not one of the 116 justices in the history of the Court has been transgender.
“Do you think that it’s a problem the transgender community has never had representation on the Supreme Court?” he asked.
“I’m asking you about diversity, equity, and inclusion”, he said over her boilerplate non-responses. “I’m asking you about the transgender community. You’re refusing to answer my question.”
Finally: “You’re not answering in a straightforward way. Is it because of your own implicit bias? Do you have implicit transphobia?” Cue the rimshot.
Implicit transphobia is a pathologizing term that plays to the behavioral demands of transgender ideology. Failure to use pronouns in your email signature is implicit transphobia. Women’s shelters that exclude men are guilty of implicit transphobia.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham took questions about her ‘implicit transphobia’ yesterday. Reporters wanted to know what she really meant when she said she supports fair and safe sports for girls.
Was it implicit transphobia? “I said what I said”, she replied.
Ms. Cunningham was asked to accept responsibility for any “targeting” of the world’s most marginalized community. Isn’t it possible that she has somehow implied the transes should be targeted? “I don’t dislike anyone”, she replied. “I think there’s room for everyone here.”
She maintained that “biological women” have “rights to be protected”. She stood on her “morals” and “beliefs” without apology. “Never once said that I hated the trans community”, Cunningham concluded.
This is what ‘implied transphobia’ always meant. The new thing in the world is that Sophie Cunningham is not afraid to stick to her guns and the attempted mob crucifixion is not leaving Bluesky, so far.
Is the tide turning? Is the spell breaking? Something has changed. Here is David Remnick of The New Yorker sparring with 2028 Democratic hopeful Rahm Emanuel. Remnick tried to hold the former White House chief of staff and Chicago mayor accountable for soft support of transgender “rights”.
Emanuel maintained that “bathrooms” are a distraction from the crisis in American public education. “Our reading and math scores are in the tank,” he said. “50 percent of our kids cannot read or do math at grade level. And we’re gonna talk about bathroom access?”
Remnick pushed back. Why can’t the transes have their demands met immediately, he asked? After all, there were “other groups that didn’t have their rights” that were told to wait, before, and that was unjust.
Thus the desire of autogynephilic men to be in women’s restrooms perfectly compares to Martin Luther King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, according to David Remnick, who speaks for our betters in American society.
Rahm Emanuel would not let the discussion “distract” him from reading scores, math skills, or graduation rates. He has signed a ‘bathroom bill’ into law, so like Remnick, he is quite willing to support the agenda now, and in the future.
Unlike Remnick, however, Emanuel wants to win elections more than he wants to let the curious boys into the girls’ restroom at school right away. He understands that moral scolding from New Yorker columnists has no resonance with most voters.
People who are not very-online, who prefer sports to social elitist struggle sessions among the Elect, are just not into trans rights like the Democratic Party is. Emanuel is unlikely to be the party nominee, but he is being allowed to speak heresy.
Conversational dams are breaking and dialectical tides are turning. The vibe shift is real. That does not mean this particular culture war is over. We are far from finished. A long-delayed conversation has finally begun.
Fully a decade after ‘no debate’ took command of the dialogue, the silence is breaking. Let freedom ring.
