A new front in the war of wokeness has opened. This time, it’s in California, stems from a school system including a biological male on a girls’ track team, and has resulted in a lawsuit over freedom of speech.
And, unsurprisingly, the left-leaning San Francisco Chronicle paints the female athletes’ defense of their freedom of speech and their hope to protect girls’ sports as an attack, that they are “targeting” a specific trans person, i.e. a male who wants to compete against the females and be included in the team’s trips, training, and locker room privacy.
Looking the Chronicle piece is a potent lesson in media bias, and shows readers a “report” that doesn’t even include the statements on the disputed shirts until nearly the close of the “article.”
Writes Erin Allday, in a piece given the misleading title, “Student athletes sue California district over right to wear shirts targeting trans teammate”:
“Two teammates of a high school cross-country runner who is transgender have filed a lawsuit against Riverside Unified School District in Southern California, alleging that the player “unfairly” took their spot at a team event and that their free speech rights were violated when they were told to stop wearing T-shirts with transphobic messages.”
So, we actually see two complaints. First, there is the injection of a male into the girls’ sport, which, based on the fact that males generally are stronger, faster, have better depth perception and quicker reflexes than women, might be a slam-dunk for being called “unfair.”
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But notice that the headline focuses on the shirt being what targets the “trans” teammate.
That is not true. Of course, to find out what is on the shirt (actually, it’s two kinds of shirts, neither of which specifies any individual at all) one has to scroll to nearly the end of Allday’s piece, and suffer through bilge such as:
“Combined with recent efforts to remove a transgender player from the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team, along with mounting attacks on high school-age trans athletes, the Riverside complaint underscores how right-wing efforts to go after transgender people are honing in on student-athletes.”
Yes, “going after” and “honing in.”
These are not hunting expeditions. These are sporting teams which are suffering the injection of woke ideology and MALES to compete against FEMALES. The children and the concerned parents are not initiating the changes or the insertion of the MALES into these competitions. Political entities, run by politically minded people who stock their bank accounts with checks drawn off the taxpayers, are the forces initiating the actions. Is this hard to grasp?
But, of course, Allday continues, splattering the screen with more collectivist propaganda.
“’As a public school parent watching minors and students get attacked in California, my priority right now is sounding the alarm and letting people know that bad faith groups are behind this,’ said Daisy Gardner, outreach director for Our Schools USA Los Angeles, a group that helps elect candidates opposed to conservative policies.
Gardner and others said they don’t believe that the students who filed the lawsuit have a legitimate case against their transgender teammate, and that their complaint is being bolstered by a larger movement attacking transgender rights across the board — from efforts to expel transgender athletes in women’s sports to bathroom bans that have resurfaced in recent weeks.”
But, in fact, it all is collectivist. The problem at the heart of the immediate conflict is the fact that this is a tax-funded school system. Thus, despite the fact that the California Constitution protects the right of free speech (it is not the federal First Amendment that is supposed to pertain here, because that only prohibits Congress from infringing the right of free speech, so one has to look at the state constitution to best fit what the Founders designed), these children cannot wear shirts that simply say:
“Save Girls’ Sports” and
“It’s common sense, XX ≠ XY”
And the battle rages because it’s a tax-funded system, because it is the epitome of the Tragedy of the Commons, where everyone is forced to pay, but not everyone’s preferences or rights to speak can be accommodated or even given any sense of proportionality.
Allday notes the state commands, the collectivism inspiring the entire mess:
“In a statement, Riverside Unified officials on Friday said they are required by state law to allow transgender athletes to ‘participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions consistent with (their) gender identity.’”
Consistent with their gender identity? So, if a 6’5”, 200 lb., male “identifies” as a female, can he join the girls’ basketball team?
“’California state law prohibits discrimination of students based on gender, gender identity and gender expression, and specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in physical education and athletics,’ said Liz Pinney-Muglia, a spokesperson for Riverside Unified. ‘The protections we provide to all students are not only aligned with the law but also with our core values, which include equity and well-being.’”
Never forget, the state – the gang that operates through extortion and compulsion, that only can exist by expropriating other people’s money – is ready to tell everyone what “equity and well-being” are.
At FoxNews, the staff actually bothered to interview the students, and offered information the Chronicle didn’t. They allowed the two girls bringing the suit over their speech rights, and the attempt to let them wear their shirts, to explain what some school employees did to them.
After Julianne Fleischer, a legal representative working with the plaintiffs (identified as “Kaitlyn” and “Taylor”) explained that the school allows all kinds of “gay pride” flags in the classrooms and other woke messages on apparel, the Taylor spoke, noting that the school “Life Director” compared the statements to the Nazi use of the swastika, that their athletic director told them they had to remove their shirts, and:
“We had to put on a different shirt, because we weren’t allowed to wear this shirt at practice.”
Would a private school be able to get away with this, without some parents choosing to remove their children and their money?
The answer is clear, and it indicates that, until the government school system is eliminated and people are freed from the tax-eating machine, more problems and disputes like this will arise.
Good intentions and public schooling cannot be reconciled. Public schooling always forces people to pay, and that, itself, is wrong.