When trans activist Ashley Smith snapped a quick photo with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, she thought she’d made a pretty clever point. Turns out, not so much.
Also, sidenote: she’s not actually a she.
Smith, who is biologically male, showed up to Abbott’s reelection campaign announcement Friday to protest the state’s proposed bathroom bill. Similar to the legislation that caused all manner of uproar in North Carolina, the bill would have required individuals to use restrooms that match their gender marked on their birth certificate (which can be changed following some genital mutilation, by the way).
To Smith’s credit, rather than getting naked, screaming or busting down a window, as many left-wing activists seem eager to do, Smith merely waited her turn before asking Abbott if she could snap a quick selfie with him. Smith then posted the photo on Instagram, along with the hashtag “#BathroomBuddy” and the caption “How will the Potty Police know I'm transgender if the Governor doesn't?"
Smith later told a fawning media she took the photo to prove that no one, including conservative politicians like Abbott, can tell the difference between a biological woman and a trans one, and therefore couldn’t possibly enforce a so-called “bathroom bill.” (This is, of course, assuming Abbott didn't notice Smith's very noticeable Adam's apple.)
Smith’s photo has since gone “viral” -- although considering the photo's only gotten a few thousand reactions and less than 2,000 shares on Facebook, it's "viral"ness is likely due to it being highlighted by a slew of news outlets like the Dallas Morning News, KSAT San Antonio, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the New York Daily News.
And, as with most progressive mantras, it completely misses the point. Here’s why.
A federal court case kicked off Monday of this week when four students at Boyertown High School in Pennsylvania sued the local school district, alleging that administrators violated their privacy by forcing them to use restrooms and changing areas with students of the opposite sex.
Several female students claim the school is mandating that they change and use bathrooms with male students.
Similarly, a male student said he was found himself in an awkward situation while changing in the locker room after realizing the half-naked “boy” next to him was wearing a bra. To make things even more awkward, he said he had known the trans student back in middle school, when she identified as a girl.
When he complained, school officials told him to “tolerate” it as best he could, and make it as “natural as possible,” he said, adding that they offered to let him change in the nurse’s room as an alternative to using the locker room prescribed for his sex. He claims he eventually stopped changing for gym class altogether and ended up losing points.
Note that these aren’t angry old GOP lawmakers who are suing for the right to use bathrooms or changing areas without coming face-to-face with the opposite sex’s anatomy. These are high school students who are understandably put off by their school mandating they either remove their clothes in front of kids of the opposite gender or risk a failing grade.
So back to Smith’s point: should a state's bathroom bill be signed into law, then yes, it is entirely possible that, given the lengths to which some trans folks will go to give the appearance of being the opposite gender, a man dressed as a woman may slip by some unsuspecting mall cop twiddling his thumbs outside the Cinnabon and get to tinkle in the ladies’ room without issue. But when it comes to bathroom bills, that’s not my primary concern.
My concern is for young girls who are now being told they have to disrobe in front of their middle school buddy Ricky, because over the summer he decided he’d rather be Rhonda. For that matter, my concern is also for Ricky and his very valid and concerning mental health issue that's now being exploited by the left for political convenience.
My concern is also for the guy who gets told to suck it up when a woman comes strolling into the bathroom at Applebee’s while he’s standing there at the urinal, or the woman who has no recourse when a clearly anatomical man barges into her dressing room at a department store (also, newsflash to transwomen: your trip to Sephora and regular use of a Venus five-blade might not hide as much as you think it does).
And my concern, frankly, is for a movement of liberals so open-minded that their brains are falling out of their heads, who want to force the rest of us to swallow our perfectly natural discomfort or accept totally avoidable risks for the sake of those who deny basic, unalterable biology.
So no, the claim that all transpersons are so well disguised that this clear violation of privacy could never present a problem for the rest of sane society is not only factually disprovable, but absolutely ridiculous – and, as usual, provides yet another example of how the leftist progressive movement can't see past the end of its own facially-reconstructed nose.