By Dr. Harold A. Black

blackh@knoxfocus.com

haroldblackphd.com

I was puzzled at first as to why the left started referring to women as "birthing persons." Turns out it was part of the gender identity movement that the left is foisting on the rest of us. The left is trying to separate gender from sex. They say that a woman who identifies as a man can give birth. Instead of confirming that this woman is a woman, the pregnancy and birth, for the left, means that a so-called man can have a baby. Of course, this is nonsense. Despite the effort to change one's gender by changing what we call ourselves, one's gender is determined by biology and not by people. Your plumbing and chromosomes determine your gender but not your testosterone levels. If it were testosterone, then older males who have seen declines in their levels as they age would have to be reclassified. Males who are claiming to be women and reducing their testosterone still have male genitalia and the male chromosome. Also, the reduced testosterone levels for these newly minted "women" are well above that of 99 percent of women. Why not use the testosterone level of the majority of women and female genitalia as necessary to be defined as a woman? This is why the effort to blur gender is misguided and baseless. Also, women who cannot give birth either for medical reasons or by virtue of aging are not "birthing persons". So, are they women or should we call them "former birthing persons"?

Gender identity is one of the areas pushed upon the public by the Biden Administration. Its Department of Education has proposed a rule "that would force federally funded schools to accommodate gender ideology in all school activities and programs. This change would mean requiring biological males to use women's facilities, forcing faculty and students to use others' preferred personal pronouns, and withholding funds from those institutions that refuse to comply." Many colleges and universities are already far along this path so perhaps the rule is to force primary and secondary schools to comply.

The most publicized case involving a college was of the University of Pennsylvania swimmer who decided he was a female so he could transform his mediocre performances as a male into being ranked number one as a female. It was amazing that he was allowed to do this. More amazing is that Penn has nominated him as "woman athlete of the year." This is akin to Time naming Rachel Levine, Biden's assistant secretary for health, as "Woman of the Year" despite the fact that she is a male. The Babylon Bee, the satirical site, more appropriately named him/her "Man of the Year." The Penn swimmer still has male genitalia and still is attracted to women. There are reports from the genuinely female members of the swim team about their discomfort when he is using their locker room. Want to bet now that the transgender swimmer's eligibility is up that she (he) will return to being a male? Penn's women swimmers said that the transgender person was allowed on the team because the coach only cared about winning. Then I don't know why Penn doesn't field a transgender basketball team, soccer team, track team and a transgender team in every sport. They would dominate Ivy League "women's" sports.

As I have said in the past, I would solve the bathroom/locker room controversy by putting pictures of genitalia on the doors and saying "If you look like this, then you enter here." Then the men who claim to be women would still go into the men's bathroom if their plumbing were still intact. I would also assign prison inmates based on their plumbing. That way males would not declare themselves as females simply to get housed with women.

Lastly, those with positions similar to mine have been labeled "transphobic." Since a phobia is defined as an irrational fear or aversion to something, I am not transphobic. I do not fear trans people nor have an aversion to them. I am not irrational either. If I identified as a giraffe, that would not make me a giraffe.

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