If you thought that the transgenderism obsession was finally ebbing, you’d be wrong.
If you thought that the transgenderism obsession was finally ebbing, you’d be wrong. A bill is moving in the Massachusetts legislature to establish a Commission on the Status of Transgender People intended to guide the state concerning, in the bill’s language, “all matters transgender.” As summarized in the Boston Herald story:
The legislation (S. 2725) An Act Establishing a Commission on the Status of Transgender People, would task the commission with conducting an ongoing study of all matters concerning transgender people. The commission would also report its findings to the public, serve as a liaison between government and private interest groups concerned with issues affecting transgender people; assess programs and practices in all state agencies that may affect transgender people, and identify and recommend qualified transgender people for appointive positions at all levels of government, including boards and commissions.
Would the commission be representative of the entire society and conduct dispassionate analysis about this most sensitive and contentious subject? It would not. Take a gander at how the 21 unpaid commissioners would be chosen, according to the terms of bill:
- Six persons appointed by transgender-led organizations or groups that directly serve, support, or advocate for transgender people in Massachusetts;
- two persons appointed by transgender-focused health programs at Massachusetts-based health care centers and/or hospitals;
- one person appointed by an organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ elders;
- two persons appointed by an organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ students;
- two persons appointed by an organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ individuals with homelessness or unstable housing;
- one person appointed by an organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ people with domestic and/or intimate partner violence;
- one person appointed by an organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ incarcerated or formerly incarcerated people;
- one person appointed by an organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ sex workers;
- one person appointed by an organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ people with disabilities;
- one person appointed by an organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ individuals with immigration, seeking asylum/refugee status, or other noncitizen statuses;
- one person appointed by an anti-poverty organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ individuals;
- and one person appointed by an organization or group that supports LGBTQ+ veterans.
- The membership of the commission shall include at least eleven transgender persons, in total, two transgender persons between the ages of 18 and 24, two transgender persons aged 60 or older, and two representatives of the mental health professions.
The bill clearly seeks to produce stacked-deck recommendations from the commissioners, who, I predict, would come to their work with ideological agendas on these issues ranging between radical and extreme. That might not be wise if the point is persuasion. Its clearly skewed composition would be an open invitation for people to skeptically “consider the source” when pondering whether to follow the commission’s recommendations.
Still, if the commission comes into being, it will exert at least some influence, which probably bodes ill for the preservation of the privacy of women’s spaces, the integrity of women’s sports, the content of educational materials, and the medical and mental health care of gender-confused youth in Massachusetts.