The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill by Rep. Greg Stuebe (R-Fla.) on April 20 to bar transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports. The bill’s vote passed 219 to 203 along party-lines.
This should come as no surprise. Conservatives have been pushing for similar legislation on the national level for several years now and have successfully passed such bills in multiple states, including Louisiana, yet it should make you pause.
After all, what happened to small government, federalism and individual rights? The Republican Party seems to be prioritizing their social agenda over their governing principles.
Steube’s bill would specifically bar any entity receiving federal financial assistance from allowing transgender women and girls – “a person whose sex is male” – from participating in their sports programs.
The fundamental disconnect in this endeavor should be obvious.
Conservatives have a certain notion of the ideal family and culture, but it is difficult to encourage that social dream without violating their contemporary devotion to limited government and individual rights. So they naturally push for laws like Steube’s which create a federal solution, which enforces their will not only on schools and transgender youth, but also on state and local governments.
It is rather difficult to have an adult conversation and civil debate when one side has such a deep inconsistency in their position. Maybe if the GOP can come up with a cohesive argument linking their political and social conservatism, especially on the issue of transgender athletes, then perhaps it would be a lot easier for one side to communicate with the other, or at least come to a compromise.
That is, if the GOP even wants to have robust discussion. It is rather clear that this is not their primary goal.
“Yet over the last several years, there has been a perversion in our culture by the enemy, and the left completely embraced the lie to erase the lines of gender and to convince you… gender is fluid and can be whatever you want,” Stuebe said during the floor debate.
It is obvious in his comments that this bill is not about protecting cisgender athletes or even inhibiting their transgender counterparts. No, it is all just a part of the culture wars.
Steube and his colleagues want to create a dividing line between supposed true Americans and “the enemy.” It is not clear in his remarks whether he views “the left” as an enemy itself or if he thinks the left has sold out to that enemy, but it doesn’t actually make a difference.
He just wants to appease his base and make sure that it’s not going anywhere. Consistency – and transgender youth – be damned.
Matthew Pellittieri is a 19-year-old history and political science freshman from Ponchatoula.
