The Left Looks to Make Gender the Newest Front in the Culture War

AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department announced that it had issued the first American passport with an “X” gender marker, ostensibly for individuals who identify as neither male nor female. While the move on its own may seem somewhat trivial in nature, the larger context surrounding the debate over gender identification and new gender ideologies gaining popularity among liberal circles suggests that it is part of a larger effort to open a new front in the Culture War, particularly as consensus grows in opposition to Critical Race Theory and the liberal narrative on “systemic racism.”

The passport news also comes on the heels of the Biden administration’s release of its “National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality,” which the White House said was necessary because the “fundamental rights” of women and girls, including “LGBTQI+ people,” remain “at risk,” and “rates of gender-based violence have risen significantly, and racial and ethnic inequity has deepened.” While those groups undoubtedly do still face instances of discrimination and obstacles to success, the facts, unsurprisingly, do not support the Biden administration’s sweeping claims about the “systemic discrimination” faced by women and non-binary individuals. Moreover, Biden’s supposed concern about “the wellbeing of women and girls” reeks of insincerity given that he just weeks ago handed control of Afghanistan back to the Taliban, a group with a devastating record of human rights abuses against women.

The effort to push a divisive narrative around gender has trickled down to the state and local level as well. One need only look as far as Loudoun County, Virginia to see the harmful effects of catering to the whims of the radical activists who push such policies. Amid a larger left-wing push nationally to mandate that biological males who identify as female be allowed to use female restroom and locker room facilities, the Loudoun County School Board recently voted to allow students in K-12 schools to use the restroom and locker room facilities corresponding with their gender identity rather than their biological sex. Despite outrage from parents, who understandably did not want any biological males, regardless of their gender identity to be allowed in bathrooms with their biological female daughters, the district moved forward with the policy, insisting that it had “no evidence” that any sort of sexual assault, by a trans student or otherwise, had occurred in school bathrooms.

However, as first reported by the Daily Wire, that turned out not to be true, as it was revealed that a male student wearing a skirt had sexually assaulted a female student in a girls’ bathroom at Stony Bridge High School in Loudoun County last May. What’s worse, the entire school board knew about the assault and allowed the same allegedly gender fluid student to transfer to another high school in the area, where the same offender then sexually assaulted another female student in a classroom.

That teen was recently found guilty of the acts, but the episode uncovered a disturbing pattern of sexual assault cover-ups in Loudoun County that has parents throughout the country worried about the potential impact of transgender bathroom policies in their schools. Many parents have expressed sympathy for transgender students (including Mr. Smith) but nonetheless say that students should use facilities that correspond with their biological gender.

On Tuesday, hundreds of students at multiple schools in Loudoun County staged a walk-out in protest of the District’s cover-up of the incidents. Despite the incredible scene of students as young as 15 demanding accountability from school administrators who are supposed to guide and protect young people, the walk-out received hardly any coverage from the mainstream media.

The media’s lack of attention to the student walk-out contrasts sharply, however, with their extensive coverage of another walk-out, this time of Netflix employees over the company’s defense of comedian Dave Chappelle’s recent special, The Closer.

In the stand-up special, Chappelle blasted liberals for “cancelling” Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling over her comments on transgender individuals. “Effectually, she said gender was a fact, the trans community got mad as s—,” Chappelle said. “they started calling her a TERF [Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist]. I didn’t even know what [that] was, but I know that trans people make up words to win arguments.”

The comments quickly earned Chappelle the ire of the cancel culture crowd. True to form, rather than criticizing Chappelle’s jokes and trying to counter his claims, activists called for the special to be removed from Netflix, and other filmmakers threatened to pull their work from the platform.

After Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos refused to pull the special, several dozen employees staged a walk-out in protest. One employee said that “to say gender is real… is very, very harmful.”  Another rally attendee suggested that Chappelle was in part responsible for the deaths of transgender individuals this year, saying that people with Chappelle’s views have “a callous disregard for the lives of trans people.” Anti-Chappelle protestors outside Netflix also attacked counter-protestors sporting signs with messages like “we like Dave” and “Dave is funny.”

All of the above examples also reflect the broader liberal push currently underway to redefine all interpersonal relationships according to the doctrine of “intersectionality,” or identifying multiple factors of supposed advantage or disadvantage that determine one’s place in a hierarchy of oppression. The more “marginalized” the groups someone is a part of, the higher the standing an individual has in the oppression hierarchy. The higher up in the hierarchy, the more unassailable that individual is, and the more their voice is revered by those on the Left.

As long as the Radical Left, which now effectively runs the Democratic Party, makes an individual’s position in the hierarchy of oppression both the cornerstone of human identity and the very essence of the party’s philosophy and political agenda, they will continue their nonstop efforts to fracture society into disparate groups of the oppressed. The point, of course, is to consolidate political power in the hands of liberal politicians who promise to stand bravely for the alleged oppressed class against the alleged oppressor class, regardless of if there is any actual oppression. It’s pure Marxism, updated for today. And when an individual dares to mock and ridicule this Marxist-inspired identity politics of the Democrat party, or, as in the case of Chappelle, exposes the entire system for how ridiculous it is, the backlash is swift and immediate.

What those on the far-Left miss, however, is that people don’t want to be told that they are victims of oppression no matter what they do, and they don’t want to be taught to hate their neighbors for who they are. This country is a nation of people who have always thrived as individuals who can overcome adversity and achieve their American Dream, not as merely members of pre-ordained grievance groups based on racial, sexual, or other characteristics. Thankfully, Americans are starting to wake up to the whole scam.