“Demiboy” Shigeru Nightengale and her “genderqueer” mother Sami
We hear a lot about the exodus of Illinoisans to greener pastures. And by “greener” pastures, I do not mean pastures blighted by windmills and splattered bird guts—you know, the kind of pastures AOC and Greta Thunberg fancy. I mean pastures more conducive to human flourishing, which is to say, states not ruled by Democrats. We hear less about the influx of people coming to Illinois. Who, one wonders, would want to do that?
Apparently, there are freedom-lovers fleeing alleged hotbeds of oppression, that is, states like Indiana, Iowa, Florida, and Kentucky. These refugees from alleged tyranny want to live in a state where their minor children can be chemically sterilized and surgically mutilated. They want to live in a state where citizens are forced to mis-sex troubled, confused children. They want to live in a state where government schools teach leftist views—and only leftist views—on “gender” and the socio-political meaning of historical events related to homoeroticism and cross-sex impersonation. Nothing says “freedom” like the legal imposition of socially constructed superstitions on “gender.”
Recently, multiple news outlets have reported on this influx. Chalkbeat reporter Max Lubbers writes, “For many families looking to protect their trans children in school and to preserve control over their medical decisions, moving seems like the only option—and Illinois a safe landing spot.”
Safety, however, is in the eye of the beholder.
Following the publication of the Chalkbeat story, Governor J. B. Pritzker, promoter of all things sexually disordered, tweeted, “If you’re looking for a place to be authentically yourself, come on up to Illinois. Trans rights are human rights here.”
Somehow, Pritzker’s gotta replace all those taxpayers who have fled.
In the skewed view of leftists like Pritzker, “authenticity” entails pretending to be something one is not and concealing what one is.
Pritzker didn’t explain why biological boys have a right to be in girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports. Nor did he explain why this purported “right” supersedes the right of girls to be free of the presence of male peers when undressing. Who needs public explanations, discussions, and debates when you’ve got power.
These families are not moving just to Chicago as one might expect (or hope). Chalkbeat, a leftist news organization that focuses on education, reported that Shigeru Nightengale, a 15-year-old girl who pretends to be a boy, and her “genderqueer” mother Sami recently moved to Andalusia, Illinois, a small village along the Mississippi River. “Demiboy” Shigeru prefers the pronoun “it” but sometimes goes by he/him. Her mother refers to herself by the plural pronouns they/them. How might their desires, beliefs, and expectations affect this community?
Chalkbeat describes moving to Illinois as an “opportunity to escape transphobia.” “Transphobia” is a deceitful, bigoted Newspeakian epithet concocted to rouse hatred toward those who believe biological sex is real, immutable, and deeply meaningful.
Chalkbeat also refers to “Opponents of gender-affirming care.” That’s Newspeak for supporters of science-based medical care that does not disfigure the healthy bodies or disrupt the properly functioning physiological processes of those suffering from gender dysphoria.
Kimberley Reynolds is hoping to move from Florida to Carbondale, Illinois with her daughter who pretends to be a boy because Carbondale—a university town—provides the kind of environment parents like Reynolds want everywhere:
Carbondale [is] a town in southern Illinois with a strong LGBTQ+ community, and where residents recently elected the first transgender person to a city council in Illinois. In the center of town, a rainbow awning hangs above the doors of Carbondale’s LGBTQ+ community center, Rainbow Café. The executive director of the café, Carrie Vine, said that when anti-trans legislation began to increase across the country, a group of advocates got together and decided they should get the word out: Come to Carbondale. They set up “Rainbow Refuge,” mainly run through a local group, the Carbondale Assembly for Radical Equity. People reach out over social media, and advocates direct them to accepting areas and schools, including Carbondale.
People with sound moral discernment and a desire to train up their children in the way they should go are leaving Illinois. People with poor moral discernment and a desire to train up their children in ways that lead to incalculable harm and suffering are moving to Illinois. And these families moving to Illinois view conservative beliefs on the profound meaning of biological sex as evidence of hatred.
Illinoisans considering leaving Illinois should think about the effects of this demographic shift on the legal landscape, education policy, and the school environment. They should think about the school environment for both children and teachers—some of whom are conservative and already oppressed. They should think about what their taxes will subsidize.
Right now the Chicago Public School system has “guidelines” that recommend schools conceal information about students’ “trans” identities from parents. How long before those guidelines are adopted by all schools? How long before those guidelines become legal mandates?
The desire to appropriate the anatomy of opposite-sex persons is a disordered desire, and efforts to artificially reconstruct one’s body to appear as the sex one is not constitute acts of deception that others may justifiably deem immoral.
The opposition of parents to having their minor children in school with “trans” -identifying peers is not based on the disordered feelings of minors who wish they were the opposite sex (or neither sex or both sexes). All humans experience disordered feelings and the desire to do wrong things. Rather, their objections pertain to the actions schools permit and the ideas schools promote with regard to “gender identity.”
Wise, decent parents don’t want their minor children exposed to cross-dressing. They don’t want their children be forced to share locker rooms and restrooms with opposite-sex peers. They don’t want their children witnessing teachers using incorrect pronouns, which is to say, lying.
In Illinois, school leaders and lawmakers have chosen to affirm the radical metaphysical beliefs and practices of the “trans” cult, while rejecting historical beliefs and sound practices that recognize and respect biological differentiation. In other words, school leaders have taken sides in a heated public controversy intrinsic to which are arguable judgments that reject science in favor of pseudo-science.
There’s a reason school leaders would prohibit students from wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Proud Member of a Throuple” or “Legalize Mother/Son Marriage,” or “We Broke Up, But We’re Still Cousins”? They would object to comparing cross-sex identification to polyamory or sibling love based on their moral judgments, thereby proving two things: 1. Leftists don’t view moral discrimination as intrinsically wrong or hateful. They view only moral assumptions with which they disagree as wrong and hateful, and 2. Accommodating, affirming, and promoting “transgender” beliefs and practices (e.g., sex-integrated locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports) depends on prior moral conclusions.
Those Illinoisans considering hightailing it out of Illinois should get out now. It’s only going to get worse.