OPINION:
Families in New York preparing to celebrate Father’s Day this month may be in for a shock.
The New York State Legislature recently passed legislation taking the terms “father” and “mother” out of state law and replacing them with the terms “gestating parent” and “non-gestating parent.”
I will go out on a limb and assume that exactly zero New York households use the terms that may now get enshrined into state law. I know that my daughters (or are they “people with uteruses”?) did not give me cards last month wishing me a Happy Gestating Parent’s Day. Who comes up with terms such as “non-gestating parent”?
Beyond being obvious fodder for jokes — you can’t make this stuff up — the bill illustrates more substantive problems with the woke mentality present in so many Democratic-run states.
Even if Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoes the legislation, the Legislature wasted time, effort and taxpayer dollars considering this nonsense. An anonymous Democratic legislator acknowledged as much to a news outlet, calling the bill “unnecessary.”
The New York budget is overdue, as the state — which is losing population to lower-tax jurisdictions — tries to reduce a structural budget deficit estimated at $34.3 billion over the next three years. Yet lawmakers spent precious time and energy on passing a bill that hardly any of their constituents asked for and which many will likely find ridiculous.
This exercise has a more serious and pernicious side. Once again, woke Democratic legislators are looking to eradicate gender from our society.
These science deniers are using Orwellian statements to deny obvious facts: There are two immutable genders (male and female), and only females can give birth.
As New York was further descending into woke madness, lawmakers in the nation’s capital were grappling with some of its real-world consequences. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing recently on the damage done by performing sex-change and sterilization procedures on minors.
One of the witnesses at that hearing, Chloe Cole, explained how she underwent a double mastectomy at age 15. Her parents, feeling pressured by doctors doubling as transgender activists, consented to the procedure, thinking the only alternative was to watch their daughter commit suicide.
Now, six years later, Ms. Cole worries about her body — not because she feels “trapped” in a woman’s body but because she regrets the surgery she underwent to “cure” her gender dysphoria. She worries about her long-term fertility and ability to bear children.
As the mother of two girls, I cannot imagine how Ms. Cole feels about being permanently scarred or how her parents feel after having blessed the procedure.
Our society must work to end these types of radical medical experiments on our nation’s youths. We should also acknowledge the inherent differences between men and women rather than denying the obvious by allowing individuals born male to compete in women’s sports.
At first blush, the New York legislation can provide some comic relief, yet another example of Democrats acting like woke “Karens,” telling people how to talk. Yet behind that comedy lurks a larger tragedy: an attempt to eradicate the differences that make us human.
That hubris and the tragic consequences it has had on families such as Chloe Cole’s exemplify the destructive nature of the left’s radical ideology.
• Mary Vought is the founder of Leverage PR, as well as a former congressional adviser and a mother.
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