How's it going, America,
Check out our latest episode of The Pod Millennial! I talk to Adam Coleman about who's really behind the wheel of America's big rigs, and how unqualified drivers ended up operating some of the most dangerous vehicles on our highways. New episodes drop every Tuesday! Listen, rate (5 stars, of course!), and subscribe!
Let's get into it:
Voters in several states realized they don't need to have Trump on the ballot to vote to protect women's and girls' sports. In Washington, Colorado, Arizona, and Nebraska, voters decided that boys should not compete against girls in sex-segregated athletics.
Advocates for fair play launched ballot measures so that voters could make the decision about their own communities. In 2024, when Trump ran for his second term, Republicans brought lots of attention to the unfairness of high school boys claiming to be girls competing on girls' teams. It turns out that lots of people hadn't even been aware that it was happening, but once Americans knew this was common practice, they were outraged.
The Supreme Court took up the cases of boys playing on girls' teams in West Virginia and other locations, where state laws banned the practice and ruled that states could ban it but that they didn't have to. In response to that, it was constituents, not lawmakers, who got active in their own areas to put bans into place. Too many parents had watched their daughters lose out on awards or opportunities because a boy was literally taking their place.
In a midterm election season that delivered a resounding rebuke of Republicans up and down the ballot across the country, it's heartening to see Americans remember that their lives are not dictated by elected leaders but made of their own hard work. The efforts also show how out of touch elected leaders of both parties really are. Democrats oppose the measures, while Republicans, who said they support them, wouldn't actually do anything about it during their last two years in Congress.
Perhaps these measures, and ideally measures like this in all states where controversy regarding the definition of "woman" abounds, will be taken up by voters who know that reality isn't something determined in Congress but something that simply is, such as biological sex. No amount of pontification, medication, or surgery can alter a person's sex to be the opposite one.
As Democrats head to Congress with a resounding majority, many of them believe that their job is to implement a "trans bill of rights." It behooves voters to remember that there are no rights trans persons do not have, but that making new law based on their demands actually would strip rights from women and girls—although voters in Nebraska, Washington, Arizona, and Colorado certainly will have something to say about it.
Libby