Horror US shootings lead to unwoke clarity
WE ALL know the rules about gender identification. And we all know what happens if we break those rules, whether deliberately or otherwise. Teacher Peter Vlaming, for example, was fired by his US school in 2018 after using the pronoun “her” when referring to a female student who identified as male.
Even if there are no legal consequences to a gender rule breach, offenders can always expect social media hostility.
NBC and BBC commentators were slammed on social media during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when they repeatedly referred to Alana Smith as “she” and “her”.
Given that Smith was competing in the women’s skateboarding street event, their choice of pronouns seemed reasonable. They didn’t know that Smith identified as non-binary and preferred “they” and “them”.
Desperate apologies followed. Yet misgendering catches out almost everyone, sooner or later. Even ultraPC ABC darling Benjamin Law had to beg forgiveness four years ago.
“So bloody pleased about this year’s Victorian premier’s literary awards winners,” he’d written, before falling into a gender trap: “All women – amongst them, many women of colour and queer writers.”
Uh-oh. Law’s apology soon followed: “As many have pointed out, I should’ve phrased that as ‘no winners were men’. Wasn’t aware one of the winners identified as nonbinary, and that’s absolutely on me … will do better next time.”
Pro tip to Benjamin: it’s usually the one with the blue hair.
In any case, here are the current rules: We have to respect an individual’s gender choice. We have to use preferred pronouns. We are not allowed to question transition motives. And we are not permitted to judge a person’s gender by their appearance.
Those rules have been in place, formally and informally, for some time. But last week came abrupt changes, and they were driven by some who are usually hypersensitive to trans issues.
The changes followed a mass shooting in Colorado Springs. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, allegedly walked into a gay bar and began shooting. By the time Aldrich was subdued by brave patrons, five people were dead and another 19 had suffered bullet wounds.
In the absence of any clear motive, various US media identities quickly settled on a theory that the gunman was provoked by what CNN wildly described as “ANTI-LGBTQ rhetoric spewed on the most-watched hours on Fox News”.
To date, there is absolutely no evidence of this. Aldrich’s most notable hate target was his mother. In 2021, Aldrich turned up at her home with what he said was a bomb, telling her: “This is where I stand. Today I die.”
The young man was arrested but never charged over the incident. If he had been charged, by the way,
Aldrich may have triggered his state’s red flag laws and been prohibited from owning firearms.
Subsequent to last week’s shootings came a twist. “Attorneys for the accused shooter, Anderson Lee Aldrich, say in new court filings tonight that the suspect now identifies as non-binary,” CNN’S Alisyn Camerota revealed, adding: “They use they/them pronouns.”
Australia’s ABC immediately fell into line, obligingly using they/them in subsequent news reports. CNN, however, clearly doubting Aldrich’s sincerity, kept using he/him. One panellist implied that Aldrich’s nonbinary identification was a legal ruse.
Out were three gender rules: We have to respect an individual’s gender choice. We have to use preferred pronouns. And we are not allowed to question transition motives. All were dismissed by usually reliably woke CNN, leaving just one rule remaining: We are not permitted to judge a person’s gender by their appearance.
Obviously aiming to complete the full set, CNN then invited trans activist Natalee Bingham to give her views on Aldrich’s non-binary status.
“That’s really, really offending,” Bingham said, “especially being a transgender woman myself, that a male, which it was obvious with the mugshot, that’s a man.
“That’s not a non-binary person because in no way, shape, or form could they appear as a woman the next day.”
But that’s not how the rule has been applied. Up until now, we just had to accept an individual’s selfassessment regardless of their appearance.
This is apparently no longer the case, according to no less an authority than an actual transgender woman and activist for the cause.
To ignore her declaration would be shameful bigotry.