May 12, 2016 6:48 AM

Old man redefines "small government," yells at kids to get off his lawn

AUSTIN - Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick took his crusade to keep men out of the women’s restrooms to the Fort Worth Independent School District on Tuesday, calling the administration’s interpretation of federal law allowing special accommodations for transgender students a “fantasy.”…. Growing heated throughout a press conference just minutes before a Fort Worth Board of Education meeting, Patrick renewed his call for the North Texas superintendent to resign for having approved a policy allegedly overstepping his authority without the blessing of the public or the school board…. “If he wants to devise social engineering, he’s in the wrong job,” Patrick said of Superintendent Kent Paredes Scribner, a freshly minted district chief who approved the policy Patrick called “ripe for lawsuits every which way from Sunday.”

I suppose it was just a matter of time before Dan Patrick saw North Carolina’s self-generated bathroom controversy as an opportunity to score some political points of his own by bringing that fight to Texas. My surprise lies in the fact that his performance was such a shameless, self-serving exercise in bad political theater.

Like so many members of the American Taliban, Patrick is ALL about “family values”- protecting vulnerable women and children…in this case, from a nonexistent threat. Then again, as long as Patrick can convince the media and sheeple that said nonexistent threat is actually very real (if only in their overheated imaginations), he wins by getting face time and column inches devoted to him and his selfless crusade to protect good, God-fearing Christians. That he gets to pump up his brand and his considerable ego is merely for him a fortuitous side effect.

Except that this has nothing at all to do with anything Patrick has chosen to work himself into a lather over. This is just another circus sideshow he can demagogue with no blowback. After all, who’s going to stand up for male sex perverts in dresses violating the sanctity of women’s restrooms, amiright?? Too bad for him this “problem” doesn’t actually exist.

“This is not a bathroom policy. These are guidelines that simply provide campus personnel with direction to support all kids in a balanced and dignified way. Children shouldn’t have to wait for their schools to be safe and full of respect,” Scribner told the school board responsible for educating more than 80,000 students Tuesday evening.

“Every time we allow any student to believe that another student would be harmed or disrespected, students may wonder what will happen to them next.”

It’s not about men in dresses or sexual predators (almost all of whom are heterosexual males, anyway). It’s about creating an atmosphere in public schools in which ALL students are treated as if they matter. It’s about treating people with dignity and respect. It’s about recognizing that part of education is teaching children that treating some as if they’re “less than” is wrong. Patrick is incensed only because policies promoting tolerance and acceptance work against Republican efforts to keep sheeple scared, stupid, and distracted from the real issues facing Texas- issues showing they have nothing of value to offer save for fear and rancor.

Of course, none of this matters for Conservative culture warriors like Patrick and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. They’ve recognized an opportunity to demonstrate their bona fides as Protectors of all that is Good, Righteous, and Holy ©…and they’re going to ride that horse until it collapses underneath them.

Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Patrick ally, joined the fray Tuesday, warning the president of Fort Worth’s ISD board that the policy violates the Texas Education Code pertaining to parents’ right to know and attempts to lump “gender identity” in with Title IX prohibitions against sex discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation.

“The transgender policy your administrators have adopted turns this mandatory framework on its head and relegates parents to a meaningless status,” Paxton said in the letter sent Tuesday. “We sincerely hope you will assess these deficiencies in the transgender policy and more as the board deliberates its next steps.”

It’s a smokescreen, of course, and some in the transgender community are calling Patrick and Paxton out for their hypocrisy.

Quelle surprise, given that their careers are built on hypocrisy, bigotry, and spreading fear of The Other.

“The Legislature cut $5 billion dollars from the education budget; the school finance system has been ruled unconstitutional because they continue to reduce funding to educate our children; our foster care system is under a federal court order because children are literally dying in the state’s foster care system because it is massively underfunded. Dan Patrick should be focusing on real issues, not made-up issues,” said Chuck Smith, CEO of Equality Texas advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Texans.

Yes, this seems to have become an issue, if only because some on the Far Right have chosen to demagogue it in order to advance their own political agenda and prospects. If they could be bothered to dial back the overheated, hateful rhetoric, they might come to understand that it’s not about bathrooms at all, nor is it about protecting the safety of children. More than anything, it’s about recognizing that not everyone can be forced to live their lives in a nice, neat Conservative heteronormative box. Not everyone lives by the same rules…and none of us have the right to determine where those we can’t be bothered to understand get to pee.

Demagogues like Patrick and Paxton may not realize this, but transgendered individuals by and large wish for nothing more than to be able to live their lives as genuinely and authentically as possible. They’re not trying to change the world, forcibly convert our children, or invade public restrooms in order to satisfy their sick sexual urges. They just want to live their lives like anyone else, without drama and/or undue attention directed their way. In a very real sense, there a threat only to themselves.

Many transgendered individuals have led lives filled with trauma, rejection, and heartache. Pretty classy of Patrick and Paxton to determine it to be their role to continue that fine tradition, eh? If you believe, as I do, that people tend to hate what they fear most in themselves, it wouldn’t be at all unreasonable to wonder what the Dynamic Duo are so afraid of.

This entire debate is as silly as it is childish and patently offensive…but Conservatives like Patrick and Paxton recognize they can pump up their brand through engaging in some good, old-fashioned demagoguery. It may have nothing at all to do with anything that actually matters in terms of governance…but it will certainly help keep Texans scared and stupid.

Turns out that’s not nearly the challenge one might think it to be.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on May 12, 2016 6:48 AM.

Your church sign doesn't mean what you think it means was the previous entry in this blog.

North Carolina: The "We've Got Our Potties...er, Priorities...Straight" State is the next entry in this blog.

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