The “Trans”-Identifying Pritzker Issues Ultimatum to GOP

Written by Laurie Higgins

“Jennifer” Pritzker is playing macho hardball with the GOP, issuing an ultimatum: Change the GOP positions on all matters related to deviant sexuality or he’ll take his ball of money and stomp home. And by home, I mean the Democratic Party.

As most Illinoisans know, the billionaire cousin of our loo-less billionaire governor J.B. Pritzker is “Jennifer” Pritzker, a husky 69-year-old man who, after retiring from his 27-year Army career now pretends to be a woman—a Republican woman. Last week, in a commentary replete with overheated rhetoric that appeared in the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post, Pritzker (falsely) accused the GOP of “assaulting,” “demonizing,” “marginalizing,” and “persecuting” those who pretend to be the sex they are not and whining that Republicans won’t use incorrect pronouns when referring to him as Democrats will do. Maybe he’s right. Maybe more Republicans are committed to truth and reality than Democrats.

How, in Pritzker’s view, does the GOP assault, demonize, marginalize, and persecute “trans”-identifying people? Apparently, it does so by not subordinating the meaning and value of objective biological sex to subjective, internal feelings about maleness and femaleness; by not wanting men and women to intrude into the private spaces of opposite-sex persons; by using pronouns correctly; and for opposing men and women who serve our country being forced to bunk and shower with persons of the opposite sex.

His demands are even more absolute and presumptuous. He won’t tolerate even being thought of as “eccentric” for his predilection for cross-dressing. And he’s not just threatening the Illinois GOP. He’s threatening the national GOP as well.

He makes clear his extortionist impulses by repeatedly reminding Republicans that his money—er, I mean, “support” is contingent on the GOP platform reflecting his sexuality ideology:

• “I am also a Republican who generously supports my party.”

• “Anti-transgender platforms are causing me to evaluate my party support.”

• “I have supported many Republicans in elections.”

• “As a result, the GOP’s positions have forced me to refocus my attention away from its agendas I support…. Every dollar spent defending transgender rights is one dollar less I can contribute toward other party initiatives.

• “When the GOP ask me to deliver six- or seven-figure contributions for the 2020 elections, my first response will be: Why should I contribute to my own destruction?

GOT IT, YOU PENNILESS PEONS?!

Despite what establishment Republicans, RINOs, or gutless GOP-ers tell you, the social issues matter. You heard it from Pritzker’s own ruby lips. While he claims to be philosophically aligned with the small government principles of the GOP, he wants to use government to enforce his sexuality ideology. There is no big GOP tent. Social conservatives are being shoved out by the “tolerant.”

Pritzker states that “woman” is his “true identity,” claiming he “need[s] to express” his “internal identity so that others can see” him as he sees himself. Let’s unpack that a little. First, what does he mean when he refers to his “true identity”? All “identity” refers to is his strong, persistent desire to be a woman and to accouter himself with what the Left describes as the arbitrary, socially-constructed conventions associated with maleness or femaleness.

Second, when he says “so that others can see” him as he sees himself, he implies without proving that there exists a compelling public reason that others should see him as he sees himself. In addition to his strong, persistent desire to masquerade as a woman, he apparently has a strong, persistent desire to have others not only see that he wants to be a woman but treat him as if he were a woman. But that’s a bridge too far because it requires of others that they deny both reality and, in many cases, their religious beliefs.

Pritzker next implies that those who reject the assumptions of the “trans”-ideology are ignorant, claiming that the “medical community has known for decades that sex and gender cannot be determined solely by birth anatomy or chromosomes.” He’s right that in a very small percentage of the population who are born with intersex disorders of sexual development, anatomy and chromosomes are not determinative of sex. But intersex disorders are wholly irrelevant to those like Pritzker who don’t have intersex disorders.

He goes on to make another accurate point. He says, “There are many physical, social and psychological elements that form a person’s gender identity.” Bingo, and extra points for admitting that opposite-sex identification can be shaped by social and psychological factors.

He also gets extra points for admitting that social “progressives” in the GOP like him seek to “reform from within” the Republican Party’s positions on “LGBTQ” issues. He remains disappointed, however, that Republicans still don’t want him to use women’s public restrooms, which he deems “persecution.” To be clear, Pritzker sees women who don’t want to share restrooms with men as persecutors.

Ironically, while relentlessly engaged in demagogic appeals to emotion, Pritzker chastises Republicans for reacting to “rhetoric based on emotion, not on science and research.” He fails to mention what scientific research he thinks proves conclusively that Americans are obligated to refer to him as “she,” share restrooms with opposite-sex persons, or treat subjective internal feelings about one’s maleness or femaleness as if it’s more important than objective, immutable biological sex. Not even woefully unstable, unreliable social science research can prove those claims.

Veteran Pritzker argues that the “military doesn’t benefit when it excludes transgender people….  In combat, gender identity is irrelevant. When 300 people jump from an aircraft in flight in one-second intervals, what matters is getting the job done.” Yes, “gender identity”—that is, the subjective, internal feelings of soldiers about their maleness or femaleness—probably don’t matter. But their sex and their actions do. Let’s not forget that serving in the military entails more than combat and jumping from aircraft. It involves bunking and showering with fellow soldiers. No soldiers should be forced to bunk, toilet, and shower with soldiers of the opposite sex.

In addition, soldiers who seek chemical and surgical interventions in order to pass as the sex they aren’t will cost the military already scarce funds and potentially lost service time due to ongoing health issues.

Pritzker accuses states that require public restroom-usage to correspond to biological sex of preying “on people’s irrational fears for their safety.” He ignores that many people—including boys and men—oppose sharing restrooms and locker rooms with opposite-sex persons, not because they fear for their safety, but because they have natural, normal feelings of modesty. Sexual differentiation is the source of those feelings of modesty and the desire for privacy when undressing or engaged in personal bodily functions.

Citing a study from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), which was based on findings from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), Pritzker implores readers to consider that “discrimination, violence, and rejection contribute to a 41 percent attempted suicide rate among transgender Americans, compared with 4.6 percent for the general U.S. population.” Well, here are some things from the very same AFSP study that Pritzker didn’t implore his readers to consider:

[T]he survey instrument and methodology posed some limitations for this study. First, the NTDS questionnaire included only a single item about suicidal behavior that asked, “Have you ever attempted suicide?” with dichotomized responses of Yes/No. Researchers have found that using this question alone in surveys can inflate the percentage of affirmative responses, since some respondents may use it to communicate self-harm behavior that is not a “suicide attempt”…. [W]e were unable to determine the extent to which the 41 percent of NTDS participants who reported ever attempting suicide may overestimate the actual prevalence of attempts in the sample…. Second, the survey did not directly explore mental health status and history, which have been identified as important risk factors for both attempted and completed suicide in the general population…. Third, since the NTDS utilized convenience sampling, it is unclear how representative the respondents are of the overall U.S. transgender/gender non-conforming adult population. Further, the survey’s focus on discrimination may have resulted in wider participation by persons who had suffered negative life experiences due to antitransgender bias.

After listening to RINOs pontificate, chide, and mock conservatives about the critical importance of subordinating the “social issues” to, well, everything, now we have a Republican with bottomless pockets subordinating everything to one social issue. Let’s hope the GOP doesn’t sell its soul to Pritzker in exchange for a mess of pottage.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

Save the Date!

On Saturday, March 16, 2019, the Illinois Family Institute will be hosting our annual Worldview Conference. This coming year, we will focus on the “transgender” revolution. We already have commitments from Dr. Michelle Cretella, President of the American College of Pediatricians; Walt Heyer, former “transgender” and contributor to Public Discourse; Denise Schick, Founder and Director of Help 4 Families, and daughter of a man who “identified” as a woman; and Doug Wilson, who is a Senior Fellow of Theology at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, and pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho .

The Transgender Ideology:
What Is It? Where Will It Lead? What is the Church’s Role?
Click here for more information.