https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/31681454/the-power-layshia-clarendon
I read a lot. I don't think I'm a complete idiot. I have to admit, even with ESPN's preface to its cover story about Layshia Clarendon, I found it unreadable.
In the first five paragraphs, Clarendon is referred to as "her/she," "they" and "he/him." That's because apparently he/she/they identifies as any of the three at any given moment.
Okay, ESPN is clearly celebrating he/she/them. Think about the implications of this, though.
First of all, any claim that trans activists have made, especially after Canada made it illegal to misgender someone, that opponents of the law are just being lazy assholes should probably be defenestrated. If Clarendon identifies as a "he," fine, simple enough. But, if I go to Canada with him/her/them and say "her" at a moment that he/she/them identified as a "him" could I find myself in civil court?
We've been told to just ask what people's preferred pronouns are, something that a lot of trans activists fail to do themselves, but again, that comes with the assumption that you'll ask once - maybe twice to confirm, and that'll be it. Do people in Clarendon's life have to ask at the beginning of every new interaction?
Let's say that none of that is an issue. Okay, we're being told that, in sports, you should be competeing with the gender with which you identify and that the physical, biological advantages aren't all that important. Okay, so, is it on Clarendon to wave his hand during a WNBA game when he starts feeling like a man and sit out? Or, is it on us to assume that when she's on the court she's a woman? It doesn't take much assuming; of course the woke crowd places no burden on Clarendon and all the burdens on everybody surrounding him/her/them.
How would Clarendon and the people who are celebrating him/her/them think about languages that don't have gender-neutral pronouns? How do you talk about or to Clarendon when him/her/them identifies as a "them/their."
I'm not saying that we should be intentionally, unnecessarily rude; but, we've gotta start pumping the breaks here. In the name of tolerance we're necessitating different intolerances. In the name of acceptance, almost every Western nation has sacrificed certain important liberties and forced people to lie or stay silent.