One New Year’s Eve in the 1990s, I was seated on a train waiting to leave Grand Central Station when a huge man dressed as a woman moved through the car. Although he appeared oblivious to the stares and smirks from my fellow passengers, his presence created quite a stir. As he settled down in the facing seat directly across from me, I remember thinking that with his bare (and extremely hairy) midriff, he must be cold, given the freezing temperatures in the city that night.
In those unenlightened days, we called men like him cross-dressers, and it was still relatively uncommon to see them out in public.
Fast-forward to 2023, when gender confusion is made out to be something normal rather than an aberration. Transgender people are victims because their sex at birth and gender identities are at odds with each other, activists claim. They must not only be respected but celebrated for their courage by the 99.3% of us who are at peace with our biological sexes.
This ideology has penetrated every corner of our society, from public school classrooms to corporate boardrooms to the White House itself. Just this month, for example, Bud Light , a company that has appealed to working-class, ordinary, and decidedly unwoke people for generations, revealed a partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote sales of its beer. What did Anheuser-Busch executives really expect when they partnered with Mulvaney? Did they think the millions of people who do not agree with or support gender ideology would suddenly come around to it after seeing Mulvaney’s face on a can of Bud Light?
In a cringeworthy video , Mulvaney enthusiastically told viewers, “This month, I celebrated my 365 days of womanhood, and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever — a can with my face on it.”
Early indications are that Bud Light drinkers were less than pleased with the company’s decision to partner with a transgender activist to promote its product. On Monday, trade publication Beer Business Daily said Anheuser-Busch distributors are “spooked” by the very real drop in sales of the beer over the holiday weekend.
Fox News accessed the Beer Business Daily article, which said, "We reached out to a handful of [Anheuser-Busch] distributors who were spooked, most particularly in the Heartland and the South, and even then in their more rural areas." The article added that "it appears likely Bud Light took a volume hit in some markets over the holiday weekend."Beer Business Daily concluded that Bud Light is having a difficult time appealing “to the sensitivities of a new generation of drinkers" without offending its longtime customers.
Why would Anheuser-Busch risk offending its longtime customers at all? This was an unforced error made by a misguided, out-of-touch marketing executive trying to impose her woke worldview upon a clientele that wants none of it.
The left-leaning media are also responsible for the relentless gender indoctrination. Consider the media’s response last month to the Nashville shooting, when Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old woman who apparently identified as a male, walked into the Covenant School, a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, and gunned down three 9-year-old students and three adults. She was portrayed as a victim by transgender activists, members of the media, and even by the White House — simply because officials dared to point out that she was trans-identifying.
For example, consider the Trans Resistance Network’s statement following the massacre. It acknowledged the deaths of the six people but was quick to claim that Hale “felt he had no other effective way to be seen than to lash out by taking the life of others, and by consequence, himself.”
The organization wrote that it does “know that life for transgender people is very difficult, and made more difficult in the preceding months by a virtual avalanche of anti-trans legislation, and public callouts by Right Wing personalities and political figures for nothing less than the genocidal eradication of trans people from society.”
The group noted that “anti-trans hate, lack of acceptance from family members and certain religious institutions, denial of our existence, and calls for de-transition and forced conversion” had likely motivated Hale’s actions. The statement reminded readers that “hate has consequences” and warned that transgender people “will not be eradicated or erased.” Finally, it asked people to use Hale’s preferred pronouns: he and him.
Why are we catering to the 0.7% of people who identify as transgender at the expense of the 99% who do not? And why are we celebrating gender dysphoria as a courageous lifestyle choice rather than the mental disorder that it is?
This nonsense needs to stop. Sorry, liberals — and I know this will break your hearts — but Hale wasn’t a victim and Mulvaney isn’t a woman.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM RESTORING AMERICAElizabeth Stauffer is a contributor to the Washington Examiner, Power Line, the Western Journal, and AFNN and a past contributor to RedState, Newsmax, and Bongino.com . Her articles have appeared on many sites, including RealClearPolitics, MSN, and the Federalist. Please follow Elizabeth on Twitter or LinkedIn .