By Nate
Hochman
Tuesday,
January 10, 2023
Oregon’s
outgoing Democratic governor, Kate Brown — who has routinely polled as the
least-popular governor in the country throughout her tenure — has penned her
final op-ed as
the Beaver State’s top executive. One would have expected Brown to address
Oregon’s myriad problems — failing schools, skyrocketing crime
and addiction, its flagship city in serious decay, etc. But no:
“Only by
following gender-affirming best practices can we build safe learning
environments where gender-expansive students feel welcome, accepted and
celebrated for who they are,” Brown writes. “We have failed too many, for too
long, by practices that have assimilated, marginalized and underserved members
of tribes, students of color, students with disability and LGBTQ2SIA+
students.”
Leave aside the fact that Oregon public schools have invited criticism for their commitment to gender ideology — Portland’s “public schools teach K-5 students to subvert the sexuality of ‘white colonizers’ and begin exploring ‘the infinite gender spectrum,” as detailed by a July 2022 Chris Rufo report. The idea that this is the top priority — the subject to which Oregon’s outgoing governor dedicates her final op-ed — for the state is a perfect encapsulation of why my home state is in precipitous decline. The ideology that has infected Oregon schools is bad on the merits, but more broadly, the focus on boutique left-wing cultural causes over basic, material quality-of-life issues is an inversion of what good governance looks like. And it comes at the cost of the monumental issues now facing working- and middle-class Oregonians.
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