By Charles C. W. Cooke
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Today, in the Senate, Senator Josh Hawley had the following conversation with Khiara M. Bridges, of
the University of California, Berkeley:
Hawley: You’ve referred to
people with a capacity for pregnancy. Would that be women?
Bridges: Many cis women have
the capacity for pregnancy. Many cis women do not have the capacity for
pregnancy. There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy, as well as
nonbinary people who are capable of pregnancy.
Hawley: So this isn’t really
a women’s rights issue?
Bridges: We can recognize
that this impacts women while also recognizing that it impacts other groups.
Those things are not mutually exclusive, Senator Hawley.
Hawley: Your view, the core
of this right is about what?
Bridges: I want to recognize
that your line of questioning is transphobic, and it opens up trans people to
violence by not recognizing them.
Hawley: Wow. Are you saying
that I’m opening up people to violence by asking whether or not women can have
pregnancies?”
Bridges: So, I want to note
that one out of five transgender persons have attempted suicide. so I think
it’s important that—
Hawley: Because of my line
of questioning? So we can’t talk about it?
Bridges: Because denying
that trans people exist, and pretending not to know that they exist—
Hawley: I’m denying that
trans people exist by asking you whether you’re talking about women—?
Bridges: Are you? Are
you? Do you believe that men can get pregnant?
Hawley: No, I don’t think
that men can get pregnant.
Bridges: So you’re denying
that trans people exist. Thank you.
This is grotesque bullying from Bridges, and it ought to
be condemned as such. First, Bridges says that Hawley’s “line of questioning is
transphobic.” Next, she says that “one out of five transgender persons have
attempted suicide.” When asked whether Hawley’s line of questioning is responsible
for those attempted suicides, Bridges says that “denying that trans people
exist, and pretending not to know that they exist” causes those suicide
attempts, and then asks Hawley whether he thinks that “men can get pregnant.”
When Hawley says “no,” Bridges tells him that he is “denying that trans people
exist” — the very act that she just said causes one out of five transgender
persons to attempt suicide.
Translation: Agree with me, or my friends will kill
themselves.
No.
There is no nice way to put this, so I’ll say it bluntly:
If the choice before me is between engaging in free dialogue and indulging
threats of suicide, then I am on the side of the free dialogue every time. I
will happily chat to anyone about anything, but I will not cower before threats
of self-harm, and I do not recommend that anyone else does, either.
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