A Berkeley Law professor accused Sen. Josh Hawley of being transphobic and said his rhetoric could endanger the lives of transgender people during a heated exchange at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, which was held in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month.
The exchange began when Hawley asked the professor, Khiara Bridges, to clarify what she meant when she referred to “people with the capacity for pregnancy” during her testimony.
“Would that be women?” Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, asked.
Here, Hawley is invoking a belief that’s widely seen as transphobic — the idea that only cisgender women, and not transgender men and nonbinary people, are capable of becoming pregnant. Bridges clarified what she meant.
“Many women, cis women, have the capacity for pregnancy, [and] many cis women do not have the capacity for pregnancy,” she said. “There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy as well as nonbinary people who are capable of pregnancy.”
Hawley’s initial question was clearly a setup for his next point.
“So this isn’t really a women’s rights issue,” he said, referring to abortion.
This is where the exchange became tense. Bridges interrupted Hawley’s line of questioning to point out that, while trans men and nonbinary people are capable of becoming pregnant, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade would disproportionately impact cis women. When Hawley then asked what Bridges thought the “core” of the issue surrounding abortion was, she accused the senator of being transphobic.
“I want to recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic,” she said. “And it opens up trans people to violence by not recognizing them.”
The exchange quickly dissolved into a quasi shouting match, with Bridges and Hawley talking over one another. Hawley seemed indignant at Bridges’ suggestion that his questions could lead to violence, and Bridges responded by citing data that one in five trans young people attempted suicide in 2021 — a phenomenon that she attributed to the “injurious” idea that transgender people don’t exist.
Transphobic is a made-up thing, just like homophobic and Islamophobic. Democrats try to gaslight people to impose their insanity.
I state forthrightly: I do not accept transgenderism as a legitimate category of human sexual identity. There is male and female. That’s it. No, I’m not going to use your preferred pronouns, I’m not going to validate your mental illness, I’m not going to support you in your delusion. I’m with reality. If you’re not, then too bad for you.
High time for real, sane Americans to push back against this nonsense.
Aren’t all words made up by somebody? When I read my doctor reports, there are lots of words in there that somebody made up. But that doesn’t mean the thing it’s describing isn’t real.
Maybe instead of being defensive about transgenderism, you could open your heart a little bit and talk to a few. That is what psychologists and therapists have done, and they realized that it isn’t a mental illness, but part of the spectrum of ways that people find themselves.
This is not all that unusual of a notion in some cultures, for example in some Native American cultures, they speak of two spirit people. In some Pacific Islander countries, transgender people go by year another word, but are often revered for their insights and uniqueness.
I’m just not clear why people get so defensive about other peoples lives. We really can get along if we have respect for one another.
Oh, yeah, just like the gays “only wanted to be able to visit their lovers in the hospital” so they had to have civil unions, which became marriage, which became “bake the cake or lose your livelihood” and “put this rainbow sticker on your cubicle or office window or lose your job or lose a chance to be promoted.
It starts with false claims of wanting tolerance and respect, and very quickly becomes, “submit, you bigot”.
If anything, slippery slope arguments from a decade ago about the ill effects that gay marriage would have on society all grossly underestimated the rapidity and the severity of social decline and legal upheaval caused by giving in to the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ rainbow people.
The transgenders are shoving it in everyone’s face, demanding that we call biological men women and so forth. They’re pushing it on innocent kids in schools, libraries, and restaurants. Transgenderism is not real. It’s pure fantasy. And they will threaten your livelihood if you don’t submit. Respect is a two-way street. I can respect someone who is mentally ill. Doesn’t mean I’m going to affirm everything he says about himself. But they all want us to deny reality to affirm their delusions.
Two words: no way.
The word “transphobic” doesn’t describe anything real. It’s a label intended to frighten someone into giving in by attempting to make him feel like he’s being irrational and is benighted. People who oppose transgender ideology are heroes, regardless of what dishonest rhetorical tactics the left tries to employ.
It’s not about respect. Stop lying. When a male gets to shower with my daughter in the high school locker room because that male claims to be female, it’s not a matter of respect. The girls don’t like it, and they feel intimidated. When a male takes first place in a girls’ track or swimming event because he claims to be female, it’s not a matter of respect. The girls don’t like it and they feel cheated and resentful.
YFC, when will you accept that 2+2=4. Stop saying it equals 5.
You’re as much my fellow Catholic as Biden or Pelosi are.
How long has it been since you were in high school?
” and they realized that it isn’t a mental illness, but part of the spectrum of ways that people find themselves.” YFC, as seems so common, you proffer a contradictory concoction of confusion. Let’s first consider who the “they” are you speak of. All therapists? Some therapists? Which therapists? Second, “realized it isn’t a mental illness.” How did this realization take place? By what metric? Under what influence? And how is mental illness defined by such therapists? Finally, ” spectrum of ways….” How does this finding occur? Again, what influences come into play? How does one measure the accuracy of self-perception?
It does no good to claim “transphobic” individuals have failed to open their hearts (and by so doing put yourself on a moral pedestal). Might it be said that your compassion is misplaced? Because you conflate gayness with trans, you are forced to one perspective of the issues.
“I’m just not clear why people get so defensive about other peoples lives” Sound just like when gays stated that they just wanted to be left alone. The reason YFC is the whole LGBT syndicate is turning society on its ear and forcing the rest of us to comply with this new fascism. All this trans nonsense is a social contagion, a mental illness, it is the continuing war on truth and being itself.
It’s the media. This website is obsessed with this. If this website posted what Assembly of God people said, we would come unglued over that.
There is a path to peace, given by the Holy Spirit.
Mind your own business. Love one another.
We should spend 1/2 hour or at least 10 minutes everyday going over our thoughts words and deeds of the day and make a resolution to stop our sins and work on our imperfections. That is traditional Catholicism.
There is nothing Catholic about this story.
I think it may just be click bait.
“Mind your own business. Love one another.” These are two contradictory notions. If we love one another, we are very much interested in the business, or welfare, of the other. Your post is pure obfuscation, and there is nothing Catholic about that.
Tell it to the Holy Spirit. This is the Word of God.
They are not contradictory at all.
“This is the Word of God” Chapter and verse please, or am I confronting the Oracle at Delphi?
John 13:34 and 1 Thess 4:11
“I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.”–John 13:34
“Indeed, you do this for all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Nevertheless we urge you, brothers, to progress even more,
11
and to aspire to live a tranquil life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your [own] hands, as we instructed you,
12
that you may conduct yourselves properly toward outsiders and not depend on anyone.”–1 Thessalonians 4:10-12
Love is not lust, and pride is not conducting oneself properly towards outsiders
Upon further reflection (or inspiration) I believe we are all under demonic assault. Every single person. There is a way to “never be disturbed.” as Scripture says in Psalm 15.. It tells who is allowed to dwell in the tent of the Lord.
Yesterday’s Mass Readings
“Let some water be brought, that you may bathe your feet, and then rest yourself under the tree.”
“In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the affliction of Christ. on behalf of His Body, which is the Church.”
“There is need of only one thing.”
“Transphobic” is the new “racist” label. The left just hurls epithets at conservatives because they have no logical arguments to defend their positions. Idiots on the left, such as this Berkeley professor with the cow ring in her nose, think calling their opponents names will shut down the opposition and they won’t have to say anything more after calling someone a racist or a transphobe. They are completely blind to their stupidity.
Disgraceful! Khiara Bridges is a smart-aleck, extremely imnature, poorly-educated young political activist, with no common decency, nor ability to speak intelligently. She certainly does not possess the qualities of a real professor or teacher of any kind.
Don’t buy leftist lies, always counter their craziness, male & female, that’s all.
Transgenderism, gender dysphoria, is an illness, a mental disorder. It should be viewed as such, from a medical and scientific point of view. It should not be popularized by liberal-leftistists, and used as a leftist political, ideological excuse, to “punish society” for a perceived discrimination. Transgenders should not lead immoral lives, as many do, in SF. There are a huge number of illnesses, disorders, and extreme abnormalities. Their illnesses and abnormalities are all in the realm of medical science, between them and their doctor. Most people will never meet any of them in real life, as their numbers are so few. Just be decent and kind to all you meet.
If a person can birth a child from her body, she is a woman no matter the lies she tells others about herself. She can call herself a “man” all she wants, but she is still a woman.
Stop the fraud!
You are correct but not all women can birth babies. Some are too old; some are infertile. Some have had surgery.
There was just a case where a man went in for surgery and they discovered he had a uterus and ovaries (I assume no birth canal).
I used to have the capacity for pregnancy but not anymore. I am still female and I am still a woman. I do not need a right to choose. (I never did.)
In the linked story it states, people of all genders are affected by poor reproductive health choices.
That is what we have been saying for decades. But they only care about the adult not the baby.
Abortion is a bad choice. Surgical removal of an ectopic pregnancy is not abortion. A D&C to remove a miscarriage is not abortion.
The female gender is the one designed by God, to bear children. In all Nature, we sometimes find abnormalities. Regardless, any biology book will tell you this fact: women bear children. Your mother was a woman. Period. And Motherhood is sacred. A child is a blessing. Womanhood is unnecessarily belittled by the woke LGBT political movement. That “man” who had a baby in a hospital was a woman who had a mental illness, and pretended to be a man.
No one has ever said that if females or women are infertile, which most of us are at different stages of our lives, we are not women. If one has most body parts and the DNA of a female, one is a girl or a woman, whether fertile or not.
People who have actual abnormalities have the right to corrective surgery if they want, but it should be done with discretion, protecting the person from prying eyes. Those people are rare, though. To try to change the sex of a normally developing girl or boy is serious child abuse — period!
A 10 year old can birth a baby from her body but she is not a woman. Right?
The gays are the enemy. The enemy of all that is good and true and decent.
“Phobic” or “Phobia” is irrational fear. Some people have taken the word, and like other words, have changed them to mean something else. This is evidence for an irrational fear of reality and a step into the insane world of not only subjective morality and values but a subjective philosophy of reality. These poor people have convinced themselves and many others that one can and must create one’s own reality and force their view of that reality on others.
Psychosis is a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality. However, our culture (hopefully not Catholic Culture) has elevated these insane ideas to the level of acceptance that threatens the psychological, physical and spiritual health of anyone who believes them or is effected by them, doing severe harm to even those of us who reject the ideas as they are being forced on us like the ideas of Nazis or Communists who murdered many millions of people and even now continue to do so, imposing their psychological slavery on millions more.
Our concern about this is not an “irrational fear” at all. It is simply an awareness that we are not going to go down the same horrible path as do the insane.
This is really disrespectful and cruel.
A priest, if you pardon the reminder, should be all about salvation.
“This is really disrespectful and cruel.” May I ask how this is disrespectful? I rather found Fr. Higgins to be deep and thoughtful and insightful into the present cultural malaise. It is no insult to identify mental illness in a man who thinks he is a woman, for example. Nor is it cruel to bring some semblance of reality to such a person. Failure to do so a sin against charity. Sentimentalism on such matters is the sin against charity, and it seems to this reader to be the sin of which you are guilty.
Oh my. Who appointed you to declare new sins?
“Oh my. Who appointed you to declare new sins?” New sins? Perhaps I should explain. When tough love toward such a sick individual is required and instead sentimentality is all that is given, by which I mean in context an emotional bond is displayed encouraging the sickness, then charity is violated. Such violations are not new sins but in the current trans fad, therapeutic approaches to gender dysphoria are regarded as hate, when in truth this is the tough love needed.
That is why I appreciated Fr. Higgens’ profound words, which mine hardly to justice to: “However, our culture … has elevated these insane ideas to the level of acceptance that threatens the psychological, physical and spiritual health of anyone who believes them or is effected by them.”
I do not know what individual you are referring to? I have no sentimentality to either of them.
I think what you are trying to say is: in charity, you owe a transgender person tough love-which they usually have had a lot of already. Then they try to kill themselves. Or they leave and go to places where they can find support.
Media is a consumer-driven entity. They will do what they do. The Catholic Church has not really said much except that it will not teach gender theory in their schools. They asked for dialogue.
The important thing to start with is that people must know Jesus Christ and His Salvation. They can learn the Church’s anthropology and decide whether to accept it. I do not believe it is a mortal sin or a heresy to try to work through these issues. The Church has never said that any of this is a sin.
If you have not struggled with this, you probably should be listening rather than judging. You are not going to stop it unless you own all the media and make the decisions about content.
The Catholic Church has never said that it is a sin to transition.
It is not against the Catholic Faith.
The Church still identifies them as their birth sex. A transgender male cannot become a priest. They refused to let Cardinal Burke start an order with transgender females. The Church will not change sex on baptismal records.
Two Popes have spoken out against gender theory which is a different thing.
Gender dysphoria is a medical condition and a psychological condition. it is not a sin to have a medical condition. It is not a sin to have a psychological condition.
I think you think they have more agency over their condition than they do.
Once someone has accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, and has decided to dedicated their self to God, then explaining to them about conformity to the Will of God and the fickleness of feelings and the tricks the mind can play on them is more appropriate.
There is a problem where one’s behavior that is sinful can prevent the seeing beyond the veil. One needs a spiritual advisor.
Remember what Paul says about the immorality of the heathens vs that of Christians.
Christ died so that all people’s sins can be forgiven.
The Congregation for Catholic Education in 2019 issued a sweeping denunciation of gender theory, and affirmed the principles of human dignity, difference, and complementarity. It said that “there is a need to reaffirm the metaphysical roots of sexual difference.”
From CNA: The Diocese of Green Bay has added a clause to its education policy manual that prohibits the use of pronouns and wearing clothes that do not align with a person’s biological sex.
“The Church teaches that our identities as male and female are part of God’s good design in Creation, that our bodies and sexual identities are gifts from God, and that we should accept and care for our bodies as they were created,” the policy reads.
The Congregation for Catholic Education in 2019 issued a sweeping denunciation of gender theory, and affirmed the principles of human dignity, difference, and complementarity.
Amen!
to tough love July 15, 2022 at 4:27 pm: your comment ” you owe a transgender person tough love-which they usually have had a lot of already. Then they try to kill themselves…” My comment was better suited to one who has not transitioned physically (castration etc). Such a person, and I know of some, need treatment for gender dysphoria, not encouragement in their illness. Lies lived do not promote mental health. Again, violations of the Natural Law never end well. You also state, “The Church has never said that any of this is a sin.” I would liken the situation to that of persons with homosexual orientation. The orientation is not the sin, but the acting on it. So here, a person may feel trapped in the body of the opposite sex, but it is the acting on it that is sinful. To deny they have agency over their condition is the same as denying the homosexual has agency over his/her condition.
Dan, most transgender individual don’t “transition physically’. Can you find anywhere that the Church has said that it is a sin if they do?
You seem to think that having surgery (gender confirmation, it is now called) is the sin. I don’t think the Church has said that.
“You seem to think that having surgery (gender confirmation, it is now called) is the sin. I don’t think the Church has said that..” You raise a point capable of question. The trans issue is new and Pope Francis has spoken out against gender theory. My take is that if the theory is wrong, the acting out of that theory is also wrong. I can’t see it any other way. However, akin to the homosexual condition, where the Church does not teach it is a sin to experience same-sex attraction — only the acting on that attraction– it seems something similar can be said to one with gender dysphoria. That’s what prompted my comment above.
Sex change operations have been going on for 100 years. It really isn’t new. Gender theory is different. The Church does oppose gender theory. Gender theory is much more complicated than transgenderism.
Acting on homosexuality (I assume you mean having sexual activity with a person of the same sex) is always a sin.
Transgenderism is not acting out gender theory.
To oversimplify, a transgender person is very uncomfortable in their body and in the way they feel they have to act to avoid negative social consequences. It is a painful and exhausting condition.
When the Church talks of gender theory they are talking about a social theory. They are not judging individuals.
In reading the instruction that is at the Diocese of Marquette, they are saying what you are saying and they will not allow a person who has attempted to transition to be baptized unless they repent.
i think they are the first diocese to do this.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/vatican-and-usccb-leave-transgender
Not a great source but this claims both USCCB and Vatican have unpublished statements on trangenderism.
The commission of the Church to preach the Good News to all people in every land points to the fundamental dignity possessed by each person as created by God. God has created every human person out of love and wishes to grant him or her eternal life in the communion of the Trinity. All people are created in the image and likeness of God and thus possess an innate human dignity that must be acknowledged and respected.
In keeping with this conviction, the Church teaches that persons with a homosexual inclination “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.” We recognize that these persons have been, and often continue to be, objects of scorn, hatred, and even violence in some sectors of our society. Sometimes this hatred is manifested clearly; other times, it is masked and gives rise to more disguised forms of hatred. “It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church’s pastors wherever it occurs.”
Those who would minister in the name of the Church must in no way contribute to such injustice. They should prayerfully examine their own hearts in order to discern any thoughts or feelings that might stand in need of purification. Those who minister are also called to growth in holiness. In fact, the work of spreading the Good News involves an ever-increasing love for those to whom one is ministering by calling them to the truth of Jesus Christ.
Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care
“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.” #2357 Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition.
Romans 1:24-27: 1 Corinthians 6:10 and 1 Timothy 1:10 among many other Bible verses. Do not let anyone “gaslight” you, if one engages in such activity, sooner or later one will pay the price if one does not stop.
If you would read the document, you will see that pastoral care involves support so that they do not fall into that activity.
There is no approval for homosexual acts in the document.
Being pastoral does not mean approving of sin.
I do not know why someone put the name as “Good news for homosexuals.”
The Good News is for every human being.
Some people honestly think abuse is helpful to people. You don’t want people to do the right thing because some jerk is going to abuse them. You want them to do the right thing because it is the right thing and is pleasing to the Lord.
What if you told someone you were Catholic and that person said “No. there is no such thing as Christianity. Christianity is a sect of Judaism so you are Jewish.”
Uh, I would tell them Judaism ended with the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. They rejected the Messiah, the Logos incarnate, Christ wept fore seeing that this would happen, today’s Judaism has nothing today with religion of Moses or the prophets of the Old Testament. Christianity is the inheritance of the old Hebrew scriptures and faith… it is NOT a sect of Judaism, nice try though
They don’t believe you. They think you are mentally ill.
It is a sect of Judaism in the Bible.
In the good old days (before Vatican II), society protected the innocence of children. State and local governments defended life and the nuclear family. Kids could play at the local park without witnessing sexual deviants “expressing themselves”. Queers and other deviants kept their sinful proclivities “in the closet” … or face ostracization (or arrest). Magazines, movies, or TV shows that contained or promoted sexual deviancy were blacklisted by the Church. A man who thought he was a dog or a woman could be legally institutionalized.
While imperfect, these laws, rules and customs were to the benefit of society, so that families and faith could bloom.
This God-fearing society, the “Social Reign of Christ the King”, is what faithful Christians are called to stand up and fight for. Now that the demons have the upper hand, this will not come easily. “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…”
In the good old days (which were not good for many people, if not most people) children were exploited. Ivana Trump started work when she was 3 years old. You got married in your teens.
I have never heard of this “Social Reign of Christ the King.” I think you may have been exposed to something that is not of the Church.
The last line of Scripture is definitely true.
I really think we’d be in such a better place – in society, in government, in the Church – if we spent a lot more time listening compassionately to one another and to our concerns instead of making condemnatory statements back and forth, playing gotcha at government hearings, making declarations about what Jesus regards as sin when in reality with few exceptions, we have no idea what he regards as sins. Really, the Church doesn’t condemn gay people, trans people, democrats, gun owning people, or Trump supporters. Nor should we. We should spend more time listening compassionately to one another. None of us can know in entirety what is the hearts of the other. Running around pretending we do is to usurp the nature of Christ, who sees all, knows all, and yet gives his body for all. Instead of pretending we have a Sacred Heart, we ought to look to the one who does.
There you go thinking again…. How about this instead?
“They want to be treated with oil, soap and caresses, but they should be beaten with fists.
In a duel, you don’t count or measure the blows, you strike as you can.” –Pope Pius X on Modernists
Why do you think we have no idea what Jesus regards as sins? We have the Bible and the Church. There are a lot of sins. Please get a good examination of conscience.
Sin offends God and Jesus is God. You can read what offends him in Scripture.
I know people want to minimize the sinfulness of their actions. People make excuses for them; claim they are doing them for good or for love. Even good actions can offend God when they are done for bad reasons.
Dueling is a sin. A grave sin. A mortal sin. Jesus does not want you to beat anyone.