Fox Host Calls Transgender Bathroom Rules A ‘War On Biology’, Doesn’t Get Biology (Or War)
I always know it’s going to be a thrilling news day when Tucker Carlson finds something to open his mouth about. Mr. Carlson, you left your famous bow tie in the past, but we wish you would have left your antiquated views on gender identity there instead. Maybe unburdening yourself of those would have left you with some bandwidth to pick up a little basic science instead?
The Fox News host’s most recent mouth-ular frothing had to do with a new policy voted into effect in the Fairfax County School District of Virginia. The Fairfax County school board decided via a 10-1 vote to add gender identity to its district-wide non-discrimination policy. Essentially, going forward, transgender students should be able to ask to be called by their preferred pronouns without harassment, to present as their preferred gender in terms of clothing and hairstyle, and of course, to use their preferred bathroom at school.
According to Raw Story, Carlson’s opinion on this positive progressive change, of course, is not just ‘I don’t like it’, but that such a policy flies in the face of biology itself. According to him,
”Isn’t a little weird that that a school which is supposed to be rooted in science and the scientific method is teaching now that there is that there is no difference between men and women and you can change your sex? Of course, that’s contrary to basic biology. … The left’s war on biology continues.”
Speaking of basic biology, I remain unconvinced that that is a subject Carlson passed in high school. Here’s a quickie lesson for Mr. Bow Tie: you can change your sex. That is called, crudely, a ‘sex change’, or more properly, ‘sex reassignment’. What is not changing for the students affected by the Fairfax County policy is their genders. A transgender girl is a girl. A transgender boy is a boy. (And for that matter, a non-binary student is neither/both.) Hooray! Problem solved!
For someone so concerned about the ‘war on science’, Carlson should probably note that there are plenty of examples in the natural world of organisms changing their biological sex during the course of their lifetimes. Certain flowering plants, for example, go through a stage of producing (male) pollen before turning their attention toward producing the female flower parts necessary for reproduction; and male clownfish can turn into females if there aren’t any lady fish in the vicinity. (Yes, this means that Marlin of Finding Nemo was probably technically Nemo’s mom and not his dad during the duration of the movie.) Changing sex isn’t exactly an aberration that defies the very nature of biology; it’s pretty much business as usual.
So kudos to the school board of Fairfax County for making a biologically sound decision as well as one that has the best interest of the district’s students at heart. And as for Carlson, well, biology might not the subject for him. Better luck with chemistry or physics, sir.
(Image: Fox News via Raw Story / YouTube)
