Carly Sitrin (She/Her) is POLITICO’s Education Reporter… and she is “woke”

By Rubashov

There are few giveaways as plain as this one.
 
Carly Sitrin, a reliably Establishment reporter with roots in Boston’s PBS network, wrote a work of apology on behalf of New Jersey’s political establishment. It was an attempt to publicly forgive them for the damage they’ve done to the curriculum the state’s school children are learning from. But Sitrin went further. She attempted to blame those who noticed.
 
The word “transgender” didn’t even exist until the 1960s. Before 2012, in fact, there was no scientific literature on girls ages 11 to 21 ever having developed gender dysphoria at all. Despite what Sitrin and others would have you believe, this isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue – so put away those blue and red pom-poms. But it has been a growing concern among parents and reformers within the medical establishment, who have observed a ceaseless rise in the use of pharmaceutical and surgical interventions to treat children who express “discomfort” with their gender identity. That is a major departure from the past, when clinicians used “talking therapies” to help children adjust. Of course, the medication of children in general has for some time been a cause for alarm to parents and forward-thinkers in the medical community.
 
Then there’s the religion thing. The transgender movement is a faith-based ideology akin to religion. And just as some believe in trans-substantiation (that bread can be made flesh and wine made blood) those who subscribe to transgenderism believe that DNA can be altered, chromosomes undone, simply by the action of the will. They believe that an individual, born male, can will himself into being female – and vice versa.
 
The outward sign of adherence to faith-based transgenderism is the use of pronouns after your last name. If you believe, you use “preferred” pronouns after your last name. Carly Sitrin (She/Her) is a believer. And she advertises her belief on her LinkedIn page and such. She tells who she is and what she believes in. It is her faith and it is natural enough for her to defend her faith – even if that means placing faith before journalism. We should expect nothing different from her.
 
Numerous people on the Left have suffered the wrath of this new, thrusting, proselytizing faith. The author of the Harry Potter novels had to go into hiding because she suggested that women were there own thing. The author Camille Paglia suffered similarly. Feminists like Kara Dansky have been leading a fightback from the Left. Her book, The Abolition of Sex: How the “Transgender” Agenda Harms Women and Girls, has been burnt in public.
 
In her Politico story, Carly Sitrin (She/Her), asks parents to forget what they saw when Governor Phil Murphy sent all those kids home from school over the threat from COVID. Distance learning, the children at home, learning side by side with their parents, is what ignited the current debate. Parents saw, they experienced it first-hand. They cannot be made to unsee – no matter the efforts of Carly Sitrin (She/Her) and a hundred like her.
 
Carly Sitrin (She/Her) attempts to argue that if something isn’t spelled out in law, it isn’t mandated. She knows better. She knows that laws are often written very loosely. Heck, we argue over that with the Second Amendment.
 
Laws are written loosely so that the establishment bureaucracy can interpret them as broadly (or as narrowly) as they wish. The law (An Act concerning diversity and inclusion instruction in school districts and supplementing chapter 35 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes), sponsored by Senator Vin Gopal and signed by Governor Murphy in March of last year, at the root of the current curriculum uproar is an example of such loose and subjective language:
 
C.18A:35-4.36a Curriculum to include instruction on diversity and inclusion.
1. a. Beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, each school district shall incorporate instruction on diversity and inclusion in an appropriate place in the curriculum of students in grades kindergarten through 12 as part of the district’s implementation of the New Jersey Student Learning Standards.
b. The instruction shall:
(1) highlight and promote diversity, including economic diversity, equity, inclusion, tolerance, and belonging in connection with gender and sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, disabilities, and religious tolerance;
(2) examine the impact that unconscious bias and economic disparities have at both an individual level and on society as a whole; and
(3) encourage safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments for all students regardless of race or ethnicity, sexual and gender identities, mental and physical disabilities, and religious beliefs.
c. The Commissioner of Education shall provide school districts with sample learning activities and resources designed to promote diversity and inclusion.

To understand how all that aspirational language will take form, we need to look at an earlier piece of legislation, also supported by Vin Gopal. It is called “An Act establishing the Transgender Equality Task Force to assess legal and societal barriers to equality and provide recommendations to Legislature.”
 
2.    a.  There is hereby created a task force to be known as the “Transgender Equality Task Force.” The purpose of the task force shall be to assess the legal and societal barriers to equality for transgender individuals in the State, and provide recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature on how to ensure equality and improve the lives of transgender individuals, with particular attention to the following areas:
     (1)   healthcare, including, but not limited to, access to healthcare providers that are trained in transgender medical issues, including sexual health;
     (2)   long term care for the chronically ill and senior citizens in the transgender population;
     (3)   education;
     (4)   higher education;
     (5)   housing, including, but not limited to, homelessness prevention and reduction for transgender youth and adults;
     (6)   employment; and
     (7)   criminal justice, including raising transgender awareness among law enforcement through training, and facilitating the appropriate placement of transgender individuals in correctional facilities based on an individual’s gender identity.
     b.    The Transgender Equality Task Force shall consist of 17 members as follows… a representative of the Department of Education whose duties or expertise includes protecting the rights of minority students or eliminating discrimination in the delivery of educational programs, policies, or initiatives
…one public member to be appointed by the Governor, who shall be a representative of a social service agency that provides services and supports to transgender individuals; a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union; a representative of Garden State Equality; and a representative of The Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey.
 
Note that the law is specific enough to include the special interest groups making the policy recommendations, but loose in its description of what those policies are. Fair enough, the latter might scare voters (like it has) and, as Ronald Reagan said, “Personnel is policy.” Government doesn’t write the textbooks or lesson guides. It just picks those involved that do. In this way, politicians like Phil Murphy and Vin Gopal can say, “Not my bad.” And writers like Carly Sitrin (She/Her) can try to cover for them.
 
Except that Murphy sent all those kids home and parents saw it with their own eyes. And they can’t unsee it.

Abigail Shrier is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters (2020). A graduate of Columbia College, University of Oxford, and Yale Law School, her work regularly appears in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and other publications.

Finally, we must applaud Carly Sitrin (She/Her) for getting Senator Holly Schepisi’s own consultant – the company that administers the Facebook page on which the good Senator has posted so much good information – to essentially attack her:

“New Jersey GOP strategist Chris Russell said those kinds of extreme right-wing buzzwords aren’t effective in the state and don’t resonate with the typical New Jersey Republican voter who leans more socially moderate, but he said Republicans should still find a way to tap into that parental outrage.”

Hey, put away those pom-poms, this isn’t about party politics. This is something much larger. It brings people who think of themselves as “Left” together with people who say they are “Right”. This is about children. It's about the future.

Legislator "Porno" Burzichelli gets rude while pandering

Assemblyman John "Porno" Burzichelli is one of the shadiest figures in Trenton and a longtime double-dipper who held two elected offices at once.  He's had his fingers in a lot of local deals too.  More on that later.

We normally wouldn't comment on what Mr. Burzichelli gets up to, but through his rudeness, he has attracted our attention.  Whether or not he maintains our attention is up to him. 

Mr. Burzichelli is the Vice Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.  That's where the Democrat leadership sent legislation that promotes the Left's latest fashion statement:  Transgenderism.   Yep, to the Budget Committee.  Looks like they expect to spend some of your hard earned tax dollars to promote this bullshit.

The legislation, A-4652, is similar to S-3067, which uses the power of the State to require that the Commissioner of Education stick his nose into the business of local school districts and "develop guidelines regarding transgender students."  Things like the use of "the name and pronoun that corresponds to a student’s gender identity... issuance of school documentation such as student ID’s in the name that corresponds to a student’s gender identity... permitting transgender students to dress in accordance with their gender identity... equal opportunities for participation in physical education... participation in gender-segregated school activities in accordance with a student’s gender identity... the use of restrooms and locker rooms... permitting and supporting the formation of student clubs or programs regarding issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth."  In addition, the guidelines will include "information on organizations or other resources available to students and parents that provide support to transgender individuals." Yes, this is about proselytizing and recruitment.

Now we have no doubt that Mr. Burzichelli has some sort of back ally knowledge concerning how to get ahead in patronage politics, but he really isn't what you would call a learned man.  True, he managed to graduate from high school, but it kind of ended there.  You see this pattern over and over again with the Democrats.  They have these back ally operators who rise up the political patronage ladder and along the way shed any humility they once possessed, to replace it with a brittle arrogance that resists new ideas and intellectual curiosity.

At yesterday's hearing on A-4652, we witnessed the spectacle of Mr. Burzichelli calling people names, like "intolerant", when it was clearly he who failed to extend simple human courtesy and politeness in tolerating the point of view of others.   It was a real dirt bag act, worthy of the back ally.

Was the Assemblyman being rude simply for the benefit of the potential donors present?  We all know how Garden State Equality gets when it doesn't have its ass expressly licked.  We all remember the tantrum that GSE's former executive director had a few years ago, when he threatened to withhold money from Democrat candidates because they had acted independently, following their conscience, instead of doing as his lobby group demanded. 

This crass lack of civility didn't stop with Mr. Burzichelli.  Assemblyman Troy Singleton got in on the act too.  Mr. Singleton, who is the only "carpenter" we know of who doesn't use a hammer, got shitty too, pausing in his shit long enough to look around to see if the GSE crowd was writing any checks.  Then there was the committee chairman, Assemblyman Gary Schaer, a normally civil man who behaved like a handjob throughout the hearing -- allowing the check writing side to pontificate, while cutting off anyone with an alternative opinion.  Real asshole behavior.

These moes can't seem to play it straight.  They are too interested in listening for the rustle of the checkbook, and playing to potential donors, to take the time to open their minds long enough to learn something... anything. 

Maybe we need to have people's hearings on some of these subjects.  Invite in really, really smart thinkers and allow them to talk. We could even critique the official hearings on the subjects, with all their pandering and lack of civility. 

Maybe we could get Camille Paglia?  Now that would be a cut above what Messrs. Burzichelli, Singleton, and Schaer gave us yesterday. 

Camille Paglia: Transgenderism is child abuse

Camille Paglia is one of the most foremost thinkers in America.  She's a liberal and a Democrat, but she is informed by a deep knowledge of history and of the mistakes and failures of the past.  Here is what Wikipedia has to say about her:

Camille Anna Paglia (English: /ˈpɑːliə/; born April 2, 1947) is an American academic and social critic. Paglia has been a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 1984.[1] Known for her critical views of many aspects of modern culture,[2][3] Paglia is the author of Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990).

Paglia has also written three collections of essays, an eponymously titled analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, Break, Blow, Burn (2005) on poetry, and Glittering Images (2012), a history of the visual arts. She is a critic of American feminism and of post-structuralism as well as a commentator on multiple aspects of American culture such as its visual art, music, and film history. In 2005, Paglia was ranked No. 20 on a Prospect/Foreign Policy poll of the world's top 100 public intellectuals.[4]

Here, Ms. Paglia warns us about the Left's latest fashion statement -- and says that it is child abuse for legislators and government officials to promote or enable transgenderism for children.  Take a moment to listen to her comments, you will be hearing them again:

Last week, the New Jersey Senate passed S-3067, allowing no debate and after hearings in which the audio of the hearing was doctored to eliminate some uncomfortable testimony from the public record.  What is happening to the straight-down-the-middle, non-partisan, professionalism that once was a feature of OLS?  More on that later.

For those of you not paying attention to what the Senate does (99.9% of the electorate -- by design), S-3067 uses the power of the State to require that the Commissioner of Education stick his nose into the business of local school districts and "develop guidelines regarding transgender students."  Things like the use of "the name and pronoun that corresponds to a student’s gender identity... issuance of school documentation such as student ID’s in the name that corresponds to a student’s gender identity... permitting transgender students to dress in accordance with their gender identity... equal opportunities for participation in physical education... participation in gender-segregated school activities in accordance with a student’s gender identity... the use of restrooms and locker rooms... permitting and supporting the formation of student clubs or programs regarding issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth."  In addition, the guidelines will include "information on organizations or other resources available to students and parents that provide support to transgender individuals." Yep, proselytizing and recruitment.

But don't you dare try to start a Christian club at school... or wear a Trump tee shirt to have your photo taken for the school yearbook.  Some things WILL NOT be tolerated. 

And when did the New Jersey Senate become so obsessed with the sexual identities of children?  What's next?  Breast augmentations for the 13 and under crowd so they might better conform with the entertainment media's ideas about the sexualization of children in furtherance of the marketing of products?

The state has over 500 school districts -- each a hothouse of innovation on how to solve the age old problem of helping people rub along together without needing to tyrannize the majority.  But no, the Senate -- and especially those dried up old figs on the Democrat side -- just have to get their hands on the state's children and force everybody into one way of thinking. 

Here is the vote on S-3067.  Take careful note of the GOP "heroes" who have sucked-up the thinking of the Far-Left, and remember what Camille Paglia said about this.  Remember those words, coming from a major liberal, Democrat thinker -- you are "guilty of child abuse and a crime against humanity."  You will be seeing them again.