Executive Orders seem like a good place to start

...but the return trip to Earth might be slow and bumpy

I had planned to post a new podcast episode today featuring a conversation with a powerful advocate for incarcerated women. Our scheduled recording was canceled but I hope to bring you an episode on this subject soon.

Meanwhile:

There’s been a lot of reaction to the day-one Executive Orders that were delivered on my birthday, which I share with Bill Maher and also, every four years, with the swearing in of America’s chief executive. The ‘EO’ that addressed our favorite topic was titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government.” The language it employed made many of us suspect there was actually ‘one of us’ whispering in the President’s ear on gender ideology.

Even Kara Dansky sounded impressed — and I call that a good sign! — though she did note these caveats in her initial take (bold type mine):

“So, what does the new EO do (and not do)?

“First, a few limitations. As indicated by the title, the EO does not (and legally, cannot) touch state law; all state laws that enshrine “gender identity” remain, for now. As an EO, it can easily be undone by a future administration (though, as explained below, it anticipates codification of its definitional provisions). Finally, it does not (and legally, cannot) amend any existing federal statute; statutes (including the Violence Against Women Act) that enshrine “gender identity” have not been amended by this order. None of these observations are meant as a criticism of the EO; they are simply acknowledgments of the limitations of federal executive authority.

“UPDATE: A friend has written to remind me that another limitation of the EO is that it does not touch privately funded entities, including schools, private sports bodies, and camps. Again, that’s not a criticism of the order, but a reflection of the limitations of federal executive authority.”

At the risk of being a fun-sucker, I’m afraid those caveats will loom very large in places like California, where I live, and New York City, where the video pasted below was recorded the evening of January 13. The video memorializes a special public meeting of the Manhattan school board, known as Community Education Council. Some of you will have watched it already, but if you haven’t, I’m recommending it as a worthy substitution for the time you might have spent listening to my aborted podcast episode.

The video is remarkable in so many ways, but I’d rather read your reactions than pre-empt them with mine. I’ll just say that when the artifacts of the ‘trans’ ideology experiment are definitively catalogued for historical reference, this video should be part of the collection.

Credit to the speakers: Maud Maron, Lisa Selin Davis, Ben Appel, Cori Cohn