THE MEDIA ISN’T TELLING US WHAT HAPPENED IN VIRGINIA. I KNOW BECAUSE I WAS THERE.
November 6, 2021
On November 3, 2021, it was announced that Republican Glenn Youngkin had pulled off a surprising victory over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race for Virginia Governor.
In response, virtually every mainstream media outlet offered their takes on what caused the outcome. Several have argued that Youngkin won due to his opposition to teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools. Take, for example, Slate’s take that “[Youngkin] provoked a backlash against CRT, and the backlash helped him win. But it wasn’t a backlash of parents. It was a backlash of white people.” Here is CNN’s Dana Bash claiming that McAuliffe tried to “nationalize” the election, whereas Youngkin kept it “very specific to Virginia.” The New York Times reported that the result was due to various weaknesses within the Democratic party and President Biden’s failure to deliver on some of his key campaign promises.
What none of these outlets will report is that the Loudoun County parents who rallied outside of the school district building one week before the election were expressing opposition to the district’s policy of allowing students to use the bathroom that aligns with their so-called “gender identity.” The district had adopted this policy in August of 2021, knowing that a girl had previously accused a boy who called himself “gender fluid” of assaulting her in the girls’ bathroom.
I was in Loudoun County on October 26, 2021, standing with parents who were expressing their opposition to this policy. These parents had gotten together and made a specific commitment to put politics aside and take a stand as parents who wanted to protect their children. They had agreed in advance not to discuss CRT during the rally. Their remarks were nearly all focused on the “gender identity” policy. One woman recounted the story of her daughter being sexually assaulted while at school. Those parents made it all about the district’s failure to protect girls from being sexually assaulted. They had one narrative that they kept emphasizing, and that was opposition to the “gender identity” policy. I know, because I was listening to them.
To be sure, several of those same parents also object to CRT. But that was not what the October rally was about. That rally was uncompromisingly about nonpartisan opposition to the “gender identity” policy.
I was proud to stand with a group of radical feminists and other Democrats in defense of female-only spaces. The Federalist covered our presence and quoted me:
Kara Dansky said she is a lifelong Democrat and self-described “radical feminist” from Washington, D.C. “We really want to see the school board rescind the policy, there is absolutely no justifiable reason to have a policy that allows boys into women’s bathrooms,” she said. “It’s just not acceptable, it’s anti-feminist, it’s misogynistic, it’s politically regressive.”
“All of the women standing behind me and near me are radical feminists, most of us are Democrats,” she told me, gesturing to about six other women standing beside her. “We are here because we are on the political left and we stand in support of female-only spaces.”
Dansky said she came to Loudoun in August for a rally the day before LCPS instituted its gender identity policy that allows co-ed bathrooms, after which a sexual assault by a “gender fluid” boy of a female teen in the girls’ bathroom was reported. “I was very proud to stand with Loudoun County parents and students and I’m very proud to stand with Loudoun County parents and students here today.”
That coverage got picked up in the U.K., via the Daily Mail.
Not a single mainstream U.S. media outlet will tell Americans the truth – that the Loudoun County parents who rallied outside the school district building were there to express their opposition to the district’s “gender identity” policy and nothing else. The mainstream American media does not want Americans to know the truth: that opposition to “gender identity” is not coming only from the political right.
I hear from U.S. Democrats every day. They are disgusted with the party leadership because of its stance on “gender identity.” Many have left the party. I asked my Twitter followers who are Democrats or ex-Democrats what they would tell party leadership if given the opportunity. Here are just a few examples of what they had to say:
None of this should come as a surprise to Democratic party leadership. Many of us have told them over and over and over again.
The truth is that there is a leftist critique of “gender identity” that played at least some part in Youngkin’s surprise victory. The U.S. mainstream media is engaged in a calculated and concerted effort to conceal that fact from Americans. We should all be asking why.
Photo credit: The Federalist