A contributed perspectives piece by Margot Heffernan
Our world is often framed by elitist attitudes that block reality and the very core of common sense. It’s fixed in the human condition, isn’t it – the need to blindly follow, to revere the expert-sounding voice over real-world experience; the tendency to highlight the huffish person who has a finely polished tone?
Certainly, the language of elitism spoke with bold assurance last week at the Spotswood High Rockingham County D3 debate as contender Hilary Irons stressed her qualifications for school board. Iron’s deft language turned on a thin veneer of civility as she ticked off in meticulous fashion her list of accomplishments, starting with her three-year term as SHS choir director. The remainder of her qualifications are tied to the realm of social niceties – PTO President fundraiser, multisport “Team Mom,” and parent advisory council. Imbedded in her rhetoric were jagged barbs about Cross’ “failings” – absenteeism and a seeming lack of the “respectful” nature she ascribes to herself. Her self-righteous admonitions about his lack of professionalism did nothing to enhance her own qualifications for school board.
Iron’s reliance on the misplaced accuracy of the “clerical record” to obfuscate Cross’ many accomplishments fell flat. Cross’ devotion to student safety is solid. He applied his experience as an SRO to his job on the Board. And it shows. His accomplishments are answers for a dangerous world, a world where parents worry about the physical safety of their kids every single day.
Both Irons and Mullens stylized their own version of Cross as the evil white male afflicted with toxic masculinity. An overlord – a bully who shuts women down. It’s a tired screed, one that has run its course over time. And it was Irons who came off as a bully as she exhibited her “bravado” in what she thought was a take-down of Matt Cross.
Adding to the charge of despicable white male was Mullen’s voice, who asked Cross if he felt comfortable working with women, a query no doubt designed to humiliate; to infer that he is a male chauvinist, a woman hater. Another failed attempt to make Cross look bad. But it’s Cross who respects women and girls: He was the lone school board member who voted for Youngkin’s model policies in 2021, policies that preserved girls’ privacy and protection from males in their bathrooms and sports. Mullens has no comment on these policies: She failed to stand up for the reality of the female sex. Does she really know what a woman is, or does she too worship the almighty “gender” god? Afterall, it’s a whole lot easier that way, isn’t it, especially when you thrive in the “enlightened” academic world?
It’s worth noting that Irons, outside of the debate, had a last-minute epiphany, stating in her most recent flier that she “believes bathrooms, sports, and locker rooms must align with biological sex.” A telling correction, isn’t it? Until the week before the election, Irons’ literature stated that “sports and bathrooms should be separated by gender.” Believers in this cult know there are countless “genders,” from “auto” to “cis” and “demi” and on and on to the more familiar “genderqueer.” Irons’ last-minute correction is very concerning and shows a basic lack of knowledge of what “trans” ideology and the rhetoric of “gender” really means. Shouldn’t she have known all along that there are two sexes; that “gendered” language is code for the “inclusive” crowd?
In another thinly veiled insult flung at Cross, Mullens opined that she wants to “fill libraries, not tear them down.” Apparently when candidate Mullens had scant qualities of her own to report, it was time to bring out the big, reliable gun: Hit your opponent with the censorship card! Matt Cross is the modern-day Joseph Goebells cloaked in the pose of a moralistic pastor, the propaganda arm of RCPS! And with that swipe, Cross became the perfect foil for Mullens, she a lofty academic who knows that “censorship” is alive and well in Rockingham County schools.
But dear reader, how much truth can you absorb?
It is not censorship to draft a policy that prevents anti-academic hogwash from circulating in your child’s school library. Not only is LGBTQ “literature” a deliberately engineered mound of hogwash that has no bearing in reality; it is sexually explicit and anti-woman and child at its core. In fact, “Youth and Adolescent” lit (YA) is a growing genre, one now heavily imbedded with themes of sex and “gender change.”
And just to be clear, “trans” lit is not progressive, not enlightening, and does not amplify a “new kind of person,” a victim “trapped in the wrong body.”
And when RCPS wrangled with the school library book issue in 2023, the board came up with a policy to address it.
Did the board get it right the first time around? No, but corrections were made. In the outrageous atmosphere leading up to 2023, there was a spike in awareness of just what “queer/trans” literature contained. It was an awareness that was building across the country. Was there confusion? Yes. And chaos, too, but if you know the weight of the problem it is easy to understand the urgent need to remove objectionable books. It is also not hard to understand how some books might get caught up in the dragnet.
When Irons and Mullens repeatedly bang the “censorship” drum, it’s a cheap and easy way to label Cross a sort of ineloquent and anti-intellectual “bible thumper,” a guy who is way out of touch with modern children’s literature and education.
These are lies and I will tell you why.
Over the course of the past quarter century, the myth of the “transgender” youth/person has been deliberately imbedded into the collective consciousness. It is pure fiction: fantasy. There is zero intellectual or scientific basis to believe such nonsense. It is a false construct and as it ballooned in the collective consciousness, so too did all the necessary intellectual props around it.
Schools and libraries push this nonsense, and the latter follow the “authoritative” bodies that govern them, at least philosophically. The American Library Association (ALA) and the American Association of School Libraries (AASL) heavily push and promote the introduction of “trans” literature to kids and glorify the authors as cultural icons.
What people do not know is that over the past 25 years, the major advocacy groups representing libraries and librarians have veered far left in terms of philosophy and mission. In fact, these orgs no longer operate in the realm of reality. “Diversity,” “inclusion,” and “equity” are their buzzwords.
This means that orgs like The American Library Association (ALA) advocate for titles that promote explicit literature about “transgender” children and adolescents. You know, it’s “inclusive.” Take a look at ALAstore website to read about their robust promotion of “LGBTQ” books.
YA literature (Youth and Adolescent) is a rapidly growing genre that contains many, many titles around “transgender.” Society has bought into the fallacy that these themes are forward moving, progressive; that they illuminate a marginalized community who desperately need civil rights and humane recognition.
Truth is this: The trans scam is regressive. It is built on stereotypes. If a boy is not a rough and tumble kid or enjoys “girly” hobbies, this scam encourages the thinking that he must be a girl. And girls who don’t fit the cookie cutter “feminine” model, then perhaps they were born with a “male soul.”
Real word damage happens when these kids “transition” and become medicalized. It is a vicious cycle. And it plays out every day.
I’ve seen this scam work from various angles: As a master’s degree librarian, an adjunct writing instructor, a writer, and more recently as a student in an MFA program (creative nonfiction). In the latter capacity, I met grad students, faculty and authors of YA lit who “identify” somewhere along the “trans” spectrum – grown men in dresses who have no shame about using women’s bathrooms, “trans men” (women who have undergone mastectomies and take testosterone in an effort to deny their female bodies), and many, many more cult members who push this twisted ideology in real life. Among them are a whole coterie of YA authors who celebrate and promote “diversity” through this malignant propaganda. The YA “trans” subgenre is a business, an arm of the larger campaign.
All people are afflicted by these lies, but especially women and girls. And it is women and girls who continue to bear the brunt of this giant scam.
People who stand up to the cult have been punished, shamed, demeaned and diminished as intellectually inferior. Many tow the line to fit in. Others want to be “cool,” follow the necessary “inclusive” line.
It is not fun to stand up to this massive scam. In fact, lots of people risk their reputations and suffer character assassination, even lose their jobs.
Matt Cross has definitely suffered as a result of the mob mentality. Believe it.
So be brave. Vote to prevent further damage to children, girls, women, and all of us!
Vote for Matt Cross.
Margot Heffernan is a radical feminist who writes about women’s issues, politics, and medical themes. She has a master’s degree in library science and an MFA in creative writing.