UW’s Inclusion Council should be more inclusive.

Photo credit: Caleb Holden on Unsplash

Wyoming’s first-ever female Senator came home from D.C. with something to say. When Cynthia Lummis addressed the families, friends, and faculty of the University of Wyoming’s class of 2022, it wasn’t with mindless bromides. She brought three important points.

First, she quoted her friend and fellow Cowboy, Haley Micheli Davis, who observed: “It’s hard work to teach children to work hard.” Under this heading, Lummis exhorted today’s graduates and tomorrow’s parents to take their vocation seriously. Parenting requires that we put down the phone and be present to others. This not only blesses them; it blesses us. “By giving your attention to others, with intention,” Lummis said, “you give yourself a gift.”

The second point came from, Jody Levine, a woman named Outstanding University of Wyoming Alumna in 2018. “If you think you are the smartest person in the room,” she said, “you are in the wrong room.” 

Lummis observed: “[A]t no time since the 16th century has the world been in as disruptive, transformative times as you are now entering.” The Industrial Age is over, she said. “To excel in this Information Age, you will need to constantly learn, constantly grow, constantly challenge yourself.”

The “transformations and disruptions” of our era are challenging the very freedoms that make learning and growing possible. Lummis warned, “There are those in government who believe not that the Creator endowed us with inalienable rights …but that government created those rights, and that government should redefine those rights—including our rights to freedom of speech, religion, property, assembly, and to keep and bear arms.”

First in her list of examples, she said, “Even fundamental scientific truths, such as the existence of two sexes, male and female, are subject to challenge these days.” After a brief interruption, she completed her list: “I personally question how, under our Constitution, we could forbid in-person worship services during a time of pandemic, while labeling liquor stores essential, and keeping them open. And how the creation of a government disinformation board is not an affront to free speech.”

Senator Cynthia Lummis

It’s not every speaker who can lead her audience spontaneously to prove her point. But Lummis did. No sooner had she asserted that “the existence of two sexes, male and female, are subject to challenge these days,” some in the audience challenged her statement. Quod erat demonstrandum.

It is no secret that some—even on the UW campus—go so far as to challenge the existence of two sexes. What is fascinating about this incident is that UW’s taxpayer-supported Inclusion Council immediately denounced Senator Lummis’ words as having a “harmful impact,” and being “marginalizing.” 

To date, the University’s Zoology & Physiology Department has not weighed in on the controversy. Scientists are, of course, aware that the intersex phenomenon happens in the animal kingdom as it happens in human biology. But they are inclusive enough to acknowledge the existence of such animals without denying the fundamental fact that there remain two sexes. Perhaps the Inclusion Council would benefit from attending some of the department’s classes to learn how this is done.

Does UW’s Inclusion Council recognize that its own press release marginalizes a large portion of the student body and countless alumni, like Lummis? One would hope that advocates for diversity would aggressively defend a diverse array of perspectives. They should consider the ENTIRE university community before issuing a public statement that marginalizes those who agree with Wyoming’s first female senator.

This incident would be comical if it were not such a serious affront to basic human rights. Just exactly as Lummis warned, “There are those in government who believe not that the Creator endowed us with inalienable rights …but that government created those rights, and that government should redefine those rights—including our rights to freedom of speech...”

The Inclusion Council, which is a governmental entity, introduced the topic of free speech with these ominous words: “While, as a public institution, we respect the rights of free expression…” Note the qualification. It does not categorically and unreservedly respect the right of free expression but only “as a public institution.” 

If UW’s Inclusion Council were not frustrated by its status as a government entity, it might use its power to throttle Lummis and all who agree with her. Considering the climate of censorship on Twitter and Facebook, such a muted endorsement of free expression is more than concerning. It brings a special urgency to Lummis’ third, and final point. 

Citing best-selling author, Eric Metaxas, she reminded us: “We are, ourselves, in this moment, the keepers of the flame of liberty.” When government entities, like UW’s Inclusion Council, fail to protect human rights, it becomes the duty of everyone. Lummis said, “The Constitution’s charter of self-governance requires the civic engagement of all who call themselves ‘Americans.’” Q.E.D.

Unwise ordinances weaken laws and divide communities

Main Street, Edmonds, Washington

Edmonds, Washington is a small bedroom community north of Seattle that has become a tinderbox since the passage of its hate crime ordinance. Twice, in 2018 and again in 2020, police filed charging documents with the prosecutor. Twice the prosecutor declined to press “hate crime” charges after determining that the city could not prove its case in court.

The second incident pitted Mayor Mike Nelson against Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney, Adam Cornel. In the riotous summer of 2020, a 69-year-old man defaced a Black Lives Matter display across the street from the police station. He told police that he was “upset with how the police were being treated.”

Defacing public property is normally a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $750. The mayor, however, wanted to charge him with a felony on the basis that the high school girl who made the display was “BIPOC” (Black, Indigenous, (or) People of Color). After investigating the elements of the crime, Cornel determined that he could not “advance the cause of social and racial justice by furthering an unjust felony prosecution. To do so would be unethical.”

Merrick Garland, A.G.

This was sound judgment. A recent study from the Department of Justice found that, in fifteen years (2005 through 2019), only 17 percent of federal “hate crime” allegations were ever charged. Fewer, still, were proven. The report cited insufficient evidence as being the most common reason why hate crimes were declined for prosecution.  

The stock-in-trade of prosecutors and defense attorneys consists of the “elements of a crime.” These are the elemental facts that must be proven to get a conviction. Most crimes have four elements. Hate crimes add another by requiring proof of the perpetrator’s state of mind. If proof is not available, the defendant is not guilty—even if the other elements are fully proven.

But the ginned-up rage of Edmonds’ social-justice warriors and its politically minded mayor wasn’t assuaged by the facts. Herein lies the problem. Public sentiment can be fanned into flame by irresponsible media and community organizers. But when it blows up, it burns the prosecutors, judges and mayors who have to make real-life decisions. Some will cower before the mob and unethically file bogus charges. Those that don’t will be unjustly hated by the mob.

Councilman, Richard Johnson

Now, Councilman Richard Johnson wants to bring this kind of ordinance to Cheyenne. He cut-and-pasted an ordinance from another state that would make it a misdemeanor “for any person to maliciously and with the specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person’s race, color, religion, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, or disability.”

It is already a crime for any person maliciously to intimidate or harass another person. Wyoming Statute (Title 6 - Crimes and Offenses) specifies this, and other crimes against persons, property, and the public peace. It is written specifically to minimize the elements that need to be proved. This enables successful prosecution of harassment, assault, property destruction and other crimes. 

On numerous occasions, bills have been brought to the state legislature that would insert motivation as an additional element. Legislators have repeatedly rejected these bills precisely because they would allow criminals to get off scott-free. 

According to the proposed ordinance, if a prosecutor could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a perpetrator maliciously harassed someone, but could not prove the element, “because of that person’s race,” he must be found not guilty. By contrast, our current state law would punish that same perpetrator with a $750 fine and/or six months in jail—the very same penalty that Johnson’s ordinance proposes.

Why add a layer of red tape that could only quash otherwise successful prosecutions? I will not speculate on Johnson’s motives, but the Chamber of Commerce claimed that it would help Cheyenne’s economic development. Are they suggesting that companies will not locate in Cheyenne unless the city first makes criminal prosecutions more difficult?

For years, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been making this baseless claim. By stoking fear, they have bullied numerous cities into passing similar ordinances. As a result, many small businesses have been bankrupted by unethical lawfare, and communities have been turned into tinderboxes. Then, when minority businesses actually go up in flames, the Chamber turns strangely quiet.

If the goal is successful prosecution of crimes that are motivated by hate, smart prosecutors know that adding “hate” as an additional element only weakens the law. 

What is happening in Cheyenne will likely not stay in Cheyenne. You can expect versions of this ordinance to pop up in city councils across Wyoming. They would be wise to learn from Edmonds’ mistake. Wyoming’s cities should defer to the wisdom of the legislature, the governor, and the prosecutors who deal with crimes every day. This will bring more criminals to justice; it will lessen the chances of politically motivated prosecutions; and, it will not create unrealistic expectations that can only divide previously peaceful communities.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, February 25, 2022.

Wendy Schuler, advocate for women in sports

Evanston’s own Wendy Davis Schuler was a member of the 1976 Olympic team. But you won’t find her name in the record books. Invited to the Olympic Trials, she made the cut and was selected to America’s first women’s basketball team only to sustain a broken foot in the closing hours.

Schuler had earned the right to go to Montreal and, could have joined her team on the silver medal podium. Instead, she voluntarily gave up her spot to an uninjured alternate. Almost five decades later, she told me, “I sometimes regret that. But it was just the right thing to do.” 

Her choice erased her from the history books, but it speaks volumes of her character. It is only one episode in a life dedicated to lifting up women’s athletics. That career, from athlete to coach, and now to state senator, spanned the most significant legislation in the history of women’s sports.

This year is the 50th anniversary of Title IX. On June 23, 1972, President Nixon signed legislation prohibiting sex discrimination in programs receiving federal financial aid. The effect was immediate. Prior to 1972 the NCAA had virtually no female sports. But by the 1972-73 school year NCAA women’s sports were a reality.

It was Schuler’s Junior year at the University of Wyoming, and she reveled in the new opportunities. Throughout her high school years and for her first two years in college, intramural sports and loosely organized athletic associations were the outer limits of women’s athletics. Funding was minuscule, equipment was second-rate, and travel to events was haphazard. 

UW volleyball, 1972-73 (Schuler back right)

Schuler recalls piling into her coach’s private car because access to university transportation was denied. Once, her team qualified for the regional tournament in Provo but, due to a lack of funding, could not compete unless they held a bake sale to raise travel funds.

Title IX changed all that. By carving out a niche for female sports, it took seriously the benefits and the uniqueness of athletics for the female body. Athletics are part of a well-rounded education of body, mind and soul. Since the fall of 1972, Title IX has contributed to the thriving of millions of women worldwide.

As a high school coach, Schuler would often tell her girls how fortunate they were to have opportunities that she never dreamed of. When she arrived in Lyman in 1976, there was no girls’ basketball program. Three years later, they were state champs. Next Evanston High School called her number and, by 1982, their girls were playing for the state title.

Schuler has coached both boys’ and girls’ teams in her long career. She reflected on how they are different. Coaching the boys, “was more challenging than the girls, in some ways. But, in some ways, it was easier.” Physical differences were only part of the equation, temperament and team dynamics also differed from boys to girls.

Since her retirement from teaching and coaching, she has watched with growing concern as biological males have intruded into female sports. Lia Thomas of U. Penn is only the latest headline. After three years of swimming as a male and ranking #462, Will Thomas now competes as Lia, and dominates the pool.

Lia Thomas

The NCAA, as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee, has standards for hormone levels, Schuler admits, “but still, it doesn’t change the physical composition of a person. You can’t change their height, the size of their heart and their lungs, their bone density, the size of their hands and feet. Even if they suppress the hormones, it’s an unfair advantage; it’s a totally unfair advantage!”

The unfairness is not only a distant problem. Wyoming’s High School Activities Association currently allows biological males to participate on female sports teams. Female athletes in Wyoming are sitting on the bench while males take the field.

WHSAA Commissioner Ron Laird says, “We feel that our policy has worked.” Maybe it works for him, but coaches, teammates, opposing teams, parents and fans beg to differ. How does this policy work to keep girls safe from bone-crushing collisions? How does it work in overnight hotel accommodations, locker rooms— and a host of other unforeseen complications?

Local schools that want to be responsive to stakeholders and responsible protectors of girls open themselves to legal harassment. WHSAA policy leaves them high and dry. Schuler has introduced legislation to fill that gap.

SF0051 “Fairness in women’s sports act” would restore safeguards against sex discrimination that were signed into law 50 years ago. By protecting women’s sports from the intrusion of biological males, it restores the level playing field that has helped countless women to thrive.

Schuler, 400m finish,
Regional Intermountain, Provo, Utah

“I’ve got a granddaughter coming up,” Schuler offered, “and I don’t want her to have to deal with these issues. So, I am fighting for her and for all these little gals and young women and college women in Wyoming. I’m their advocate.” It’s just the right thing to do.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, February 11, 2022; and in the Cowboy State Daily.

Pandora’s Box and the Innocence of Minors

Pandora's Box, Sebastian Becker

Before there was “Crosby, Stills, and Nash,” Stephen Stills and Neil Young spent two years in a band called “Buffalo Springfield,” which released three albums and one smash hit. Exactly 55 years ago, “For What It’s Worth” was on its way to a No. 7 peak on Billboard’s hot 100 list.

“There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.” This iconic song became the anthem of Vietnam war-protests. But when it was first performed on Thanksgiving Day, 1966, Kent State was four years in the future. Stills was talking about the Sunset Strip Riots.

Pandora’s Box, a nightclub that catered to teenage partiers, was about to be bulldozed. On November 12, 1966, teens staged a sit-in that turned violent. Stills witnessed it on his way to a gig, and the song was born. Later, he mused, “Riot is a ridiculous name, it was a funeral for Pandora’s Box. But it looked like a revolution.”

That, I think, is why the song is so famous. It captured a feeling in the air. While revolutionary events are in process, few contemporaries notice. Stills did, and his words beckon us to do the same.

Buffalo Springfield

There is, indeed, something happening today. Pandora’s Box has been opened and has unleashed war upon us. In the fog of that war, it is difficult to know exactly “what it is.” But our moment screams for everybody to “look what’s going down.” If we don’t, we will fall under the same harsh judgment that we pronounce on others. 

Consider past cultures that failed to understand their own times and to stand against massive evils that we now see with 20/20 hindsight. How could the denizens of France not predict that a Reign of Terror would result from murdering priests and kings? Why didn’t more Russians stand against the murderous Bolsheviks who were gaining power? That mistake cost 100 million lives over the next 70 years. What devilry gripped the cultured, Bach-loving Germans? They allowed a madman to turn their industry and efficiency into a murder machine.

While Stills thought the Sunset Strip Riots were hardly riots at all, he couldn’t shake the sense that “something’s happening here.” They were more than another salvo in the Sexual Revolution. They crossed a new and significant line. On that night, the Sexual Revolution enveloped minor children.

The sit-in remained a peaceful protest until the stroke of 10 o’clock. At that time, the LAPD was tasked with enforcing the city’s curfew on minors. The people of Los Angeles had passed an ordinance to protect the innocence of children younger than 18. Push came to shove, and the Sunset Strip Riots were born.

The opening salvos of the Sexual Revolution were attacks on marriage. Its philosophical leaders, going back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Percy Shelley (1792-1822), were intent on destroying the sacred bond between husband and wife. Divorce, fornication, and adultery were means toward that end. 

But as the Revolution advanced, the crosshairs shifted to the children. “Free Love” was never the ultimate goal. It has always been a means toward an end. The goal is the breakdown of the family. Once the marriage vow is obliterated, the battle must shift to the natural bond between parent and child. While that remains, family bonds still have precedence.

Maybe Stills knew this consciously—maybe, only subconsciously. But children were the focus of his haunting refrain, “I think it’s time we stop, children. What’s that sound? Everybody, look what's going down.” Whether Stills intended this, or not, Carl S. Trueman painstakingly documents the sexualization of children in his new book, “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.”

This book is a must-read for parents and policy makers who are interested in the health and well-being of children. It helps to explain how the innocence of children came under attack through the militantly atheist philosophy of people like Shelly. It, further, documents how Sigmund Freud deliberately sexualized every aspect of childhood development—from breast-feeding to potty-training.

It is precisely at this point that school boards and library associations come into the picture. Statutes protecting minor children obligate state actors to respect parental rights. But these statutes hinder the agenda to dissolve the natural family and replace it with the state. 

Those who tell you that the arguments over objectionable books and curricula are about “free speech,” or about “access to information,” are either deceived, or deceiving. The fact remains that statutory age restrictions on sexual consent (statutory rape) and access to sexual content (e.g. Restricted films) are legal recognition of parental rights. Violation of these laws violate parental rights. Nobody has the right to interfere in the sacred relationship between parents and their own children.

Will we, as a lawful society, respect parents who guard the innocence of minors? Will we help them maintain their sole authority to educate their own children in family formation and emotional health?

Or, will we undermine parental rights and give ever more power to teachers’ unions and library associations to indoctrinate our children in the philosophical thought-stream that brought us the French Revolution, the Bolsheviks, and the Hitler Youth? 

According to legend, Pandora’s Box contains war. The nightclub that circumvented parental rights and brought the sexual revolution to minor children could not have been more appropriately named.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, January 14, 2022, the Cowboy State Daily, January 13, 2022, and the American Thinker.