One of the dumber lines of progressive vilification of Donald Trump was that he was somehow anti-LGBT. Sure, he didn’t show up at Pride Parades in a leather Speedo, but neither did Barack Obama. And, unlike Obama, Trump was already publicly in favor of gay marriage when he took office.
But because he (or some of his advisors) was reluctant to use the federal civil rights apparatus to hollow out the First Amendment, he was accused of rolling back protections of the sexual alphabet soup gang.
Now there’s a new Administration, so there’s a new sheriff in town. His star is rainbow hued and his chaps are fabulous. He’s already cleaning up the jurisdiction.
GLAAD, the speech police for all things LGBT, etc., has already noticed a change on the contact form on the White House website. The site now “asks for your pronouns.”
And they complained that the Trump administration’s uncooperativeness was undermining the crucial work of the transition. Although, this could be a hack, possibly from the old administration. The giveaway: the "Prefer not to share" option. It's like expecting vegans to be reticent about their diets. Only a conservative would think that a realistic option.
Clearly, we’ve reached the sunlit uplands of enlightened government spam emailing. Never mind that it’s difficult to think of a situation in which the federal government would need to refer to a specific citizen in the third person. Unless perhaps it will start correspondence with “Dear She/Her.” And why not?
Obviously, this is super news for GLAAD et al. Progress and all that. But for the rest of us?
No, it’s not that a branch of the federal government is signaling that it’s ready to play make-believe. Most of modern governing is make-believe. What’s troubling is that someone currently in a position of power decided Pronoun Playtime should commence on DAY One.
It’s gonna be a long four years.
