by Rob Yates
LPNC Communications Director

If you took a stance on the designation of March 31 as “Trans Day of Visibility” (TDOV) by the Biden administration, you were wrong.

It really doesn’t matter what it is, Libertarians bite – hook, line, and sinker – on every culture war issue that’s dangled in front of us. This time, it was the Biden White House proclamation declaring March 31 to be “Trans Day of Visibility,” a designation the Biden administration was the first to adopt, starting in 2021. The reason for all the online caterwauling was that Easter also happens to fall on March 31 this year.

Easter, the holiest day in all Christian religions, is the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection three days after His crucifixion. In most Christian religions, Easter is observed on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon after the Spring equinox on March 21 (contrary to popular belief, this date has nothing to do with then-existing pagan holidays, and is actually related to a Germanic translation of the Latin word for “dawn;” English is a Germanic language.). Easter can be any date from March 22 through April 25. The next time Easter is on March 31 is in 2086.

Meanwhile, Transgender Day of Visibility was first championed by transgender activist Rachel Crandall in 2009, in an effort to increase recognition around the transgender community separate from “Transgender Day of Recognition,” which is in November, and from Pride Month in June. Rachel claims that there is no other significance in choosing the March 31 date except trying to keep trans issues in the spotlight and thus being significantly spaced out from those other two days. However, the more I research the more I suspect that Rachel was both aware and deliberate in choosing March 31 to stir things up. If so, it’s working.

The virtue signaling began quickly and predictably. Republicans, from Vivek to Trump and everyone in between, raced to see who could accuse Biden of going to war with Christianity the loudest. Meanwhile Democrats predictably summed up all Republicans as transphobic bigots, and used the opportunity to signal their virtue, from Kathy Hochul (one of the worst governors of all time) who had landmarks - including One World Trade Center, the Kosciuszko Bridge and the Niagara Falls - lit pink, white, and light blue, to the National Women’s Soccer League, which posted a TDOV message at roughly 9 AM ET, and then a Happy Easter message around non, leaving a three-hour window where there was no doubt which side they were on.

As an aside, lost in the finger pointing and pearl clutching, of which both sides of the uniparty are equally guilty, was the fact that Biden issued 48 executive actions in March, including these 19 other designations for a day, week, or month:

• Read Across America Day
• National Consumer Protection Week
• U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day
• National Poison Prevention Week
• National Agriculture Day
• National Donate Life Month
• National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month
• National Donate Life Month
• Cesar Chavez Day
• National Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Month
• Arab American Heritage Month
• National Public Health Week
• National Child Abuse Prevention Month
• Care Workers Recognition Month
• Month of the Military Child
• Second Chance Month
• Greek Independence Day: A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy
• National Equal Pay Day
• U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day

The entire recent discourse around the trans thing is almost entirely a western phenomenon, with the U.S. at the vanguard. This is not at all because of good intentions by any politicians, but rather is a symptom of the fact that culture war issues are incredibly effective at stirring up each party’s respective base. We gain nothing by engaging in these battles from a political perspective. Instead, we should be advocating for the complete removal of the government from anything around who can use what bathroom, childcare and education, and proclamations or designations of any day for anything (except Columbus Day, but that’s to remind us how awful the government is).

If you are a Christian who thinks that the whole trans thing is an abomination, I ask you this – how many people died today in wars the U.S. is funding? That should be where you focus your outrage, not on a perceived attack on your religion by president poopy pants (which, to be fair, he knew exactly what he was doing, but he probably was far more interested in rallying his base and donors than he was in provoking you). And, if you think everyone falls somewhere on a gender spectrum that only exists as a social construct, and you can’t see how some Christians (and non-Christians) might be upset with the coinciding of TDOV and Easter so they all must be fascist bigots, you believe in neither diversity nor inclusion, and you are the close-minded hate monger you would claim to stand against.

Of course, none of this means you can't or shouldn't have an opinion on the recent rise in challenges to the gender binary paradigm. I certainly do, and strong ones, which I am happy to share, in good faith, with anyone who wants to discuss them, outside of politics, not as a representative of the party, from the persepctive of how a free market might address the issue. I certainly don't think the state should dictate that schools can transition children without their parents knowledge. I also don't think the state should dictate anything to schools. I think the "science" supporting biological males in female sports is nonsense. But I think the leagues should determine who is eligible to play for them, and the government should have no part in it. In fact, no matter where you fall in this current debate, the only thing that should hold true no matter what is that we need to stop looking to the government to solve our problems and make our moral decisions.

Here are the facts… Trump is one of the least popular figures in American politics, outdone currently only by Biden, who is polling even lower. We have somehow again decided that the leader and face of our country should be either a sociopath megalomanic war criminal, or a sociopath war criminal with advancing dementia. The leadership in the uniparty is well aware the neither major presidential candidate can really stand on either his achievements or his moral standing, so they have nothing left to do but drive division, polarization, and hatred. We need to stop taking the bait.