Back in November, Sarah (formerly, Tim) McBride became the first transgender person elected to Congress to represent Delaware’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. McBride’s win led to the controversy over whether we were going to let men posing as women use the bathrooms belonging to women on Capitol Hill.
As you may remember, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) petitioned House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to say, ‘Please don’t allow that.’ In that case, it was kind of an academic exercise because all these representatives have their own bathrooms in their offices, but it was the chance to raise a larger issue and Speaker Johnson did change the policy to say you have to use the bathroom that aligns with your sex at birth.
Hearing Controversy
Well, McBride is back in the headlines and throwing a fit through surrogates because, at a House hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) referred to McBride as “mister,” which is what he is. McBride is a man in a skirt. That doesn’t make him a woman and never will.
“I now recognize the representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride,” Self said when introducing the representative. In response, McBride addressed Self as “madam chair” before the subcommittee’s top Democrat, Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts, jumped in.
Keating asked Self to “repeat” himself before alleging his remarks were “not decent.” Self tried to continue the hearing, but Keating interjected again. “You will not continue it with me unless you introduce a duly elected representative the right way,” he said. That led Self to adjourn the session.
Why Self ‘Did the Right Thing’
Good for you, Congressman Keith Self. And shame on you, Bill Keating, who used the opportunity of Self speaking truth and reality to grandstand. That is what happened. Sarah McBride is a man. That is why he said “mister.” I am sick of the pronoun nonsense, and this is in that category. It is the same disconnect.
This is like when you try to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time. It is hard. The left and the right don’t really want to do the same thing. There is an incongruity happening inside your brain, and that is what was happening to Self. He knew what he was looking at was a mister.
Sorry, Sarah, you are not fooling anyone. To some, your long hair might make you look like a woman. But as soon as we hear you speak, we know the truth. It is obvious to everyone. Yet this is what McBride decided to say about the issue after the fact:
MCBRIDE: …We will not take a lecture on decorum from a party that incited an insurrection. I appear to live rent-free in the minds of some of my Republican colleagues. I wish that they would spend even a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me, thinking about how to lower the costs for American families. I wish they would spend a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me figuring out how to make government actually work better, rather than making it work worse in order to prove that government can’t work. They are obsessed with culture war issues. The Republican Party is obsessed with culture war issues. It is weird and it is bizarre…
You have a penis and are in a dress, so you can stop with the lectures on the culture wars. You are the one trying to pervert the culture right now.
Self did the right thing. He wouldn’t participate in anyone else’s delusion. He doesn’t have to and neither do you. I don’t have to look at Sarah (formerly, Tim) McBride, and say ‘Miss.’ We know the truth is ‘mister.’ That is why, when you try to say ‘Miss’ or ‘congresswoman,’ you stutter just a bit. You can get it out, but there is a second of pause because it is the head and the belly thing.
‘Pronouns Are Rohypnol’
I have mentioned a piece to you many times called “Pronouns Are Rohypnol” by Barra Kerr. This essay was contraband on the internet for a while after it was initially posted a few years ago because it was so controversial at the time.
“There’s a lot of chat around about pronouns right now. Specifically, ‘preferred’ pronouns. By which is usually meant, the pronouns a person would prefer other people to use when they are the subject being discussed by those people,” Kerr begins. “‘This is how I want you to talk about me.'”
As Kerr explains, pronouns are billed as a “simple politeness” or “a courtesy,” and it is often the case that anyone who won’t comply (usually directed at a woman) is called “obnoxious, mean, hostile, and unpleasant” because “‘misgendering’ is hate speech,” they say.
That is what Self was accused of: ‘Misgendering’ Sarah (formerly, Tim) McBride. What he did was actually gender Tim (now, Sarah) correctly.
I am not trying to be disrespectful of McBride by “deadnaming” him. My general policy is, if you change your name for whatever reason, I will go along with your new name. I will call you Sarah if I must, but I will not call you ‘she’ or ‘her,’ ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs.,’ or ‘congresswoman’ because those are false. They are fake. It is not reality.
If your name is now suddenly Sarah because you changed it legally, then that is your new reality and I am fine to go along with it. The reason I am saying “Sarah (formerly, Tim) McBride” is because I am trying to make a point to you about why accurate pronouns are so important and why it is so hard to play the delusion game they want us to play.
Staying Alert
We all have instinctive reactions and we must not let them be dulled by preferred pronouns that ask us to reject our innate senses and our innate understanding of what is real and what isn’t in the name of kindness, politeness, courtesy, or decency. “Decency” is what was said in that exchange between Keating an Self. It was absolutely decent, truthful, and honest for Self to say what he did.
Kerr argues that “pronouns are like Rohypnol to your brain’s defenses.” They “change your inhibitions” because they are designed to. “You’ve had a lifetime’s experience learning to be alert to ‘him’ and relax to ‘her.’ For good reason,” Kerr writes. “This instinctive response keeps you safe. It’s not even a conscious thing. It’s like your hairs standing on end. Your subconscious brain is helping you not get eaten by the sabre tooth tiger that your eyes haven’t noticed yet.”
“Incongruent pronouns also make your brain work much harder; not just when you are using them, but when you are receiving them as information,” Kerr continues. “You are working constantly to keep that story straight in your head. Male or female? Which one, again? Concentrate harder. Ignore your instincts, ignore your reaction.”
Despite best efforts to be immune from the effects, Kerr writes that “you are still affected emotionally and instinctively by incongruent pronouns, nouns, and names… You can know perfectly the actual sex of a male person, and yet you will still react differently if someone calls them she instead of he.”
“I want to be alert. I want others to be alert. I want people to see the real picture, and I want those instinctive reactions that we feel when something is wrong, to be un-blunted, un-dulled by this cheap but effective psychological trick. I feel like I owe this to myself, and I absolutely owe it to other women,” Kerr concludes. “And that’s why I won’t use preferred pronouns. Using Rohypnol on others isn’t a courtesy.”
That is so well said. That is why it was totally appropriate, right, and correct to refer to McBride as ‘mister.’ So thank you for doing that, Keith Self. I appreciate it.
And Bill Keating, take a lesson, sir, because you not only undermine the effectiveness of your hearing, but, in doing what you did, you endangered every girl and woman on Capitol Hill, in your home state of Massachusetts, and in this country. We don’t need to deny reality. We don’t need to participate in McBride’s delusion. It is not impolite, or unkind, or rude to call a man ‘mister’ – and that is a man.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,027 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.