The annual celebration of America’s civic religion started with a bang this year. Kellogg High School in rural North Idaho sanctioned graduating senior Travis Lohr for daring to utter the basic biological truth that men are men and women are women. The Idaho Tribune has been covering this story closely - see here and here - and I wrote about it at Idaho Freedom Foundation as well.
In addition to Lohr, the school also fired longtime bus driver Dakota Mailloux for attending the Friday morning walkout in support of Travis’ right to free speech. Despite doing so of his own accord and on his own time, Mailloux was pulled away from the gathering and summarily dismissed.
The particulars of this story run the entire culture war gamut. Lohr was sanctioned not only for exercising his free speech, but it was for saying something that is objectively true. It is not yet known who complained about Lohr’s statement, whether it was a fellow student, a teacher, or an administrator, but we do know that the art teacher at Kellogg is an outspoken leftist. Rachel Clark-Krusemark was making news more than ten years ago for bringing the pornographic production “The Vagina Monologues” to Kellogg, and she is “married” to Shoshone County Sheriff Holly Lindsey.
That last bit is interesting, because when the school announced they were postponing graduation, they cited a report from the sheriff’s office warning of “threats” from unspecified right wing provocateurs. The sheriff’s office later posted on Facebook that they did not cancel graduation, rather they claimed that “protesters from out of county” that were “known for violence” were coming to disrupt the ceremony. They offered nothing to back up this claim.
You recognize this sort of rhetoric for what it is, of course. Right wing protests are always tagged as violence, no matter how peaceful, while left wing protests are always tagged as peaceful, no matter how violent. Woke leftists infiltrated our institutions to spread their ideology, and then act offended when we stand up and say stop.
In any case, the postponement was just a smokescreen as Kellogg carried out its graduation ceremony in secret. Travis Lohr did not attend.
This is the reality of LGBTQ+ Pride: you will be made to comply. It’s no longer about tolerance or inclusivity, if it ever was, rather it is about imposing a new secular religion on the American people. Conquerors always tear down the flags and monuments of the cultures they conquer and impose their own instead.
If this seems like hyperbole, consider what time it is. The moment the clock ticked over to June 1, nearly ever corporation, every media outlet, and every government office in America dutifully covered their profiles in rainbow regalia. The same people who have long held that burning an American flag is free speech want hate crime charges for anyone who burns a pride flag. Leaving skid marks on a pride-colored crosswalk is also a hate crime now. And, of course, uttering the words “guys are guys and girls are girls” gets a high school student kicked out of his own graduation ceremony.
As I wrote last year after observing Boise Pride Fest, this totalitarianism is wrapped in pretty colors and cheerful rhetoric that masks both unbearable pain as well as a desire to corrupt the innocent. That is why it was never going to be enough to tolerate such perversity, because their ideology demands total compliance. It is not enough for a trans person to conceptualize him or herself as the opposite sex; they must enforce that delusion at gunpoint on everyone else, lest - like the child who said the emperor was wearing no clothes - someone dare to point out the obvious and shatter the illusion.
I finally watched Matt Walsh’s documentary “What is a Woman” last night, since it is currently streaming for free on Twitter. It did not tell me anything I did not already know, but it was a stark reminder of what we are up against. I realized as I watched that the issue at hand is not biological but grammatical. In a move straight out of Orwell, mentally ill people and their leftist enablers are attempting to redefine words and then force us to accept the new definitions.
For all of human history we have defined a woman as a human being with certain physical characteristics that enable her to bear and nurture children, while a man has other characteristics. Women are generally more emotional, while men are generally physically stronger. There are always outliers, of course, but they are outliers for a reason - a dog born with three legs does not cease being a dog, just as an infertile woman or an effete man are still female and male, respectively.
What the left is doing here is redefining language. As you can see in Walsh’s documentary, they change the meaning of the word woman to be a feeling, an attitude, an ephemeral affectation. They claim that someone who is physically male can actually be a woman who was born in the wrong body, an idea that makes zero sense once you give it the slightest thought. But that’s the trick - they don’t want you to think, only comply. They use the carrot of inclusivity and tolerance, and the stick of labeling you a bigot if you don’t join in the mass delusion.
That is why Travis Lohr had to be punished, because the entire house of cards falls apart once people start questioning the propaganda.
The transgender delusion is driven by a hatred of nature and of nature’s God. God made male and female, but we, they say, almighty modern human beings, can transcend that, and be anything we want. But just like every other attempt to be like God, this one is doomed to fail. Go look at pictures of what so-called gender affirming care really is and tell me that this is a positive thing for people suffering from gender dysphoria or fetishes like autogynephilia.
The lesson of the controversy is that not even rural communities are safe from the woke mind virus. It is easy to dismiss stories of LGBTQ+ indoctrination as a big city problem. “Just stay out of Boise and you’ll be fine,” people say. Yet the sanctioning of Travis Lohr is proof that if this is not in your community now, it will be soon. Closing your eyes and hoping for the best is a surefire way to lose. Teachers in Kellogg High School were promoting woke doctrines for years before it became a flashpoint in the culture war, and the leadership of rural Shoshone County thought nothing of putting a lesbian woman in charge of their law enforcement, except for what great headlines it would make in the corporate press. Now the woke cancer has metastasized, and ruined what should have been a joyful time for one young Idaho man.
The conservative movement and the Republican Party have allowed wolves to sneak in wearing sheep’s clothing. Over in Pocatello, a parent complained to Republican Rep. Richard Cheatum about his vote against H314, which would have kept schools and libraries from giving obscene material to children. Cheatum responded by essentially accusing her of hate and homophobia. With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats?
If there is one good thing to come of this affair it is the knowledge that some young people are not going to take this indoctrination lying down. Travis Lohr told the world that the emperor has no clothes, and we as a movement must make sure he is taken care of. Leftists take care of their own - Antifa and BLM rioters who burn down buildings and assault innocent people can count on a network of donors and lawyers to make sure they never spend an hour in jail. Travis Lohr has already missed out on his graduation, but we should make sure that he is rewarded for his brave stand. That is why I am pleased that my colleagues at IFF set up a GiveSendGo campaign inviting supporters to donate toward a graduation gift for Travis. As of this writing the campaign is over $3,000 already, which gives me hope for the future of our country.
A similar campaign for Dakota Mailloux, the bus driver who was fired for supporting Travis, is nearly at $3,000 as well. It is the courage of men like Travis and Dakota that will save this country, not thinkpieces written from the comfort of ivory towers.
Click here to support Travis Lohr.
Click here to support Dakota Mailloux.
In addition to supporting those who stand up for truth, we must also offer an alternative to the celebration of deviance that has been foisted on our country. I was pleased when my boss at IFF Wayne Hoffman came up with an idea to spend the month of June celebrating those heroes who, like Travis Lohr, were unafraid to stand up for truth and American values even in the face of leftist persecution. Many of the figures on our list have been canceled, whether in their lifetimes or long after their deaths, by the same woke mob that demands that Travis be punished for speaking the truth.
Human nature does not change, no matter our technology or our understanding of the universe. Perhaps no sin is condemned more in Scripture than pride, yet this entire month is a corporate and government sponsored celebration of that very sin. How long do nations last with such a moral inversion?
Biology does not change either, but language is malleable. If we do not loudly proclaim the truth, as Travis Lohr did last week, it will eventually be lost under a confusing pile of ever-changing definitions. The history of human philosophy has always been about a search for truth, but today’s propaganda tries to convince you that truth is meaningless and that nothing is absolute. The basis for any understanding of truth is an agreement that things are what they are - A is A, as Aristotle said, or 2 + 2 = 4. George Orwell explained that “freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four. If that is granted, all else follows.” If we do not exercise that freedom it will be inexorably taken away from us until we are entirely enslaved to an ideology of lies.
Never sacrifice the truth, no matter the consequences. A is A, 2 + 2 = 4, and guys are guys, girls are girls. There is no in-between.
Yes, exactly. See the piece on Norway I posted on the Eagle Idaho Conservatives site. There is no "gender affirming" anything - it is malpractice and should be disallowed other than mental illness treatment.
And you are right Brian, the Left goes straight to Saul Alinsky - "what isn't, is, and what is, isn't." That's why "color-blindness" is "racist" and separatist groups like Black Lives Matters fight for "inclusion."
But of course they bastardize our language in order to destroy our culture and norms. That is their end game. We must fight it everyday and do so with language.
Here, the State Board should decertify the Kellogg schools, or the legislature surely should. As long as this stands I will oppose any funding for public schooling. There is no in-between.
Thank you for writing this great piece, Brian. Your comment is so true! "Just stay out of Boise and you’ll be fine,” people say. I had a conversation in a small Idaho town with someone yesterday, who was echoing the same sentiment. I explained that Boise is coming for everyone! (And so are those crossing our southern border.)
Our only solutions: Just say NO to the nonsense! NO to woke corporations. NO to woke schools. Walk out. Do not spend money. Do not comply. Do not argue facts (they never listen). Just vote with pocket book and feet, turn your back on WOKE, and support those who stand strong. Great idea of IFF to celebrate the heroes.