Letters to the Editor: Anti-trans Republicans are foolishly trying to legislate biological ‘truth’

To the editor: Proposals to legally define sex as binary — thus officially marginalizing an estimated 1.3 million transgender adults in the United States — are reminiscent of the misguided 19th century attempt by the Indiana General Assembly to, in effect, legislate the value of the mathematical constant pi.

That attempt to assert the value of pi by legislative fiat was scuttled when it was observed that the General Assembly lacked the power to define mathematical truth.

In the 21st century, it is as plainly irrational to contend that gender is binary as it is to posit that the value of pi is rational, as was attempted not so long ago. We are in a sorry state of affairs when we have given inexpert legislators the power to define biological “truth.”

Scott McCarty, Ventura

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To the editor: There’s no small irony in Republicans’ push to exploit transphobic wedge issues, whereby they strive to counter the electoral consequences of opposing abortion.

Consider how GOP politicians are inclined to dodge pertinent policy questions by diverting to a specious issue that most reliably stirs up pliant bigoted voters — for example, the possibility that a daughter might have to compete against some athletically gifted transgender woman in sports.

Does it matter where the odds of that happening are dwarfed by the odds that someday a daughter will need an abortion? No, not to transphobic parents who trend willfully ignorant.

The GOP’s shameless exploitation of such a fraught wedge issue shows how our democracy finds itself in a polarized doom loop.

Sandra Perez, Santa Maria