Video: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Article: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Article: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Entry: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Video: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Rep. Pramila Jayapal is taking an unusual approach in fighting an initiative on Tuesday’s Washington state ballot that would bar students who were born male from competing in girls’ sports.

In an Instagram video, Jayapal invokes Benjamin Franklin’s warning about trading liberty for safety to argue against the measure. Supporters say the ballot measure is needed to protect girls from unfair competition and possible physical harm from biological boys who identify as girls or transgender playing in girls’ sports.

But Jayapal, a former chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, says the issue is all about personal freedom from big government.

“Benjamin Franklin once famously cautioned us that those who would give up essential freedoms to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety,” Jayapal states.

Franklin’s original context is quite different than the way the quote is usually used today. Franklin wasn’t defending individual rights against government power. He was defending a legislature’s authority to tax for the common defense against a family trying to buy its way out of taxation.

Still, Jayapal’s statement reflects the roundabout approach behind transgender advocates’ efforts to defeat several state ballot measures aimed at barring biological boys from girls’ sports. The messaging is that the measures are too invasive because they would require a health care provider to verify the sex of any student who wants to play on a girls’ team.

It’s an effort to turn an argument about government overreach usually made by conservatives against them.

The Washington state initiative, which would reverse a 2007 law allowing children to play on teams matching their gender identity, is “cloaked under the auspices of making school sports equitable for our girls,” Jayapal says in the video.

“But please don’t be fooled,” she warns. “It’s actually about attacking an already vulnerable and very tiny group of trans kids, and equally important, it ends up subjecting all of our kids to invasive sex inspections just to play school sports.”

Jayapal and other opponents say the measure would require doctors’ exams and costly hormone testing for all students who want to play sports.

Supporters counter that such arguments are hyperbole. Most high school sports already require a physical to show that students are able to participate, they assert. They say doctors would simply check a box for a student’s biological sex, without performing any additional exam or testing hormones.

“They’re going to have the standardized form, and when you look at those forms, as the student’s physician is collection information — height, weight, and sex are among the things they are already collecting,” Matt Sharp, vice president of public policy for Alliance Defending........

© RealClearPolitics