Let’s face it: none of us would spend any time on Sam Brinton’s luggage thefts if he weren’t a prominent “non-binary” Energy Department official.

And that is the excuse that many in the media have used to soft-pedal the story: it wouldn’t be a story but for the bigotry of Right-wingers who want to use it to discredit the gender ideology sweeping the nation. Conservative media, and of course the 2nd tier media outlets desperate for clicks have splashed Brinton’s crimes all over the internet, but MSM outlets have soft-pedaled the story.

My own local newspaper the Star Tribune didn’t cover Brinton’s arrest until 3 days after it had made international news, and here is how they covered it:

A Biden administration official has been charged with a felony on allegations of stealing a woman's suitcase from the Twin Cities airport. https://t.co/qSUiIbqN84

— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) November 30, 2022

The Biden administration official looks suspiciously like a baggage carousel.

So the question to answer is: does the MSM have a point in this case? Are those of us who have been angry about the rapid advance of gender ideology been gleefully jumping on this story because it serves our purposes, and only because of that? And is it unfair to do so?

Well the obvious answer is “yes, but…” Everybody loves a story that fits their own priors, so it would be churlish to deny that part of the reason conservatives have consumed it so voraciously is that news stories that don’t support The Narrative rarely see the light of day. In fact, this one would not have but for the determined work of Alpha News right here in Minnesota. They dug up the story, and as I said the local MSM paper wouldn’t cover it at all until basically forced to by the international attention it had drawn.

But conservative schadenfreude doesn’t mean the story itself is unimportant or illegitimate. It actually isn’t at all.

Brinton is not just some random non-binary dude who happened to get caught up in a scandal and would otherwise have been anonymous. He was hired specifically to push gender ideology on the American public, and in the most in-your-face manner. So in-your-face that some LGBTQ+ activists actually worried that Brinton was something of a potential time bomb, given his sketchy history.

Brinton was trotted out as part of the LGBTQ++/565=screw you crowd. Along with Adm. Rachel Levine, Karine Jean-Pierre, and Biden’s embrace of the Dylan Mulvaney crowd hiring Brinton was explicitly a cultural and political statement. A symbol. And as a symbol, not merely a public employee of no note, it is totally fair to examine his conduct.

It is the Biden crowd, not we, who made Brinton this symbol of competence and diversity. On Bastille Day the Biden Administration sent Brinton and Levine to the French Embassy as the United States’ representatives to their celebration. That is extremely high profile, and was done to make a point.

So Brinton is a high profile symbol chosen specifically for his gender fluidity. That makes his behavior significant. Conservatives didn’t latch on to him to make a point, the Left did.

And, unsurprisingly, his behavior tracked exactly with the expectations of people who believe that Brinton’s gender confusion is a result of a mental illness of some kind. The guy parades around in female clothing, does bondage seminars, describes his bizarre sexual practices and teaches them to others, and steals women’s luggage to wear their clothes.

This all fits together. It’s not like the last item, stealing women’s clothes, is shockingly different that everything else. It shocks nobody, and demonstrates that normalizing his behavior was always stupid. It’s all of a piece–his crimes are connected to his other perversities, not some shocking exception. How many of those outfits he proudly parades around in were stolen? I would bet it would be more than one.

We have social norms to constrain human nature and desire; we are born as monsters of gluttony, utterly self-centered, and as basic barbarians. Parents, schools, churches, and other people shape the character of a child into something civilized, establishing boundaries that enable us to become good people. Tossing away all those boundaries creates Sam Brintons.

That is the point. The Left’s attacks on social norms is an attack on civilization itself. Let it all hang out, do as you will, seek whatever thrill or pleasure you desire…all these are just routes to becoming monsters of desires. And that is what Sam Brinton is. He behaved this way because he was encouraged to celebrate every perverse desire.

The gay rights movement got nowhere for decades until it made a pivot–they normalized being gay by normalizing gays. Nobody looks at a Pete Buttigieg as a threat to civilization. He is a boring guy who is basically an overpraised bureaucrat. Gay marriage became acceptable to most Americans because it was based upon a simple appeal: we are and want to be like you. It was when the whole “having sex in public” thing faded that gays were embraced.

You don’t see gay couples in bondage gear in those sappy Christmas commercials. You see two good looking very normal guys sharing a smile.

The current gender movement is exactly the opposite: screw you, live by our rules. Transgenderism is about forcing you to live by their rules.

So my answer is simple: the Sam Brinton story matters a lot, because the Biden Administration made it matter. Brinton is their symbol, and we all knew it was a symbol of corruption. Now the general public is seeing the corruption behind it as well.