The Daily Signal's story about how women who competed against and lost to a trans-identifying male contestant is striking for a number of reasons, but the one that sticks out most to me is that, except for one of the contestants, everybody who spoke to Mary Margaret Olohan requested anonymity. 

That sums up our cultural moment as well as anything: women feel shut out of the conversation because they rightly expect to be excoriated and canceled for speaking up for themselves. 

“A transgender woman gets crowned during first day of transgender Pride Month?” one contestant said. “It did not seem like a coincidence...I was feeling like neither myself nor my fellow contestants had a fair opportunity from the beginning.”https://t.co/7Zc9xua9Pc

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) June 26, 2024

Men are being invited into women's spaces by elites who have made it very clear that, when forced to choose between biological women and men who pretend to be a woman, they will always choose to support the man. 

...on June 1, when the beauty pageant crowned a man the winner of Miss Maryland USA, a number of the contestants felt that they had not been granted that fair and supportive environment they were promised.

The male winner goes by the name Bailey Anne Kennedy and identifies as a transgender woman. The day that he was crowned Miss Maryland USA was also the first day of Pride Month—a fact that was not lost on the contestants.

A few years ago, almost any ordinary person would have been shocked to discover that men were routinely allowed into spaces that are designated to be exclusively available to women or that men are now popping up as "women of the year" or as beauty queens. 

How times have changed. And how disappointing is it that so many Americans are just shrugging or even defending the trend? 

Just to be clear, Miss Maryland USA is not part of the Miss America pageant but rather the Miss USA contest. 

“I was shocked,” one contestant told The Daily Signal as she described how she found out that she was competing against a man. This contestant, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her privacy, will be identified as Contestant A. “I had mixed feelings. I started to think that the winner might be predetermined.”

“A transgender woman gets crowned during first day of transgender Pride Month?” she asked. “It did not seem like a coincidence. Especially when owner of the pageant is a transgender woman herself. I was feeling like neither myself nor my fellow contestants had a fair opportunity from the beginning.”

Kennedy will now go on to compete for the title of Miss USA in Los Angeles in August. The 31-year-old beauty pageant contestant, who would reportedly be the oldest Miss USA winner in pageant history if he won, is married to Marine Corps officer Casey Guthrie.

Kennedy describes himself as a military wife. Immediately after winning the Miss Maryland contest, Kennedy marched in the Capitol Pride Parade in Washington, D.C.

“To be able to be in this position and be able to make an impact on my community, especially with the LGBTQIA community, military spouses, and immigrant women—to be able to make such an impact,” Kennedy told ABC News this week. “I think that’s just something that I could never dream up, and it’s such an honor to be here.”

It's like we are living in a social science experiment where evil sociologists are trying to find the limits beyond which they cannot go when gaslighting people. 

Disappointingly, we have yet to discover those limits. Government officials like Rachel Levine are demanding rewrites of medical recommendations for ideological reasons, major corporations are promoting transgender identities for children, schools are pushing alphabet ideologies (and cultural Marxism) in schools, academic institutions are promoting antisemitism, and the Department of Homeland Security is inviting terrorists into our country. 

Make it stop. Please. 

“I first realized I competed with a biological man a few days after the competition,” said contestant Elizabeth McCarthy. “I saw it on the Miss Maryland USA Instagram post. At first, I was shocked. I felt sick to my stomach and was so upset for the other women in the top five. I was disgusted and disappointed that the pageant coordinators allowed women to undress in front of a man without any disclosure.”

“I just don’t understand what happened to embracing your TRUE self,” she added. “The self that God made perfectly in His image. I don’t understand what happened to loving ourselves for who we ARE, not how we WANT to be. I feel absolutely terrible that society pushes us to change who we are. It’s not fair, kind, or loving.”

A third contestant, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her privacy and will be identified as Contestant B, said that she felt betrayed by the way the contest was handled.

“I felt lied to,” she shared. “I would’ve liked to know ahead of time, as I was subject to change, utilize the bathroom, and be in the same space as a biological man … it surely seemed like the organization and Bailey was trying to hide this fact until it was convenient to them.”

A third Miss Maryland contestant, who will be identified as Contestant C, stressed that she is “not against the LGBTQ community” and believes that individuals who identity as LGBTQ have “rights just like every individual.”

“However, I do believe the competition was rigged,” she shared. “There isn’t a doubt in my mind that it was not. For example, I think in previous years, the pageant secured different judges … I think they were changed. In addition, the staff were not respectful nor pleasant. I completely understand that this is a pageant and it is fast paced, but there is a certain respect that individuals should provide, especially since we are all grown women who can take direction and listen.”

It is impossible to believe that the contest wasn't rigged. To believe that you have to accept that it was a coincidence that Kennedy was crowned on the first day of Pride month. 

If you believe that, you will believe anything. This was about social signaling and nothing else. 

Several of the women that The Daily Signal spoke with believe that Kennedy’s win was attached to his transgender identification, noting that he won the pageant on June 1, the very first day of “Pride Month.”

“It was Pride Week when she won, so I would assume it was to show that the pageant community does not discriminate,” Contestant C said.

“I feel Kennedy won this competition because it was set up,” McCarthy told The Daily Signal. “What are the odds that a trans-identifying individual wins the Miss Maryland USA title on the first day of Pride Month? I feel that men are taking over everything that women worked so hard for.”

“I believe Kennedy won this title solely based on her status of being transgender and the first transgender to win Miss Maryland, especially it being the first day of Pride Month,” Contestant B argued.

“This organization wanted to check all of its diversity and different boxes, so instead of selecting the most qualified, they selected what would make them stand out to the new organization owner, who is also transgender,” she added, arguing, “This space is less about women supporting women and more about how many boxes we can check.”

Our elite institutions are demanding that everybody believe that Black is White, Up is Down, Illegal Immigrants who arrived this year "built America," and that handing out voter registration cards to illegal immigrants as they get welfare is perfectly innocent. 

Many Americans appear to believe these things, and many, many more pretend to because they like the outcomes. People who get outraged when 10 people wear Nazi uniforms (which is outrageous) applaud when thousands shout the most vile things at Jews and commit violence in the name of decolonization. 

We still hear about Charlottesville, which happened six years ago, but the left is remarkably silent about the near-daily outrages against Jews on our streets today. 

It isn't what, it is who. 

Alphabet ideology is simply one facet of the larger movement: cultural Marxism. The point is to destroy our current culture and political system and replace it. 

Cultural Marxism is the dominant social movement of the day, and it will not be stopped by occasional bouts of outrage followed by a return to lethargy and indifference. 

People are being harmed. Jews are being hunted; women are being pushed out of their spaces; children are having their innocence and ability to reason destroyed.

It's up to us to stop it, and that means punishing the people in charge. No forgiveness, no indifference. Every corporation and politician who goes along with or promotes this should get the Bud Light treatment--no mercy.