Has the tide turned against the Left -- and toward reality? Especially when it comes to biological reality rather than the feelz?

Today's big news from the Supreme Court suggests that momentum is building, at least in the use of executive authority to define policy. Without comment -- or much, anyway -- the court reinstated the Trump administration's ban on transgender troops while the challenge proceeds on the merits:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration can move forward with a ban on transgender military service members for now, lifting a lower court injunction against the policy after a judge ruled it was an "unsupported, dramatic and facially unfair exclusionary policy."

The court did not explain its decision other than to say the order would expire if the justices ultimately take up the case on the merits and issue a ruling striking it down.

The order itself is interesting, in that it pre-empts any action the Ninth Circuit might take against this policy. The text states that the injunction will remain in place as it proceeds to the Supreme Court, as long as a writ of certiorari "is timely sought." Three justices indicated that they would not have enjoined the district court ruling -- you can guess which three, and probably why, although it may be just that they object to an intervention at this stage. 

It seems pretty clear, though, that six justices think that the ruling will not survive scrutiny and that the authority to make these decisions fall within executive authority when Congress has not acted in one way or the other. It is yet another incremental indicator that the Supreme Court has begun to draw some constitutional lines, and may be ready to draw jurisdictional lines in its own branch.

The news has not all gone that direction. US courts have ordered the Pentagon to continue transgender medical therapies, for instance. Colorado has recently decided that 'misgendering' your child now qualifies as child abuse. Maine's governor insists on enriching the trans-med industry while its legislature has silenced a member who dissents. 

However, the momentum clearly has begun to move in the opposite direction, both here and abroad. The Department of Health and Human Services has finally taken notice of the Cass Report, and the new administration has made clear that it intends to enforce civil-rights laws based on biological reality. Perhaps most surprisingly, reality has gained momentum in the UK, where their Supreme Court ruled that 'woman' refers exclusively to biological sex.

That fight has been a long time coming, but it got preceded by a fight between British NGOs that the court had to settle. The new verbatim play and now YouTube feature-length film Trans On Trial lays out the fight between the pro-trans Mermaids charity and the LGB Alliance, which opposes trans ideology. Mermaids sued to stop LGB Alliance's enrollment on the charity register, and what followed turns out to be ... very entertaining indeed.

Trans On Trial got released a week ago, and yesterday I interviewed auteur Phelim McAleer, who pioneered verbatim theater along with his wife Ann McIlhenny and their team at Unreported Story Society.  Both the film and the podcast are below, and the latter features a wide-ranging conversation that discusses trans activism, medical quackery, legal shenanigans, October 7 (the subject of another verbatim theater production), Harvey Weinstein, and much more. 

Here are a few highlights of our conversation, from the lightly edited transcript:

Phelim: It's called verbatim theater, right? So it's plays that are based on court transcripts, plays that are based on say, investigations, all statements. We, after October 7, we went to Israel and interviewed survivors and heroes there and took all their testimonies and made a dramatic play out of that as well. Well. So we did the Ferguson play using the grand jury testimony. That was so powerful that nine of the actors walked out during rehearsal because the truth didn't match what the media had told them.

There was no hands up, don't shoot. So we took this court case, this British court case, which was one of the first transgender court cases. And it's unintentionally hilarious. Somebody said, humor is tragedy plus time. I think they were so right where this is concerned. ...

Phelim: The mermaids objected to LGB Alliance getting charitable status, saying, oh, these are transphobic, et cetera, et cetera, people. So mermaids, for the first time, I believe, in history, took a case to the Charity Commission. And no one has ever any memory of this happening before. Took a case to the Charity Commission and said, we want you to yank their charitable status, yanked their certification, and went to a full-blown hearing.

And it actually turned out to be a trial about transgender ideology. It turns out the mermaids were on trial, not the LGB Alliance. It turns out trans-affirming youth, you know, trans-affirming ideology was on trial. And they had nothing there. ...

Ed: The audience is loving it. I mean, really, they're having a great time in this video.

Phelim: Well, it's 100% based on the transcripts. And when you hear people under oath trying to defend the indefensible, it actually ends up being ludicrously humorous, as opposed to serious. I mean, of course, it's a very serious matter. But the knots they tie themselves in, you know, It's funny. It's funny. But it's a very serious point. And it shows, you know, it's not a three minute TV interview where they can throw out talking points or fake statistics.

It's it's there in the witness box for hours on end. Now, obviously, the play is edited down, but they're in the witness box and they have to answer the questions they have. They can't rely on talking points and they can't change the subject. Subject. And they have to, you know, stand over everything they say with facts and data. And the facts and data ain't there. ...

Ed: How much, if at all, did the Cass report come up in the LGB alliance trial for [the] lawsuit?

Phelim: ... So Cass had only put out an interim report at that stage, but the interim report was very, very damaging. So the cast only came out a year or two ago. This trial pre-dates by a few months, the final report, but she had put out an interim interim report. So obviously LGB Alliance was asking Mermaids, who are the experts on trans youth,  what do you think now with the Cass report?

And everyone says, well, I haven't read the Cass report. And they're going, ... we don't get involved medically, We just we just counsel children and get them to services. And she's going, yeah, but you send them to doctors for puberty blockers. And then that's a pathway to surgery. Yes. But, you know, we're not a medical organization. We don't do any surgeries.

 ===

We have plenty more in our podcast interview, so be sure to watch it all. Phelim has the entire play on his YouTube channel, so perhaps watch the film first to get the full flavor of the defeat Mermaids and the Left suffered in this court case:

Watch the full interview on the Ed Morrissey Show podcast:

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!