USA Today’s 2023 ‘Woman of the Year’ was given the name Christopher at birth. The world knows the first-term Minnesota state representative today as Leigh Finke, a “transgender woman” who has catapulted to national prominence by leading our state to certain distinctions among the Union. We have become a “trans refuge” state, which means we will cancel your parental rights if your child finds their way across our border in search of “gender-affirming care.” We have nullified the First Amendment, creating a new protected class for “gender identity” distinct from where it was previously subsumed in the “sexual orientation” class, but not included in the religious exemption, which means our churches and other religious institutions can now be sued for refusing to hire someone living in explicit defiance of the faith.
For these horrors and more, I have had a literal front row seat. On January 3, 2023, I was sworn into my first term alongside Representative Finke. Our seats on the Minnesota House floor face one another from across the chamber. Mine is the fifth seat in the first row right next to the speaker dais. From there, I rose last year to condemn the vile “trans refuge” legislation which Finke authored, debating the measure long into the early morning.
A clip from that speech recently went viral, having attracted nearly 13 million views at the time of this writing. In it I gave voice to a sentiment clearly shared by many who feel unable to express it. I am opting out. I’m not playing the pronoun game. I’m not surrendering my grasp of reality. I’m not renouncing my God. I’m not affirming a lie. And I will never condone the abuse ongoing against children experiencing gender dysphoria.
But that’s not the point I wish to linger on today. Let me take you behind-the-scenes to a moment before Finke and I were sworn in, the interim between Election Day 2022 and the beginning of our term.
New members of the House of Representatives attended an orientation at the capitol. Our official House portraits were taken. We were given a tour. We walked through what to expect on the first day of the session. And we had the opportunity to mingle and meet one another. It was at this orientation in late 2022 where I first met Leigh Finke. My wife was with me, as were many spouses and partners of members-elect.
Meeting someone always involves first impressions. Usually, the process is subconscious and seamless. Meeting Leigh Finke was neither. It was apparent on sight what I was looking at, a biological male dressed in women’s clothing. Finke’s transgender presentation raised several questions which I immediately tabled. But there was no immediate animosity. Finke was a colleague, like any other. We spoke cordially. Finke shared gracious small talk with my wife. Our identities, actual and perceived, played no role in our engagement with one another.
The point I wish to make here is that it could have stayed that way. Being transgender, onto itself, presented no cause for animosity between Finke and me. While hosting an evening news talk radio program during proceeding years, I had hosted transgender guests on more than one occasion to talk frankly but respectfully about their identity claims. Those conversations always resolved in the American way – agreeing to disagree. The “transgender man” did not convince me they were a real man. I did not convince them that they were still a woman. But we were able to part on amicable terms recognizing that neither of us had the right to impose ourselves upon the other.
That ability, to agree to disagree, to live and let live, is not found in nature. It’s a choice. It’s the culture of E. Pluribus Unum, the idea that a people cobbled together despite vast differences can nonetheless live in peace by agreeing to a social contract. The agreement is this: that each person owns their own life. That’s it. It’s simple. No one owns anyone else. You cannot tell me what to do with my life, what to believe, what to say, how to live, so long as you do not trespass upon another or their domain. It’s called the classical liberal order, and it makes America possible.
Transgenderism as such does not violate that contract. But the current LGBT political movement brazenly does. A decade ago, their agenda was sold as libertarian, pleading for recognition of “equal rights” to legally recognized marriage. Some of us saw through the façade at the time, recognizing that a state-imposed redefinition of that institution would kick off a chain reaction of endless other redefinitions with disruptive social consequences.
The result is the transgender political movement of today, a movement that demands what no other identity can, total submission. You will use their pronouns. You will forget their given name. You will accept them in your private spaces. You will renounce your most sacred beliefs. You will deny your senses. You will, or you will pay. You will lose your job. You will lose your church. Defy enough, and you will go to jail.
A Finke bill was recently heard in the Minnesota House Public Safety committee which would make it illegal to defend yourself with force upon discovering the transgender nature of a sexual partner. It would, in effect, legalize rape. This was made explicit in the bill’s presentation and subsequent member discussion, during which multiple Democrat representatives stated overtly that “being duped” is no defense for using force during a sexual encounter. Like a vampire, once you invite them in, you cannot opt out.
The liberal order under which our nation has persisted and thrived for over 200 years will not stand under such pressure. We cannot elevate one class of people above everyone else, cancel parental rights, cancel religious liberty, cancel personal autonomy over our own bodies, and expect peace to endure. These developments are a provocation to war, and the provocateurs intend as much. Finke recently told an audience that “anti-LGBT institutions” must be “dismantled.” Leftists generally speak of dismantling systems which they regard to be oppressive. And oppression is frequently equated with disagreement. Merely existing as a bible-believing Christian, and living accordingly, has become an act of civil disobedience in the state of Minnesota. And now we have the president of the United States declaring Easter Sunday as “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
It's all intended to provoke us to violence. It’s the same behavior a schoolyard bully employs, hoping to provoke a fight so they can turn around and play the victim. It takes us to a very dangerous place. If not mitigated through non-violent means, we will descend into a very dark age.
We’re out of time. Reagan’s warning that freedom is only one generation away from extinction has come to fruition. We’re now on a rescue mission, seeking to restore liberties which have been taken away, seeking to restore a culture that allows people to say what they believe without fear.
I will stand in that breech for as long as I am able. Will you?
