We at the NO to 3 Committee were disappointed that Question 3 in Massachusetts passed in November, but we aren’t disconsolate, and we aren’t surrendering. Although Big Tranny raised $5.7 million in cash and in-kind contributions (versus the $652,000 in cash and in-kind raised by the two committees (Keep MA Safe- No on 3 and Vote NO to 3) opposed to the 2016 bathroom bill, we did not let our lack of financial resources count us out. Many of the principals of both committees faced a similar financial disadvantage in 2014 when we successfully repealed the automatic gas tax and we thought we could overcome that disadvantage again.
We at the NO to 3 Committee expected that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ October announcement to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance, would have given momentum to the bathroom bill repeal committees. That announcement reinforced why we voted NO to Question 3 in the November 6 Massachusetts general election in order to repeal the Bathroom Bill passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Charlie Baker. We voted NO to Question 3 to stop enabling the insanity of the gender dysphoric (aka “transgenders”). Gender dysphoria is not a civil right; it is a psychosexual mental disorder requiring intensive professional treatment beyond a once-a-week therapy session with a psychologist in Newton Centre.
I believe that the Vote NO to 3 Committee’s argument to repeal the bathroom bill by advocating an unapologetic pro-traditional-moral-values world view that confronts the Rainbow Jihad’s lies, fraud, and distorted science was more compelling than the niche “public safety” argument that the more moderate pro-family groups used as part of their ballot question committee. Nevertheless, I believed that there was a place for both arguments in an effort to combat Big Tranny’s insanity, as did NewBostonPost in its editorial advocating a repeal of the bathroom bill. There were 10 pro-Brexit campaigns in the 2016 United Kingdom’s European Union membership referendum targeting various voter groups and I felt that a similar model had potential to work here in Massachusetts.
The principals of the NO to 3 Committee were among those who succeeded in defeating the anti-family, anti-constitutional counseling ban in July 2018, in our case by engaging in an all-out, full-court press of our state senators. During our lobbying efforts, I personally told Massachusetts Senate Rules Committee chairman Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford) how homosexuality countermands what the priests and the nuns taught him when he was a lad. We believe our pressure kept in check the Senate Rules Committee’s desire to pass this bill in a timely manner. This served as a catalyst for grassroots pro-family activists in California to use our efforts as a template to defeat their own counseling ban bill (AB2943). These events inspired us to get back together and establish the Vote NO to 3 Committee to persuade voters to say NO to Question 3 and repeal the 2016 Bathroom Bill.
The two best arguments against gender dysphoria come from Jewish law. Genesis Chapter 5 clearly states that when G-d created man, G-d made man in the likeness of G-d, G-d created them male (Adam) and female (Eve). A man will always have male DNA and a woman will always have female DNA, even if people subject themselves to hormonal manipulation and genital mutilation as part of “sexual reassignment surgery.”
In addition, Rabbi Nosson Scherman wrote in the commentary section for the ArtScroll Siddur (Orthodox Jewish daily prayer book) that Torah assigns missions to respective groups of people. Free Jewish men have responsibilities and duties not shared by others. For this, we express gratitude (Blessed are you, Hashem our G-d, King of the Universe, for not having made me a woman) that, unlike women, we are obligated to perform time-related commandments (specifically prayers that must be said within a certain time period of the day). In contrast, women historically and because of their nature are the guardians of tradition, the molders of character, children, and family. Though women are not privileged with the challenges that men are charged with, they are created closer to G-d’s ideal of satisfaction. They express their gratitude in the blessing “Blessed are you, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, for having made me according to G-d’s will.” Big Tranny’s insanity countermands what G-d expects from men and women.
While it is biologically impossible for a male to transform into a female and vice-versa, people are capable of making changes in their lives for the better so that they can be better men and women, respectively. In my situation, I have spent the last three years of my life transitioning from a secular, obese, nationalist populist Trumpidian politically-obsessed male into a Modern Orthodox, Constitutionally Conservative gentleman who managed to lose 50 pounds and who even tried to persuade other politically obsessed males into following a more exegetically, constitutionally conservative lifestyle. Through a renewed commitment to abiding by a kosher diet, I intend to lose another 50 pounds.
We at the Vote NO to 3 Committee recognized that although we lost this battle, we moral value conservatives are not going to go gently into that good political night. We know that the Rainbow Jihad will be looking to ram the draconian anti-family, anti-constitutional counseling ban down the gullets of Massachusetts voters this new legislative session and we will be there to defeat it, just as we did last session.
Joshua Norman is an Auburndale resident who served as chairman of the Vote NO to 3 Committee in 2018.
