Author: Sherry Sylvester

In the successful fight to pass Senate Bill 3 in Texas protecting girls’ sports, conservatives were repeatedly told by their opponents on the left that we were tilting at windmills. Trans men were no threat to female sports, we were assured; the legislation we were pushing was a “solution in search of a problem.” Conservatives who pushed to protect sports for women and girls were accused of being transphobic. 

But ask girl swimmers in Pennsylvania what they think about the recently transitioned person who is shattering women’s records in the Keystone State. 

In 2019, when conservatives were working to pass privacy legislation to ensure that boys would not be permitted to enter girls’ restrooms in public schools, leftists and the media again insisted that we were provincial prudes. When Texas state senator and former NCAA champion athlete Lois Kolkhorst declared the bathroom battle “the women’s rights issue of our time,” almost no Texas media outlet reported it. The media ignored dozens of reports of women being attacked by men in public restrooms and changing rooms in Texas.

Similarly, the media ignored what helped spark a triumph of parental rights in the Virginia gubernatorial election. A girl was raped in a school restroom by a boy wearing a skirt.  School officials said that they didn’t know whether to confront him because he might have been a “trans” person. 

In Texas, our legislation to protect sports for women and girls is described by the media as “disqualifying” of boys rather than affirming girls. News reports say that the bill “excludes” those who say that they are girls – instead of noting that the bill protects actual girls.

Which brings me to my question: Where are the feminists? Having fought in the second wave of women’s rights in the 1970s, I do not understand why today’s American women’s movement has been so quick to give those hard-won rights away – to say, essentially, that if a male is suffering from gender dysphoria and thinks that he’s a girl or woman, we should just go along with that. 

Body dysphoria leads to life-threatening bulimia and other diseases, but gender dysphoria should be enabled, even encouraged – at least, according to the left, which believes that parents should be permitted to authorize life- and body-changing hormone treatments, and even surgery, for their children, not recognizing that these actions are irreversible and clearly child abuse. This is a horrible disservice to the victims of gender dysphoria. It is also a setback for women’s rights.

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, has joined with many European feminists in stepping up and saying the obvious: that sex is a real, biological fact. It is scientifically certifiable, not something that is arbitrarily “assigned” at birth and written on one’s birth certificate. Rowling has attracted the ire of the trans movement because she dared to question the terms “people who have a cervix,” “people who menstruate,” or “people who can become pregnant” as substitutes for the word “women.” 

Similarly, a left-wing British MP, Rosie Duffield, has drawn a line in the sand. Duffield is saying what many feminists have apparently been afraid to say: that most men are stronger than most women. Too often, that reality can be a threat to women. We ought to be able to go to the restroom – where, unlike men, we must partially undress – without being afraid.

Which brings us back to the swimmer who just smashed all the women’s swimming records in Pennsylvania. Texans know that this is unfair, and they don’t want any part of it. 

A full 58% of Texans strongly support legislation that would require high school and middle school students to compete in sports associated with their biological sex. This includes 75% of whites, 64% of Latinos, and 63% of African-Americans. It includes almost half of Democrats, over 90% of Republicans, and 73% of Independents. And while 82% of my generation – the Baby Boomers – support the legislation, so do 63% of Millennials, 69% of Gen Xers, and 54% of Generation Z. 

Back in the 1970s, a battle cry for many of us in the women’s movement was that “the personal is the political.” I’ve long abandoned that motto, but in this case, it has some relevance, as we are watching our rights as women being given away to men. On this issue and many others, Texas conservatives are standing up for women, but I ask, again: Where are the feminists?

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former senior adviser to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

This commentary was originally published in the Washington Examiner.

If the public had been largely unaware of the pervasiveness of critical race theory in America’s public schools, the shock waves of Virginia’s election have made sure people, particularly parents, are now paying attention.

The Texas Legislature joined several other states and passed an anti-CRT bill earlier this year. To fight back, proponents of the controversial concept have scrambled to downplay its impact and launch attacks against efforts to ban it in schools.

An overwrought editorial in the Houston Chronicle is typical of these assaults on CRT bans. Opponents claim that the legislation frightens teachers into teaching a whitewashed history of America. But this is factually and demonstrably untrue. If only they would read the bill.

The items some claim won’t be taught in Texas schools, such as the evils of slavery and the role of government in upholding that unholy institution, are taught because state law specifically mandates that they be taught.

The new Texas rule on critical race theory, House Bill 3979, not only doesn’t ban teaching facts, but it reinforces that our full and accurate history, scars and all, should be taught. Specifically, the bill states that students should understand “the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong.”

Opponents of the law claim it says students should never feel “discomfort” from learning that, for example, Texas hero Jim Bowie owned slaves. Therefore, teaching this fact would be banned.

What the new rule actually says is that “a teacher … may not … require or make part of a course that … an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual’s race or sex.” In other words, teachers can teach history, but they can’t require students to feel guilt as a condition of passing the class.

The teachings of CRT go beyond simply learning America’s history and, in fact, require white people to accept blame for all economic and social disparities experienced by people of color today.

That is what is being banned by the CRT bill — and for good reason.

Not only does CRT discriminate against white people, but it hurts minorities, too. It forces young black and Hispanic children to accept they will always be victims and that under our current system, there is nothing they can do to improve their lot in life. It also advocates lowered standards for minorities and strips them of agency. Teaching CRT is not just unconstitutional — it is demonstrably false and cruelly immoral. CRT has no place in our schools.

As for the laughable lie that CRT isn’t found in schools, of course it is . What’s more, liberals are demanding more CRT in public schools, and they want parents to shut up about it.

The new law protects speech, debate, and the free flow of ideas. It prevents students from being forced to accept controversial theories as a condition for advancement. And it helps empower parents to address and correct these illegal and unconstitutional activities in their schools.

On one thing, at least, we are in full agreement with the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board: “Hard facts about race and racism, about our flawed heroes or about our inability over the years to live up to our ideals of freedom, equality and justice are part of the Texas story. They’re not the only part, by a long shot, but a well-educated Texan needs to know them.”

We are sure, then, that members of that board will be relieved that those things are taught in Texas schools and will continue to be. If they have any questions, they can read the text of the bill itself .

A Los Angeles Times reporter wrote earlier this month that the media should stop even trying to cover both sides of political issues — since the conservative side is just wrong. She tells her fellow journalists to stop reporting what she calls “both-siderism.”

The idea of only reporting one-side of a political debate is not new on the left. Al Gore said the same thing years ago when he urged the media to stop reporting on anyone who did not agree with his climate change theories. They complied.

Here in Texas, covering the conservative perspective of the news — “both-siderism” — ended in the media years ago. In what appears to be an effort to counter news of Texas’ persistent success based on conservative policies, the Texas media dishes out daily news stories that portray the Lone Star State as a miserable backward place held captive by extremist leaders. The distortion is mind-boggling, starting with the Texas media coverage of what is going on at the southern border.

There have been almost no Texas news reports of the problems of South Texans whose safety is threatened and whose hospitals and schools and homes are overrun with migrants who have crossed the border illegally. Instead, although the border is the No. 1 concern of Texans, the “one-sider” press portrays leaders and legislators who are working to secure the border as extremists or even racist.

Virtually every poll shows that after illegal immigration, Texans are concerned about their property taxes — but there are almost no news reports of Texans telling their stories of how high property taxes affect their lives and their businesses.  Instead, the Texas press has pushed out hundreds of stories on why local governments need more property tax revenue. “One-sider” media portray legislators who advocate for property tax reform as anti-local government, not pro-tax payer.

There has also been no Texas coverage of what critical race theory actually is and why parents are concerned about it. During the regular legislative session, lawmakers advocating for parents read aloud from actual books in Texas schools that encouraged children to look at each other in terms of color, not character. The books were not reported. Throughout the debate, lawmakers repeatedly noted that topics including slavery, the Underground Railroad, the impact of Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many other issues dealing with race in Texas are already part of the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) and thus must be included in the Texas public school curriculum. But the “one-sider” press continue to report that opponents of critical race theory want to “whitewash” our history, stop teaching about slavery and cover-up our past.

Half the country and a majority of Texans oppose abortion, but the “one-sider” press uses Orwellian terms like “choice” and “abortion rights” and portrays those who fight against American abortion laws — which permits some of the latest term abortions in the world — as extremist. They use the same trick with what they call “transgender rights,” ignoring the fact that this is a women’s rights issue in most of the western world and many feminists see it as an attack on our hard-earned rights as women.

The election reforms finally passed in Texas’ special session had the support of a majority of Texans in both parties, as well as most African-Americans and Hispanics. The Texas media treated those reforms as some kind of racist plot.

The majority of Texans know “one-sider” news when they see it and they have given the Texas media a giant thumbs down. A recent Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler poll found that less than 20% of Texas Republicans watch local TV news and only 5% say they read their local newspaper. The reality of our lives in Texas disputes those lies.

More than 1,000 people move to Texas every day — and we all know why. The Texas economy was one of the first to recover after the pandemic and we continue to be the job creating engine for the entire country. We have the 9th largest economy in the world and our oil and gas industry almost single-handedly made the U.S. energy independent before Biden shut them down.

The national press can stop covering both sides of the political debate — most have already — but what we have found out about “one-sider” media in Texas is that reality — and truth — will still triumph.

When the Census 2020 numbers were finally released late last month, Texas Democrats jubilantly joined the national press in celebrating that the number of white people in the U.S. had declined over the last decade — 8.6% nationally and 5.3% in Texas. Predicting the data would make a huge impact on the redistricting in Texas, some gushed that Republicans must face the “demographic reality that the state is growing in ways that put the party’s [GOP] stranglehold in question.”

Now that the maps have been released, the left is screaming that they have been robbed because there are no new Hispanic or Black opportunity districts—a tough blow for identity-politics sycophants. The irony is that these so-called “opportunity” districts actually isolate minority candidates, depriving them of the opportunity to demonstrate their appeal to a broad base of Texans which would give them a springboard for a run for statewide office—as we are seeing this cycle with state Rep. James White, R-Hillister.

Analysts are still looking at what the racial and ethnic data in the 2020 census means, since the census questions changed in 2020. Over the last decade, we have also begun to identify ourselves differently. Six times as many Texans described themselves as “mixed” race and “other” on the 2020 census than did so in 2010.

But whether there are more or fewer white people in Texas won’t make much difference to the political prospects of the left. It has been betting on its demographic ship to come in for decades, but each time it issues a “Blue Wave” warning, it fails to make landfall.

The left keeps losing and it doesn’t have a clue why.

A post-2020 election autopsy report leaked last year concluded that “…there was a pronounced differential turnout effect among Latino voters in Texas that hurt Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.” The report also found that “Republicans did a better job of getting their African-American voters out than Democrats did.”

What most Texans know about liberals is that they strongly support abortion and they oppose gun rights. Because the majority of Texans are on the other side of those issues, the left’s candidates start out with two strikes against them. Add in their attack on the Texas oil and gas industry—the source of millions of jobs in Texas including many worked by Hispanics—and they are in a bigger hole. That’s one reason they took such a beating in South Texas in 2020.

Then there’s the left’s disdain for businesses, which ultimately is an attack on every Texas business owner, both large and small, regardless of race. Texans know our state is the nation’s job creator because of low taxes and reasonable regulations, which the left consistently vows to reverse.

As if that isn’t enough, remember that a majority of Texans also support school choice, ending taxpayer funded lobbying, and lowering property taxes. Majorities don’t want boys playing on girls’ sports teams and they don’t want their kids to be taught racial division in public schools. It makes no sense to most Texans—regardless of what color they are.

Despite opposing virtually everything most Texans support, the left continues to insist that somehow it is being robbed. But the right to draw the maps was won in the 2020 election—in which the left was soundly defeated. As for gerrymandering, it began in Massachusetts in 1812 and has been used in every election since. It wasn’t invented by Texas conservatives.

Census 2020 won’t bail out the left in Texas. Behind all the hoopla, elections are always about policies and ideas—and all of the left’s are bad.

This commentary was originally published in TribTalk.

“Abortion Barbie,” the jab directed at state Sen. Wendy Davis, made it to California recently when a passionately pro-life Texas woman paid for posters depicting Davis as a Barbie doll with a baby in utero to be posted around the Los Angeles neighborhood where Davis was holding yet another out-of-state fundraiser.

The term “Abortion Barbie” was originally coined by RedState Editor Erick Erickson to describe Davis’ over-the-top pro-abortion positions. Democrats wailed in outrage, saying the attack reeked of sexism and would hurt Republicans among female voters. They’re right that it’s sexist — the equivalent of a “dumb blonde” joke. But they’re wrong that it will do much damage among women who vote Republican. 

I’m a lifelong feminist and hate trite putdowns as much as the next woman, but I’m also a conservative Republican, and it’s virtually inconceivable that I could be persuaded to vote for a big-government-supporting tax-and-spender like Davis, no matter how much I identify with her sneakers.

But the smashmouth conservatives who are recycling the term “Abortion Barbie” should stop. It undercuts our message and credibility.

We Texas conservatives proclaim to be people whose principles are rooted in faith. If that’s true — and I believe it is — then we must demonstrate both the principles and the faith.  

There is no way for us to hold the moral high ground if our tactics include name-calling and sexist attacks, even though those tactics are often used against us. Instead, we have to be who we say we are. 

Democrats may be as committed to their own faith as we are, but they have consciously decided not to include faith in their political story. Remember the boos at the 2012 Democratic National Convention when it was proposed that a reference to God be restored in the party platform?

By contrast, we conservative — most of us Christian — Republicans make a point of bringing our faith with us when we enter the public square. We think it’s a good thing.

When we do that, we must hold ourselves to the standard of behavior that is required of Christians — to love our enemies and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. 

I’m not a biblical scholar, but I’m pretty sure there’s no loophole in the Golden Rule for politics.

This does not mean that in the seemingly endless battle for the hearts and minds of Texans that we do not hit back or give as good as we get, and then some. We cannot abandon the basic tenet of political war — that no shot go unanswered.  But we do not have to answer tit for tat. We have to be better. 

Granted, it’s not easy. Our liberal opponents frequently litter their arguments with name-calling and condescension, for which they often get a pass.

You will recall there was no particular outcry of sexism when Sarah Palin was called “Caribou Barbie.”

Recall also the behavior of the women who showed up at the Capitol in support of Davis’ pro-abortion filibuster last year. If you think they were a tolerant group of young women who were simply passionate about an issue, then you weren’t there. They were hateful, in the true sense of the word — filled with hate for the legislators who disagreed with them. Their contempt was echoed on the Senate floor when Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, now the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, delivered a cheap shot suggesting that she was being ignored by the chair because she is a woman. Her crowd-pandering and opportunistic comment has become part of her narrative, even though it wasn’t really true. Virtually everyone was being ignored.    

Democrats are so hopelessly behind in Texas that they often flail madly, trying to strike some kind of chord with voters. Their fast-talking spokesmouths have adopted sarcasm and hatefulness as a communications strategy, hoping they might somehow manage to climb out of the mid-40s in polls by November. Hard to blame them, given their desperation.

The conservative communication job is harder. We are the majority, and we are the people of faith. The onus is on us to lead with our principles. 

I’m in no position to cast the first stone. Last session, I stood outside a particularly maddening committee hearing in which outnumbered Democrats rambled on for hours, alternating between falsehoods, hyperbole and cheap shots.

I asked the conservative Republican committee chairman afterward how he managed to remain gracious in the face of the Democrats’ deliberately obstructive behavior.

“I just keep loving on ’em,” he said.

It seemed to me that punching out a few lights was a more appropriate response, and I said so.

“Just keep loving on ’em,” he repeated, smiling. “It confuses them.”

So there you have it. Follow the Golden Rule. It’s not only a top commandment, but it can be a good political strategy, too.