John Kasich: Intellectual Fog or Moral Confusion on 'Bathroom Bill'?

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich said [on Saturday, April 9] that he would not have signed the North Carolina law requiring all men to use bathrooms matching their birth gender. Thus, in embracing the incoherent vacuity of the contemporary “trans” movement, Mr. Kasich has demonstrated he is either suffering from an intellectual fog or that he’s morally confused.

Anyone who accepts the argument that females are not ontologically real, but, instead, are merely subjective fabrications is not demonstrating much mental acumen. Is Mr. Kasich unaware of the elementary biology of male and female genitalia? Is he lacking the rudimentary knowledge of X and Y chromosomes? Has he never heard of testosterone or estrogen? Is he not aware of the basic physical differences between boys and girls?

If these are all new concepts to the candidate, he is either quite intellectually challenged or he’s the victim of a terrible education that has left him incredibly ill-informed in his understanding of some pretty basic human realities (and I use that word “realities” quite intentionally here). In dismissing the scientific fact of the woman – the reality of the biological and genetic female – and replacing what is empirically obvious with the illusions of the dysphoric, Mr. Kasich is demonstrating mental acuity that is, indeed, muddled at best.

Likewise, it seems self-evident, in my book, that anyone who believes it’s right to ignore a woman’s right to her own toilet has a questionable understanding of justice and is, therefore, morally confused. Does Mr. Kasich think it is a moral good to subject a 12-year-old girl to men who are more interested in indulging their sexual fantasies than they are in simply giving a young woman some basic level of privacy? Does he believe it is “just” for a co-ed to have her bathroom and shower invaded by her male classmates? Does he think that women should simply concede defeat when men intentionally make them feel threatened by intruding into their personal space?

Forgive me, but how can anyone not see that such misogyny is either morally clueless or simply blatant chauvinism? In what world is it right or just for men to tell women that they are not biological facts; that they’re simply a subjective construct; and that men should, therefore, be able to intrude into their most private spaces? Oh, and according to Mr. Kasich, if women disagree they should just “take a deep breath” and learn to go along and get along!

John Kasich is being astoundingly cavalier in his comments about this incredibly important issue. In doing so, he is either showing he lacks the competence needed to understand the basics of elementary biology or that he is a very disingenuous man who is willing to pander to a sexist, anti-woman agenda for political gain. The first is intellectually inexcusable and the second is a moral insult to all women and men who have an ounce of common sense. 

Photo credit: By Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Dr. Everett Piper is president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

The views expressed in opinion articles are solely those of the author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Black Community News.