Liberal Rep Pushes LGTBQ Agenda Outside of Office with Controversial Transgender Flag
Thursday was the beginning of the 116th Congress, which means if you were a freshman Democrat and wanted to get some headlines, you’d better move quick.
Rep. Jennifer Wexton sure did. Given that her race against GOP stalwart Barbara Comstock kind of faded from media view late in the process as it became clear Wexton was going to win, she wasn’t going to get the same kind of attention as those involved in nail-biting, controversial matchups.
But that can all can be rectified with the aid of a flag: The transgender flag, that is.
For those of you unfamiliar with the process, representatives almost always place flags of their home state outside of their door. I suppose if you’re easily confused this should help you find someone’s office, but it’s also a symbolic way to show who it is that you’re serving.
I mention this because Wexton — in addition to the flag of the commonwealth of Virginia — chose to put the official flag of the transgender movement outside her new office.
The trans flag is proudly & openly displayed next to the Virginia flag outside @RepWexton’s new office! She said to me, “Did you see the flag?! I think we’re the only office on the Hill with one.” To all her volunteers: the flag is there because of you & for you! Change is here! pic.twitter.com/s0iGgoxOgH
— Narissa Rahaman (@MayorBrown) January 3, 2019
“The trans flag is proudly & openly displayed next to the Virginia flag outside @RepWexton’s new office!” Narissa Rahaman of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT organization that backed Wexton, tweeted.
“She said to me, ‘Did you see the flag?! I think we’re the only office on the Hill with one.’ To all her volunteers: the flag is there because of you & for you! Change is here!”
“The trans community has been under attack,” Wexton told Washingtonian, noting she’s an aunt to a transgender individual. “I wanted to show my solidarity because we are talking about my friends and family.”
I understand the impulse here, and I also understand that questioning the choice of the flag outside of Wexton’s office is going to be seen as attacking not the act but Wexton’s niece. I sincerely hope you don’t come away with that impression. I don’t know the details of Wextons’ niece’s life, but I imagine there are challenges for her and her family that I wouldn’t want to minimize.
When it comes to tradition in government, I tend to be a believer in Chesterton’s fence: Ask why it’s there before you tear it down.
I’m personally of the belief that flying your state’s flag outside your office — and only your state’s flag — is probably the wisest way to go. This isn’t to say it hasn’t happened before, and it usually has to do with an advocacy issue.
Your state’s flag is there to show who you represent. So the question is: What about the other flag? If you don’t believe that, is the implied message you don’t represent those people? This isn’t an idle question when it comes to transgender issues and/or gender dysphoria.
Beyond those who have religious qualms with the label, there are plenty of people who don’t believe that the science is there yet on many transgender issues, especially when it comes to surgical intervention for transitioning. And I’m not just talking about members of the Heritage Foundation here. There’s also the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies under President Barack Obama, which couldn’t determine the efficacy of the treatments.
And then there’s the matter of controversial medical interventions for transgender youth, something the Human Rights Campaign — which supported Wexton and receives that support right back — is also in support of. Again, far from settled science.
If you question these issues, does this mean Jennifer Wexton doesn’t hear your voice on these issues? Wexton, it must be noted, is in a swing district where the question is far from an idle one.
And then there’s the optics of this. Relatives of all stripes have been pushed into the political discourse for all kinds of reasons, almost all of which involve garnering attention. This one seems particularly, well, opportunistic.
Even Rahaman’s tweet may have let on a bit more about the genesis of this idea than she intended when she mentioned Wexton’s reaction: “Did you see the flag?! I think we’re the only office on the Hill with one.”
This was supposed to be a deeply personal statement; Wexton seems to treat it as if the transgender flag were a rare Pokémon.
Casting aspersions on politicians’ motives may seem somewhat cruel, but it’s also what Americans ought to do — particularly when a story grabs the headlines so felicitously on swearing-in day, as this one does.
Putting up a flag is quite literally the least Wexton could do. She basically used it to push an agenda, get some media attention for it and tie it to a heart-tugging story. Discussing the ancillary parts were apparently thoroughly unnecessary.
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