A Welcome Change

One of my daughters married an athlete. They have two sons and a daughter. The boys are also athletes and their games are family affairs with everyone from both sides of her family attending. The girl is is the youngest of the three, just seven years old. After attending the boys' games most of her life, she decided she wanted to play baseball. She wound up as the only girl on her team. Folks, I'm a realist and the reality is that in a sport like baseball girls just don't have the physical attributes to compete with boys. So, on the afternoon of my granddaughter's first game I headed out to the ballpark burdened with low expectations and armed with words of encouragement and consolation.

My granddaughter was playing shortstop and the first pitch resulted in a hot grounder hit her way. She cleanly fielded the ball and gunned down the runner, as she did with every ball hit in her vicinity, sometimes even covering for the other infielders. Each time she was at bat she lined the ball into a hole in the outfield, sending the outfielders chasing it and driving in runs only to be left stranded on base by her lesser talented male teammates. And that little bundle of sugar and spice and everything nice was a terror on the base paths. One time she rounded second base like a runaway locomotive with the ball on the way to third. She slid into third with her jaw set, a snarl on her lips and determination written all over her face. The third baseman forgot all about the ball. I could see the fear in his eyes from my seat in the bleachers as he scrambled to get out of her way.

Girls may not have the physical attributes to compete with boys but I had forgotten that this particular little girl is special in every possible way. She inherited my genes. (My wife argues that she excels in baseball because her father and brothers spent a lot of time coaching her. Don't believe it. It's my genes.)

Time to come clean. I wanted you to know a little about my granddaughter and how I feel about her in hopes of giving you a greater appreciation for what I'm about to say. You see, my granddaughter immediately comes to my mind whenever I read or hear that people should be allowed to use the bathroom designated for the gender they self-identify with. Self-identify? To some people that translates to I'm free to follow that little girl into the restroom and nobody can stop me because I can say I'm feeling my feminine side today. Every day predators are looking for an opportunity to prey upon a little girl and giving them an excuse to be in the girls' bathroom is just giving them one more opportunity. Besides, it's not just little girls. I personally don't know a single woman who wants to invite men into the bathroom with her but I bet there are a lot of high school boys who think it would be hilarious to claim they self-identify as women and walk into the girls' locker room.

So, if you're a member of the LGBTQ community, if you're physically a male, young or old or in between, who self-identifies as a woman and it makes you feel bad to have to use the men's restroom, I sympathize with you. I really do. But when I'm forced to make a choice between you feeling bad and my granddaughter's safety, you lose. So as far as I'm concerned, you need to suck it up and find a way to feel good about yourself without adversely impacting other people. What a welcome change that would be in today's world of political correctness in lieu of intelligence and common sense.