It's absurd that a man (with or without surgery) thinks he can wear lipstick, slip into a dress with matching high heels, and assume he is a woman.  No matter what is removed, added, or ignored, men remain men.

Ironically, Republican elected officials and political organizations often celebrate women by highlighting the suffragist movement.  Yet these same officials and organizations demean women, especially in sports, by accepting transgenders.  With the 2022 midterm elections focusing on "suburban women," Republicans might be in for a rude surprise on Election Day.

The suffragist movement

The United States suffragist movement started in earnest in the late 1800s.  By the turn of the 20th century, with technological advancements improving life for many Americans, women across America demanded the right to vote.  However, Democrat president Woodrow Wilson opposed a federal amendment, preferring that it remain a state issue.  Yet by 1916, only nine of thirty states had passed legislation giving women voting rights.

Suffragist leaders agreed that something needed to be done at the federal level to speed the process for amending the U.S. Constitution.  Days before Wilson's second inauguration in 1917, suffragists from the National Woman's Party started daily peaceful protests outside the White House.  The marchers became known as "Silent Sentinels."

At first, everyone politely tolerated each other — suffragists, police, and the White House.  More than once, President Wilson invited the ladies inside for coffee — but they politely declined.  The daily protests continued without incident until April, when the United States entered World War I.  Once Congress declared war against Germany, some suffragists felt there should be a pause in their movement.  Others asked how the United States could be fighting for democracy in Europe without democracy for women at home.

Image: Suffragists at the White House in 2017.  Library of Congress.  No known copyright restrictions.

By June, politeness among peaceful protestors, law enforcement (which was all male), and the White House started to erode.  Where before suffragists were allowed to march peacefully on Pennsylvania Avenue, now police arrested some for obstructing traffic.  It was a bogus charge because the women calmly marched two by two on the public sidewalk along the White House gates.  Suffragists tolerated the arrests because they were quickly released without penalty.

But the slaps on the wrist for traffic obstruction vanished by August.  Annoyed with the daily protests, D.C. courts began handing out prison sentences.

Then came the "Night of Terror" on November 14, 1917.  Per the Arlington, Virginia Public Library:

Ten months into the ongoing picketing efforts, on November 13, 1917, 33 women were arrested around the White House. By the next day, they arrived at the Occoquan Workhouse, where, demanding to be recognized as political prisoners, they refused to put on prison uniforms or participate in the mandated work shifts.

With Occoquan superintendent W.H. Whittaker's unequivocal approval, the goal was for the police to use brutal treatment to teach the women a lesson.  As recounted in the Arlington Public Library and many other sites:

One suffragist, Dora Lewis, was violently thrown down, hitting her head on an iron bed. Alice Cosu, who witnessed this, suffered a heart attack and did not receive medical treatment until the next day. Organizer Lucy Burns was chained with her hands over her head to the bars in her cell and forced to stand for the entirety of the night. Fellow protester Julia Emory assumed the same position for the night in solidarity.

And what were they guilty of?  Suffragists' only "crime" was calmly standing by or walking along the White House fence urging President Wilson, Congress, and fellow citizens to recognize that women deserved the right to vote.  (Many Americans see parallels in the suffragette's "Night of Terror" and what today's January 6 patriot prisoners are going through.)

The aftermath

A November 23 ruling declared that, because suffragists were arrested in Washington, D.C., incarcerating them in Virginia was illegal.  By November 28, all "Silent Sentinels" were out on bail.  In March 1918, their arrests were declared unconstitutional.

By then, President Wilson finally supported a federal amendment, which initially passed in the House but failed in the Senate.  Finally, in 1920, Congress passed the 19th Amendment, making it unlawful to deny the right to vote to citizens of the United States based on sex.

Today, conservatives wonder if the heroic suffragists who risked lawsuits and threats and suffered imprisonment and torture did so just for men to make a mockery of what it means to be a woman.

Conservatives also ponder why Republican elected officials and organizations — especially women's organizations — don't push back at groupthink insanity that claims that men can identify as women.  A sampling of absurd examples:

• In sports, a man falsely broke women's records at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) swimming competition, resulting in a USA Swimming official resigning.
• In the government, a man is wrongly referred to as the first female four-star admiral.
• In women's organizations, such as in the California Federation of Republican Women, a man was elected club president.
• In politics, some House Republicans ridiculously stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol waving the transgender flag.
• In entertainment, a man was mistakenly hailed as the highest-earning woman in Jeopardy's history.
• In Republican organizations, the Republican National Committee announced a pride coalition.
• In education, progressives push the trans agenda onto young children.

Unless Republican politicians and organizations stop kowtowing to the progressive farce that men can be women, the next "Night of Terror" might be on November 8, 2022, when conservatives sit home.

Sydnee Pearl Michaels is a pseudonym.