I have argued consistently that fighting against the “transgender” movement is a winner for conservatives. Once people have children, they become very protective of them and do not want their son’s weird, pierced, blue-haired kindergarten teacher to convince him he’s really a girl and, oh, by the way, don’t tell your mommy and daddy that. Ron DeSantis’s decisive victory in Florida indicates that the policy is a winner (with Glenn Youngkin’s 2020 Virginia victory suggesting the same).

Today, the culture war’s importance got in my face in two ways. First, Gateway Pundit ran a post about one of the local winners in the Miss America contest in New Hampshire. This was at the town level. Next, there’ll be a state-wide contest, with the final winner going to the Miss America show. I have no interest whatsoever in the Miss America contest, but I do find interesting who is now “Miss Greater Derry”:

Can anyone spot a difference between Brian and the other Miss America winners? pic.twitter.com/8E27IieOpZ

— Pen Piper (@piper_pen) November 9, 2022

The young women surrounding Brian in the second photo, all of whom were raised in a leftist tradition, are almost certainly thinking one of three things: (1) “Well, at least I can beat him in the state-wide contest.” (2) “Isn’t it wonderful how open-minded we are?” (3) “Oh, Lord, no! Because the judges in the state-wide competition are going to want to show their open-mindedness, I’m going to lose to Brian.”

My thinking, which is old-fashioned and very binary, is that Brian is clearly a deeply troubled individual and that either he was the only contestant in Greater Derry or that the judges were virtue-signaling like crazy. There is that leftist cadre, but poll after poll shows that most Americans don’t agree. Those Americans are the ones to whom Republican politicians should be speaking. And voters should too: At every political meeting they attend, they should ask the candidates “Where do you stand on bringing gender identity into public schools?”

Image: Ron DeSantis. YouTube screen grab.

In Florida, Ron DeSantis understood how important this issue is. He went to war against Disney based on the left’s ideological and physical assaults against American children. Not only did he win, but he also turned all of Florida red. Minorities may hew to the Democrat party, but they’re also the ones who are more, not less, likely to support traditional, binary human sexuality.

I mentioned that two things came across my radar. The second was Matt Walsh’s post-election podcast in which he says, way better than I could, exactly what I was thinking about DeSantis’s political courage and smarts. (I also agree with the other stuff Matt Walsh says about voters and the Democrat party but I specifically wanted to focus on the “transgender” issue.)

One more thing: I read that one of the deciding forces in the election was Gen Z (i.e., voters 25 and under). Apparently, they are overwhelmingly Democrat voting (although I cannot find the link I saw earlier to that effect). (Update: D. Parker was kind enough to find me the link I'd lost.)

However, that doesn’t mean they’ll always be Democrat voters. Things change when you mature, especially when you have children. Suddenly, the people who were completely on board with the wonders of so-called transgenderism are less enthusiastic when it’s their beautiful teenage daughter insisting that she’s a guy named Albert and, by the way, please slice off her breasts.