In the decades during which I have followed politics and social issues, I have seen passionate disagreements among Americans.  The Vietnam War was the focus of massive protests.  Legalized abortion, after Roe v. Wade, was followed by bombings.  Racial integration was accompanied by murders by racist militants.  Unenforced laws, including immigration and retail theft, have left us feeling betrayed by our government.  The list goes on.  Somehow, we survived.

Then came the transsexual movement, complete with "drag-queen story hours" for young children.  Some of those children have become the victims of surgical mutilation.  This has occurred in the context of politicians and educators telling us we have no right to know what our children are being taught in school.  We are being threatened with loss of custody of our children if we do not "affirm" their "gender identity," if that identity does not conform with their biological sex.  Recently, during a so-called "pride march," the chanting marchers sang out, "We're coming for your children."  Even if this was chanted supposedly in jest, it was about as funny as joking that they would rape our mothers.  I doubt that all those who chanted this did so merely as a taunt.

The trans activists claim that their survival is threatened by those of us who oppose their extremism.  As more than one such activist has whined, we wish only to be left alone.  After all, what do we care whom they love, or how?

But we have reached an inflection point, one in which we can no longer be dissuaded by such whining.  We can no longer tolerate their intolerance.  We need no longer attempt to reason with their unreason.

As more than one person has commented on this site and others, using various words to express the thought: the trans activists have gone too far this time.  They have underestimated the parenting instinct that most of us have, the instinct to protect our children.  We have become like the sleeping giant, but not merely roused from slumber by an offense.  We have been awakened by a burning house.  We have to get the children to safety, even if at the cost of our own lives.

The widespread range of this sentiment was recently made known to me on, of all places, a non-political discussion site.  The moderator by happenstance introduced a news story about a "pride" event, somehow honestly believing that it would not generate controversy.  All hell broke loose, at least verbally.  People who for years had never hinted (on that site) at their passion for any particular social movement were instantly up in arms.  A dam had broken.

It is a microcosm of what is happening in American society.  The locomotives have collided, and the train cars will soon begin piling up and derailing.  We are beyond mere differences of opinion.  There is no turning back from this.  Both sides are irrevocably committed.  Their side is welcomed onto the White House lawn to be lavished with praise.  Ours, like Riley Gaines, is mobbed by violent leftist activists.

If we defend ourselves, we are the ones who are prosecuted.

We will win, but matters will get worse before they get better.

Image via Pxfuel.