Transanity Is Taking Over. How Will the Church Respond?
NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK
On January 1 a new law went into effect in the State of California mandating that large retail stores that sell “childcare items or toys” must offer a “gender neutral section or area” — or face fines of up to $500. The law defines childcare item as “any product designed or intended by the manufacturer to facilitate sleep, relaxation, or the feeding of children, or to help children with sucking or teething.” It defines children as “persons 12 years of age or less.”
This might not seem like a big deal; after all, some girls like playing with toys traditionally designed for boys, to no long-term ill effect (there’s even a time-honored name for such girls: tomboys), and vice versa (though the name for such boys is less innocuous: sissies). Why embarrass girls by forcing them to look for their favored toys in the “boys’ section,” and vice versa?
It would be naïve to think that this law merely aims to make kids comfortable when shopping for their favored toys. This is about more than toys or shopping. The new law is, all in all, just another brick in the wall of the edifice that’s come to be called — by Pope Francis, among others — “gender ideology.”
And the government keeps laying down bricks.
Consider: On January 1, 2026, all schools in the Golden State must, by force of law, make an “all-gender” restroom available to students. This law will apply to public and private schools that “maintain any combination of classes from kindergarten to grade 12.” Yes, even Catholic schools must comply.
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Pope Francis well knows that whenever he speaks into a microphone, he is addressing not only those present but the whole world, in his capacity as leader of the Catholic Church. Therefore, his words are open to scrutiny.
Dissent has long been noisy, abrasive, and antagonistic. Dissenters seldom pause long enough to consider that they may be in error.
He was auxiliary bishop of Havana, Cuba, when he had a falling out with Pope St. Pius X and was set adrift at age 36 with no assignment and a small pension.