The North Carolina Legal Battle and the Its Larger Message for the Jewish People

This article originally appeared on Arutz Sheva.

It’s described all over mainstream media as the North Carolina Anti-LGBT Law – intentionally creating a picture of old-time Southern bigotry, conjuring up images of signs in North Carolina establishments that bar people from entrance or deny them the right to be served. Journalistic flourish at its best.

The truth is that the matter under immediate dispute is that North Carolina had the chutzpa, as contended by homosexual/transgender lobbying organs, to insist that only men, being defined as human beings with male physiology, be allowed to enter men’s restrooms, and vice versa for physiological women being allowed to enter only women’s restrooms. People who are transsexual and claim to really be the opposite gender than their natural bodies may indicate allege that the North Carolina law is discriminatory, as it prevents physiological men who self-identify as women from using women’s restrooms, and the reverse.

We are not speaking here about people who have necessarily undergone sex surgery and now have anatomies of the opposite gender of their birth, which is itself a complex situation; rather, we speak even about people who are physically fully male, but who have elected to be registered as female and are certified to have undergone therapy for such, by dint of their self-perception and belief that they are really female. The US government, with the support of homosexual/transgender lobbying organizations, argues in its lawsuit against North Carolina that to require these biological men to use men’s restrooms rather than women’s restrooms is a fundamental form of illegal discrimination and that abolishing the North Carolina law “is part of the ongoing civil rights struggle”. (More use of Old Southern bigotry images, of course.)

Never mind the great discomfort as well as the feelings of invasion of privacy and breach of modesty that women will experience when biological men who self-identify as women enter the ladies’ room. And never mind that a male-looking person who enters the ladies’ room with the claim that he self-identifies as a woman may in truth actually be a “real” male, believe it or not, desirous to spend time in the ladies’ room to satisfy his male curiosities and interests. Somehow, these very real concerns become annoying secondary details when the agenda of the transgender/homosexual lobbyists and their political allies is on the move.

The Talmudic Sages tell us that the legal system in Sodom was topsy-turvy, such that those who were the object of offense were penalized, and those causing the offense were awarded. To turn public protocol on its head and impose upon people policies which violate their rights to basic privacy and security, for an elusive cause that until recently never raised its head and is not recognized by many in the first place, is utterly mind-boggling and shocking.

Although many in the American public may not care to hear about how the assault on the North Carolina law is an affront to Biblical values, one would expect that common sense and public safety would at least be taken into consideration – but alas, that was too much to hope for.

Why does this all matter to those of us who do not live in North Carolina and who do not anticipate encountering biological men in the ladies’ room and vice versa within our own communities? It matters greatly, as it illustrates ever so acutely both the deterioration of the most basic Biblical values throughout Western society, as well as the fact that the fringe left, in pursuit of its agenda, is totally oblivious to arguments of reason and even safety.

Yet there is more – much more:

As the State of Israel is about to mark its birth, we are reminded at all times of the warped arguments on the part of many in the international community (and even of some in the Jewish community) which seek to compromise the State’s security and strip it of all sense of Jewishness. Arguments that we know deep down are specious and often patently false – yet are repeated frequently and loudly enough so as to impact. Catchphrases and buzzwords are manipulated to direct the narrative, stifling logic and denying foundational Jewish values. “End the blockade”, “freedom of worship”, “unimpeded access”, “stop the occupation”, “pluralism”, “egalitarian religious rights” and “self-determination” are loaded with foreign meanings and fired at us, hoping to crack the armor.

Let us take a step back and clear our heads, with unwavering faith in the Creator and the truth of His Torah, that we cannot abandon our values and the Land that were gifted to us, and with confidence that the teachings of Judaism, including the responsibility to act as we know we must in order to defend ourselves, can never be voided by political or social agendas.

May we have the fortitude to rebuff the agendas of a confused world order and know that we were chosen to fulfill the Divine Mandate, which does not bow to falsehoods or accommodate misguided social impositions. Nasan lanu Toras emes – a Torah of truth did He impart to us; that must be our only agenda.

And that is how the North Carolina legal battle truly relates to us all.

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13 Responses

  1. mycroft says:

    I would be more interested in an article North Carolina and Its larger Message to the Jewish Community. Start with a Jewish population of 32000 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/usjewpop.html  and compare with the list of synagogues http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3330Y0P13RA

    It should cause one to at least question Orthodox triumphalism often implied by some commentators.

     

     

  2. Bob Miller says:

    The message is that societies around the world, including many we live in during our exile, are deteriorating morally, faster and faster.  This exposes us more and more to their rotten ideas.  It also makes our Jewish mission to perfect the world in its recognition of HaShem’s kingship, by our positive example, both more challenging and more timely.

  3. Eli Blum says:

    For journalistic accuracy, I believe that even under the NC bill, if someone underwent the process of filing for a change in birth certificate (as in the NYC link), they would then be allowed to use the restroom for that biological body type, even if their actual body type is still the other one.

    In addition, if something did need to be filed to verify gender change, that would remove many of the concerns regarding privacy and peeping toms, which is certainly a valid point.

    Finally, for a quote attributed to Lenin:

    “A lie, told often enough, becomes the truth

     

  4. Robbie says:

    There’s so much wrong here it’s hard to know where to begin. It’s clear the author has no idea of the realities transgender people face or deal with on a daily basis. It’s also clear the author has no idea what being transgender really is, or how it works. It’s also clear that the author is selectively choosing to employ Talmudic principles, as he chooses to ignore the fact that even our own tradition recognizes 6 distinct genders and not just two.

    I’m also curious, based on what this author has implied, what he’s doing in the bathroom. Is he examining other people’s genitals? Is he peeking under stall doors? Is he staring inappropriately at the urinal?

    Does the author understand that there has never been a single recorded case in the US of a transgender person using a bathroom for anything other than relieving themselves? That the worries of attacks and threats are nothing more than an attempt to cause damage to others?

    The only people whose privacy and safety is at risk are the transgender people who just want to pee in peace and quiet.

    • R.B. says:

      “…6 distinct genders and not just two”.

      Complete rubbish and nonsense! It is you who are picking and choosing Talmudic principles.

      Halacha only recognizes two genders, and tumtum, androgeneous, sris, and eilonis are not genders or any type of sex. These four other scenarios involves various halachic categorizations, and all of which involve actual physical distinctions which are either present at birth or are latent, such as the case of eilonis (According to CHAZAL Sorah Imeinu was an Eilonis! and she was certainly a woman), not what we call gender today, which has become a social construct.

       

       

    • rd says:

      You are an example of drowning in the Kool Aide of PC.   Transgenderism is documented by the notable psychiatric dept. at Johns Hopkins University as “gender dysphoria” which is a psychiatric disorder.  These people suffer from severe mental illness, not discrimination.  For you to insist that they suffer discrimination indicates either you  are naive,  seriously misinformed, or also rife with mental health issues.  Further, this piece is alarming because it shows the terrible similarities to ancient S’dom.    Time to wake out of your PC Kool-Aide induced malaise.

  5. “”Rarely do we publish essays in Cross-Currents that are meant to convince dissenters, and this is no different. Our conversation is with those who share the same axiology, and appreciate a bit of analysis based on the same axioms. What is apparent is just how far apart two different groups of people who call themselves Orthodox have drifted. We use the same texts (at times) and mouth the same words. But like people in the aftermath of the Tower of Bavel, we no longer speak the same language.”

    Perhaps the first half of this paragraph provides as a clue as to why the second half of the paragraph has come to pass. The desire for each ideological stream within Orthodoxy to create echo-chambers in which they never have to hear or take seriously another perspective, in which people dismiss anyone who doesn’t adhere to their very narrow definitions of Orthodoxy, creates a situation where we just talk past each other because we’re no longer speaking the same language. A more sincere effort to understand the perspectives from which people you oppose are coming from, instead of merely writing them off, and more concerted effort towards making Orthodoxy into a tent big enough for a variety of different kinds of people, would, I think, go a long way towards creating a situation where we can engage in productive dialogue that’s not merely shouting things at one another that seems self-evident to you. Maybe if you committed towards engaging in that sort of dialogue instead of merely preaching to choirs, we’d all be better off. 

  6. North Carolinian says:

    It’s my understand that there is no ‘registration process’ for transgender people. Thus, the problem people have is that anyone can claim anything.

  7. lacosta says:

    the part that r avi shafran does not mention , maybe because askanus forbids partisanship , is that the Supreme Court is one Democratic appointed leftist judge away from potentially banning certain non-PC practices  eg  milah,shechita, strict separation of sexes, denial of homosexual rights etc that are commonly known as basic tenets of O Judaism.    The difficult choice :  voting for the Welfare Party , that enables current haredi/kollel  lifestyle, may ultimately lead to the practical illegalization of said religion…..

  8. Steve Brizel says:

    Standing up for Kedoshim Tihiyu ( especially as understood by Ramban) should never be confused with “Orthodox triumphalism.”

  9. SA says:

    Well, if we “cannot abandon our values and the Land that were gifted to us,” and if the land where Cross-Currents is based is showing signs of conducting itself like Sdom and Amora, aren’t there some practical conclusions to be drawn?

     

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