I opened the Sunday, April 27, 2025, edition of the New York Times and out fell the New York Times Magazine. The cover showed a light-green background with an attractive young woman staring at me.
She had a nice smile and figure and a wholesomeness about her. I wanted to know more. I looked inside the magazine. Ten pages were dedicated to her, Blaire Fleming, a volleyball player for San José State University (SJSU) in California. Then, a light dawned on me: Blaire is a transgender woman whose presence on the team has caused national and international attention, most of it negative from “religious” people.
I have a theory about the modus operandi of Fundamentalists. I have seen it in action for many years. First, they believe that they are persecuted, like the early Followers of Jesus, for their beliefs, which epitomizes the victim mentality and persecution complex. They believe that the world hates them for their beliefs, though that is all in their heads. Second, they pick a cause to attack, one that is always a small issue in relation to the big world. Abortion was their first one, which wasn’t a major issue until the “religious” made it one. They know the subject is controversial. They make preposterous claims, too, such as a fetus is a human being. That became front-page news (all for free), and the fights began (see their first step). Then in the 1980s, with the AIDS pandemic, they targeted their hate at gay people. They almost won until the courts said that gay people have the same rights as every other person in our country. And finally, a few years ago, they decided that transgender people deserve their hate. The trans community is very small and doesn’t have a strong support system. They’re vulnerable.
Unfortunately for Blaire Fleming, a twenty-two-year-old woman minding her own business, became the sacrificial lamb.
Blaire started her transition at fourteen. She’s tall, six foot one, and after high school, she went to a small college but wasn’t happy there, so she applied to SJSU. The coaches, staff, and other players knew that Blaire was transgender. She wasn’t a Division I player but was good enough to be accepted at SJSU.
Suddenly, Blaire became a star, not because of her skills but because she is transgender. Five teams forfeited their games against her team (interesting that all were from Red states), claiming Blaire was a man masquerading as a woman. I smelled a rat here, especially when Brooke Slusser, her ex-roommate and a Fundamentalist, and other women volleyball players sued Blaire, the coaches, and SJSU.
Fundamentalists, playing victim, cast negative aspersions at all trans people, especially those who play sports, claiming, “It’s unnatural. There are only men and women.” And the attacks continue. Even the forty-seventh president, to appease his base, attacked them.
Why do I share this story? I am sick and tired of this small, narrow-minded, bigoted group of pseudo-Christians playing God and judge and viciously attacking people like Blaire. It’s cruel, calculated, anti-Jesus, anti-democracy, and anti-decent.
These perpetrators of hate need to be exposed for who they are: little people with little minds and very little, if any, compassion.
How do you feel about this?
PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness
Bil
Get my book at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon!
P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.
Photo courtesy of Ted Eytan
Amen, Bil! Preach!!