Feminine

I was never much of a feminist. I love my femininity and enjoy being treated like a lady. I am grateful I am a strong intelligent woman with a well-developed conscience, sense of justice, thoughtful opinions, and the discernment to show compassion or disdain as the situation demands. I inherited those qualities from two wonderful parents - a quiet, deceptively strong, kind, and creatively talented mother, and a funny, loving, hardworking father with a wide, deep sense of justice, and a temper that could erupt like a volcano but cooled as quickly. Theirs was a very traditional marriage in most ways, yet they both worked and shared housework and childcare before it was a "thing" among couples.

Two of the most influential women in my career(s) competed with men as women, not as men. Fully embracing their femininity while getting scrappy as needed, they were excellent role models for me. I feel so lucky to have worked with and learned from them: one was Eleanor Fisher Benjamin, RN, dedicated mom to 2 boys (men now), and wife of State Police Major Lionel Benjamin; the other was RI's first female Secretary of State and longtime general manager of WSBE Rhode Island PBS (Channel 36), Susan Farmer. 

They both have passed on, and I am positive they would be as puzzled (and pissed) as I about WTF is going on now. 

Women and girls have the right NOT be encroached upon by men in women's spaces. This seems like a perverted revenge for the radical feminazi movement that insisted every man's space could be infiltrated by women. But this is retaliation with a vengeance. 

Trans rights are no stronger or more important than women's rights. We have to find a compromise - and soon - because the way it is going now is unsustainable. No biological men or boys should be permitted in women's sports, women's locker rooms, women's toilets, women's spas... and when I say women, I include girls. We must especially protect our children.

We must also protect the differences between the two human sexes. Compassion is needed, but reality must prevail, whether there is valid gender confusion or deliberate choice of the biologically invalid.