No wonder it's been taking Obama so long to appoint people — the man has some fairly selective criteria:

To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets. [Dreams of My Father]

No, not the nicest black students, or smartest, or those with the most admirable character. Not the most learned professors, or the most engaging feminists. Nope.

ABC News:

President Obama Names Transgender Appointee to Commerce Department

President Obama recently named Amanda Simpson to be a Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department. In a statement, Simpson, a member of the National Center for Transgender Equality's board of directors, said that "as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others."

Progress!

As the battle for "same sex marriage" succeeds, recedes, and loses its novelty, I suspect we will see increased demands for "equality" from other special-interest groups. One of these, of course, will be the "transgendered" — that "T" trailing off at the far end of "LGBT".

1970's-style feminism was based on the insistence that men and women were identical, that "gender" differences were socially constructed. Though the left claims the mantle of "science", it has often had far deeper "anti-science" reflexes than any religious nut you'd find on the right: it doesn't take a particularly sophisticated experiment to show that women are different than men. Indeed, feminists' acceptance of separate women's sports (and claims that the world would be better if only it were run by women) admits exactly this.

So what will it mean for feminism when men are simply allowed to call themselves "women", have themselves classified as a double- or triple-minority (Bob is now a "woman" AND is "transgendered", trumping the minority status of genuine women — and if he likes women, as most men do, he's also now a "lesbian" too!) — and yet are still also allowed to keep many of the genetic advantages conferred to men?

This is not wild speculation: just a few months ago, a huge debate emerged about whether South African runner Caster Semenya was "actually" a woman. Testing showed she a hermaphrodite — I'm certainly sympathetic to her situation. She probably never knew. But what happens when otherwise-ordinary men — who are not hermaphroditic in the slightest — start declaring themselves women, wanting to participate in sports, and wanting to fill minority slots in corporate boards?

I suspect we'll find ourselves in a very confused situation, with odd and contradictory rules, such as being unable to call transgendered man a "he", yet simultaneously having the exact opposite rule regarding sports participation. I also suspect we'll see a clash between more traditional feminists (if that term makes any sense) and sexual-rights radicals.

I'm too chicken to try it myself (and my fiance wouldn't approve, for several good reasons), but I'd love to see some guy simply declare himself a woman. Not cross-dress, not shave his facial hair (instead grow it out, more preferably), just declare himself a "her." As a fringe benefit, here in Colorado, he'd also have the right (thanks to our current governor, Bob Ritter) to hang out in the womens' locker room — and, by law, the state should fine anyone who stops him from doing so. It would be a great way to spark debate on what sex and gender really are.

I freely admit that in some cases (i.e. hermaphrodites like Semenya), "gender" is not entirely clear. And I have sympathy for "her" in her situation. But we are not helping her by changing society to make it similarly unclear for everyone. ("What gender have you decided to be when you grow up?")

I also know and understand that there are men and women who do not feel comfortable with their gender identity and wish they could be the opposite gender. No doubt, they do find the current situation "repressive". And, again, I do not hate such people, but rather feel compassion for their struggle. (And I'll probably get flack for saying that, but so be it.) But there are no scenarios in which everyone can be made happy, and far more harm will be inflicted by changing society to make them feel more accepted, particularly with regard to legal and medical recognition of sex differences.

It's a brave new world — or many want it to be, anyway.