Republicans will not lose any elections by intelligently and passionately standing up for basic truths like the distinction between men and women and how those distinctions manifest in the protection of our daughters in private spaces and public institutions.

And even if they do… so what?

This is a hill worth dying on.

Let me be clear: Republicans were not elected to the House of Representatives or the Senate or statehouses or governor’s mansions so that they could be re-elected. That’s not how this works. I know, I know, I’m naive. And I fully realize that the business of American politics dictates that the most important thing an elected official is to do is to win their next election… but some issues transcend that craven view of our system of governance.

This is one of them.

Republicans now stand as the final line of defense against handing women’s bathrooms and women’s changing rooms and women’s locker rooms and women’s gyms and all-girls schools and women’s prisons and women’s sports and even the very definition of what it means to be a woman over to a narrow subset of a radical advocacy group that is hell-bent on realigning our entire society on an unproven, unscientific notion that gender is merely an ethereal notion not rooted in reality or biology.

If Republicans don’t stand against this, what in the hell do they stand for?

Unlike the emotional arguments the radical trans advocates on the left have been making about this issue, it is not… not at all about individuals like Lia Thomas and Caitlyn Jenner. This is not about the un-named multitudes of teen suicide victims whom we are told take their own lives because you or I use the wrong pronoun in their presence.

This is not about the individual feelings that angry young “pangender” teenagers who rant at their TikTok app while sporting pierced nostrils and green hair demanding you accept them and their life choices lest you be responsible for causing physical harm to them by daring to hold an opposing opinion.

No. This issue is about more than that.

This is about basic societal norms and fundamental understandings of Western civilization.

When a Supreme Court nominee with a Harvard education can’t (or more precisely won’t) bring herself (can we say HERself?) to venture a go at defining the word “woman,” we have a serious problem.

When a satire website is banned from social media for joking that Rachel Levine is their “man of the year,” we have a serious problem.

The first Republican politician who balks at the notion that standing for the TRUTH regarding the biological and scientific reality of the different sexes because they fear losing an election in November will expose themselves as the charlatans they truly are.

Individuals who want to live their lives in whatever way they believe they need should obviously be allowed to do just that. But the institutional reorganizations that are being proposed to accommodate those individuals are unnecessary, gratuitous and harmful to who we are as a people.

And please do not allow yourself to take a backseat to those who will prey on your sentiment or your compassion by declaring that trans kids will be harmed by keeping our societal norms intact. Do not fall into the trap that is set for good-hearted, well-meaning Christians who wish to prevent troubled youths from self-harm.

Let’s be clear… there is harm on both sides of this issue.

How many women in jail need to be sexually assaulted by a man presenting as a woman for this issue to pull at your heartstrings?

How many young women must be denied opportunities to compete in their sport after training their entire lives because of a recently transitioned adult male who has taken testosterone blockers for 12 months?

How many little girls must be sexually assaulted in public restrooms by trans women?

They want to claim our society must conform to these outrageous gender demands because children are being harmed by centuries of basic understandings and logical policies to separate boys and girls in their most intimate and vulnerable moments? Give me a break.

This is a defining moment for Republicans. Step up. And if you lose an election over it, so be it. At least you lost standing for something more vital than getting funding for a local metro-rail project.

Yes, this is a hill worth dying on. Let’s just hope it isn’t too late.