The-Ave.US

Michelle Obama is NOT a transgender boy named “Michael Robinson.”

That rumor, started in 2011 by another blog and reposted in 2014 by the late founder of this blog (here), has been debunked as a hoax. But that hasn’t stopped the post’s wild popular or prevented it from having a huge readership (335,445 clicks as of March 29, 2021), and no doubt many of those readers, despite the disclaimers,  believe it’s true. (Editor’s note: It’s NOT true. It’s a hoax.)

So the question is: Even though Michelle Obama was born a girl, and has been a girl all her life, should she be banned from girls’ sports anyway, just because some credulous people believe she’s really a guy and letting her compete as a girl is unfair to the other girls?

That’s the argument being used by Republicans to justify a slew of new voting restrictions. The 2020 election was “the most secure in history” (story here), and there’s no evidence that Biden won because of fraud. That claim emanated from a known prolific liar. But Republicans argue that because some people believe Trump’s lies, and consequently have lost confidence in our elections, that justifies passing voter suppression laws in order to restore their confidence in elections.

Banning a girl from girls’ sports because someone wrongly believes she’s a boy isn’t a victimless act, and neither is voter suppression. Both involve egregious violations of someone else’s rights. The GOP’s excuse for infringing other people’s right to vote is dishonest and disingenuous. That’s why Democrats should protect voting rights.

Doing so doesn’t violate anyone’s rights. Not doing so does.

Related story: South Dakota’s Republican governor partially vetoed a GOP-pushed bill banning transgender females from girls’ sports, fearing sports leagues would boycott the state. Read that story here.

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