One sane voice

 I wouldn't know the governor of Utah if he tried to drown me in the Great Salt Lake. But I applaud his sanity in a world that more and more seems not just mad, but stark raving running-naked-through-the-streets mad.

A few years back, see, the aforementioned guv, Spencer J, Cox, vetoed an anti-transgender sports bill. He did this for the excellent reason that it was entirely unnecessary, and would further isolate an already isolated (and consequently vulnerable) group of Utahans. In short, the bill would declare transgenders a threat not because there actually was one, but because they were regarded as one simply by existing.

They weren't, of course. And they aren't, despite all the folks running around with their hair on fire shouting that Those Creepy Transgenders are invading girls sports like locusts, and would surely take them over completely if someone didn't step up and put a stop to it.

In Utah, however, the taking-over-girls-sports horde amounted to, um, one transgender student. And four total playing high school sports.

Some invasion.

And hardly worth the taxpayers' dime to devote a second of legislative time, as Gov. Cox noted in sending the bill back with a big "Aw, HELL, no."

Here's what his one sane voice sounded like, which popped up on the intertoobz recently:

Four kids and only one of them playing girls sports. That's what all of this is about. Four kids who aren't dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships. Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they're part of something. Four kids trying to get through each day. Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. 

I don't understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live. And all the research shows that even a little acceptance and connection can reduce (suicides among transgenders) significantly. For that reason, as much as any other, I have taken this action in the hope that we can continue to work together and find a better way.

Now, I don't know about you. But I find that sort of compassion and common sense uplifting and encouraging.

If exceedingly rare these mad days.

(Postscript: The Utah lege overrode Gov. Cox's veto. Fear and loathing won again.)