Live from Music Row, Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Aaron Gulbransen in-studio to comment upon recent public statements made by newly elected Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti regarding Title IX and redefining the word “sex.”
Leahy: In-studio with us, the official guest host of The Tennessee Star Report, all-star panelist, and now the Tennessee State Director for the Faith and Freedom Coalition. You know, Aaron, you look at this and the country, the state, and we are not at the apex of the constitutional republic.
We are, I think, kind of approaching the nadir. Nadir – that’s the bottom, I think, is kind of where we are. I think we will start moving back up eight weeks from today when, if it turns out, as we think, that the Republicans will take back the House. That will be the beginning of a long road back.
But wait, we’ve already started a road back here in Tennessee. We have a new attorney general who is a constitutional conservative: Jonathan Skrmetti, named by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
I think they made a great choice in picking Jonathan Skrmetti. He’s a Harvard Law School graduate. He worked for the attorney general and then was about a year as what, general counsel for Governor Lee. He’s already done something really good, and he’s only been in office now for, what, 13 days?
Gulbransen: Yeah. And at one point, either as the U.S. attorney or assistant U.S. attorney, I forget which, but he put human traffickers in jail, so that’s always a way to get affection from me when you’re putting away those disgusting people.
Leahy: I think he was an assistant U.S. attorney then. Okay, so tell us about the news yesterday afternoon.
Gulbransen: Yes, late in the business day yesterday, it came out that the Attorney General Skrmetti is [objecting to] the state attorneys generals’ response to the U.S. Department of Education-proposed regulations, which include the redefinition of the word “sex.”
And, of course, the centerpiece of objecting to this – and 19 other states attorneys general signed on to this letter that Skrmetti sent to the Education Secretary Miguel Cardona – the centerpiece is, of course, the protection of Title IX, of the Education Amendment, which protects people from discrimination based on sex, and it applies to schools.
Leahy:Â It’s called Title IX of the Education Amendment Act, passed in 1972. I was in high school at that time, and that was when, for the really first time, organized girl’s sports came about.
And I remember my sister was on the very first women’s basketball team in the upstate New York community in which we lived at the time.
Gulbransen: And so Attorney General Skrmetti contends that the department’s proposed redefinition of “sex” in Title IX, to include the words “gender identity,” would promote sex-based discrimination and threaten constitutional rights.
Leahy: He’s exactly right about that. Gender identity. Okay, let’s … look, if you go to basic science, there are male and there are female. There’s not such a thing as gender identity. What that is is basically a gender-confused male, or a gender-confused female.
Gulbransen: Or a person who has a mental disease. As I love saying on the subject, I go into Wells Fargo all the time and tell these people, the bankers, that I self-identify as a billionaire, but they won’t give me the money.
Leahy: What’s wrong with them? (Chuckles)
Gulbransen: I don’t know. They’re trampling on my rights as a self-identified billionaire. “But for 50 years, Title IX has protected girls and women and enhanced their educational opportunities,” said Attorney General Skrmetti. “The proposed regulations will hurt women, violate the Constitution, and create confusion as to what the law is and what the law does.”
Leahy: That’s common sense, and it’s really a shot across the bow. Here’s how this all came about. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee stopped the federal Department of Education from enforcing the guidance of saying “gender identity” versus “sex.” This was following a lawsuit that was filed by Tennessee.
Subsequently, here’s what happens in the deep state, in the administrative state. The Department of Education issued proposed Title XI regulations and invited public comment for 60 days. This letter from attorney generals committee and 19 other attorneys general, this was part of the public comment. And so this gets back to legislating from within the deep state. They’re not supposed to legislate, but they use the administrative law process to legislate. So what’s going to happen here, it seems to me, is the Department of Education is going to pay no attention to these comments, it’s likely, and they’ll proceed. And what this comment is doing, is setting the stage for further litigation, in my view.
Gulbransen: And of course, we kind of touched on it, but it’s … this is the silliest of subjects, right? You’re talking about pronouns and gender identity, of course, it is reaching beyond the law by making, as you said, like agency law or executive law. And you also could see school administrators may feel like they’re forced, or empowered, to insert themselves into constitutionally protected family affairs. And then you’re also talking about compelled speech, which the attorney general points us out in violation of the First Amendment arising from the forced use of certain pronouns in referential terms. And for the record, the pronoun thing is probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I’m not on TikTok, and Ben Shapiro likes to share these videos of crazy things on TikTok so I don’t have to go on TikTok. But they’re coming up with these pronouns. It’s not just they/them. There’s like zer and ze and all these other weird things, and they’re completely destroying the English language.
Leahy: Idiotic.
Gulbransen: And what they’re doing is indulging the weird whims of children who are socially compelled to do the latest fad, right? I mean, I remember when the latest fad was baseball cards and then Pogs and then, I don’t know, Barney the purple dinosaur. Now we’re into, unfortunately, redefining what gender is supposed to mean, and kids are acting very strange.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
