Triggered

Should transgender students be able to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identities? Should trans women be able to compete in women’s athletics? 

These are complicated questions that we have been struggling to navigate and answer over the past several years, and we’ve made progress and gained a more complete understanding of the issues surrounding this complicated topic, but now thanks to Trump’s culture war against DEI programs, we seem to be moving backward. It started building over the last couple of years, but now it feels like the train is hurtling without any sort of brake in place.

At the April 15 Lucia Mar Unified School District board meeting, people showed up to argue in favor of and against trans rights. Why? Was there something on the agenda about it? That would be a negatory, good buddy. 

They were there thanks to a flyer purportedly distributed by Arroyo Grande’s Harvest Church and signed off by Shannon Kessler, director of culture impact, complaining that a trans female track athlete used the women’s locker room. This is the same church that sent out questionnaires to school board and city council candidates asking questions about their stances on same sex marriage, abortion, and transgender issues. 

Obviously, this church has a political point of view, and it’s using that point of view to target two students out of the thousands that populate that entire school district. Slow clap for the Harvest Church! 

Sounds like someone needs to look at that church’s tax-exempt status. Although, with the IRS in shambles and President Donald Trump more likely to call me anti-Christian instead of calling out the church for stepping over the political line, the Harvest Church is safe! 

But I digress. This is a complex, nuanced, sensitive issue. And apparently traumatized high school student Celeste Duyst wept during public comment as she recounted the “biological male” being in her presence in the locker room. 

I just don’t know what to say about the situation. It sounds rough for everyone involved. But I do know that Duyst later turned up on Fox & Friends Weekend—of course—to recount her story. Which makes me feel like it was all just a political stunt. 

Trump’s culture war rages on. The national momentum to other everyone who isn’t like you will continue to push us apart rather than together. And little Celeste Duyst got to recount her story on national television so Fox could cash in on a community’s conflict. Awesome! 

Current California State Law allows students to use the facilities that align with their gender identity, in direct conflict with Trump’s executive order. And obviously, that’s exactly what that order was meant to do. It was meant to create more conflict, oversimplify a complex and personal issue, not lay the groundwork for our society to come together. “Bathrooms” is the trigger word for conservatives. But it oversimplifies the complexities of being trans. 

Shouldn’t we be having more complex conversations about the policy responses to the conflict we have in society? We shouldn’t allow the extreme voices to control the conversation. But we do, and here we are. 

The culture war deepens.

The Canary is disappointed and sad. Send joy to canary@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in May 1-11, 2025.