All dog owners have been through what I’ll call “the squirrel chase scenario.”  Your dog is playing in the yard, nosing around, always coming when you call—just being a good dog.  Then suddenly, he sees a squirrel, and all hell breaks loose.

Your dog streaks across the ground like a cruise missile, oblivious to everything else.  You go chasing after him, yelling his name to no avail.  He’ll dash across the street, in between cars, through neighbors’ yards, and over fences.  Nothing else matters.  He has to get that squirrel.

He almost never does.  And by the time you finally get his attention again, he’s panting and exhausted.

Of course, dogs aren’t the only creatures who chase squirrels.  People do it, too.

Our squirrels aren’t literal.  Instead, they’re ideas and beliefs that rattle us so much we leave the world of reason and common sense behind, and go chasing after the squirrel, proving, I suppose, that we’re actually dumber than most dogs.

The reality of America and its relationship to the world is pretty shocking.  A poorly conceived and even more poorly carried out war against a country half-way around the world. A policy of knifing our friends in the back while sucking up to dictators.  Worsening inflation, declining job security, worsening health care outcomes (even if you can afford it), stagnant wages, along with a president who seems more concerned about building arches, ballrooms, and personal wealth than governing.

Yet for many Americans, all of that goes out the window when we see a squirrel.  The Trans Squirrel.  Suddenly all concern for the challenges we confront in the face of our incompetent leadership goes out the window.  Suddenly the only thing that matters are those “Trans.”

So just who are we talking about here?  Most studies show that maybe 1% of the U.S. population is transgender—that is, their feelings, attractions, and sense of identity are opposite of the genital plumbing they were born with.  And it can happen to both sexes.

Why?  No one’s sure.  Possible changes in their mother’s hormone levels while they were in the uterus have been suggested.  Genetic factors in how hormones are processed may be another reason.  Still other studies have identified changes in brain structure that align more with the gender with which the individual identifies.

The bottom line is we don’t know.  But here’s what we do know.  Transgender individuals have been around for a long time.

As far back as 2000 BCE civilizations noted people who were born one sex but lived as the other.  This continued for centuries.  The first recognized support group for transgenders was organized in the 1800’s. 

Attempts at surgical reconstruction have gone on since the time of the Romans.  The first successful procedure (Christine Jorgenson) was performed in 1952.

So this is nothing new.  It wasn’t some communist idea thought up in the non-existent basement of a pizza joint in D.C. (Some readers will catch my sarcasm here).

So what’s the big threat posed by transgender folks?  Why is the republican party spending millions trying to convince us that these people are a threat, and only the extreme right can save us?

Why?  Because it’s a hot-button issue.  It’s emotional.  It’s self-righteous.  It’s divisive.  But it isn’t factual.

In other words, it makes a perfect squirrel.

Hopefully, I’m not the only person with a memory that goes back 30 years.  What we’re seeing today is just a replay of what was going on in the 80’s and 90’s, only it was aimed at gays.

Remember?  “I don’t want my kid to have a gay teacher, because he’ll turn them gay!”  “I don’t want my kid going to the same restroom as a gay kid, they’ll get attacked!”  “Keep my kid away from anyone who’s gay, they’ll groom my kid to be abused!”

Perhaps my favorite was a mother who said she’d never let her talented daughter play tennis.  “You know all those women tennis players are lesbians!”  she said.  “I know other mothers who stay with their daughters in the locker room to make sure their daughter won’t get attacked!”

Gays are the greatest risk our kids are facing!

Go ahead, laugh.  But today we’re hearing exactly the same thing about transgenders. 

American society is not an easy place to live if you’re transgender.  They experience higher rates of depression, drug use, and suicide.  But in spite of this, the integration of transgenders into American society usually isn’t even noticed by the rest of us.

We’ve had transgenders in government, business, the military, and health care.  They work hard.  They do their jobs.  They contribute to society.

But that hasn’t stopped the republican party from using them as a squirrel—a distraction from the real issues facing voters.

Here in Nebraska, a scandal-ridden Governor has launched a furious, multi-million dollar fuselage of slanted advertising against his opponent, claiming she is “pro-trans.”

Let’s get at least a few facts straight.  Schools don’t do secret sex-change operations on students.  They don’t encourage them to “turn” trans.  Neither do doctors.

I can count on one hand the number of people I know who’ve had gender reassignment surgery (OK, call it sex change, if you want).  None of them regretted it.  All of them wished they’d done it sooner.

Which brings us to teens.  At what age is hormone therapy and/or surgery appropriate?  What are the risks?  And what are the risks of postponing a procedure that could change a life in a positive way?

There are no hard and fast rules.  Each person is different.  But a reasonable decision can be made in conjunction with doctors, psychologists, patients, and families. 

But I can tell you who can’t make a reasonable decision.  donald trump.  JD Vance.  rfk, jr.  Members of congress.  And no, not even that surgeon turned-vitamin salesman who’s in charge of Medicare.

All of this, though, makes great campaign fodder for the far right.  Just as gays did in the 90’s.

But wait.  What about sports?  Doesn’t a woman who’s transitioned from a man have an advantage over those who were born female?

To a degree, yes.  A transgender female would likely have more lean muscle mass than many women who were born female, but certainly not all.  Training and perseverance play a much larger role.   Witness Renee Richards, a nationally ranked and highly conditioned male tennis athlete who never got beyond the third round of a major tournament after she transitioned to female.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that some women have more naturally occurring testosterone than others.  These women are certainly not “trans.”  But that hasn’t stopped the far right from making that allegation. 

The Tunisian boxer Imane Khelif won the welterweight gold medal at the recent Olympic games.  Did her naturally occurring testosterone level help?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But that certainly doesn’t make her “trans.”

But is it fair?  Well, let me make the same argument about myself.  I’m vertically challenged in a pretty significant way.  That is, I have a bad case of the “shorts.”  But shouldn’t I be playing center for the Chicago Bulls basketball team?  I’m good!  They just need to get rid of all those freaks over 5’9”, and I’d be fine!  It’s not fair!

Consider the numbers.  Transgenders playing high school sports are so minuscule they can barely be counted.  The number in NCAA college sports is estimated to be fewer than 0.002%.

The notion that someone would undergo major surgery, take hormone therapy, and endure the scorn of everyone around them, just to possibly get a better spot on a sports team, is simply nuts.

So should transgender women be allowed to play on high school sports teams after they transition?  Maybe they should, maybe they shouldn’t.  You’re free to have your own opinion. But in my view, the numbers are so small as to be inconsequential, when viewed in the big picture.

But don’t let the sports question detract from the larger issue of transgenders in society.  These folks are people like you and me.  They’re not freaks.  They’re not perverts.  They don’t want to attack your child (if that’s your concern, you’d better be focused on non-trans teachers, coaches, and religious leaders.  To put this in the perspective of the hypocritical far right, just Google “Why is Jim Jordan called Gym Jordan” as well as “conservative politicians involved in child sex”).

Despite what trump, jordan, vance, and pete kegsbreath might say, transgenders are not a threat to our nation, our schools, our churches, nor our military.  But boy, are they a sure bet for stirring up fear and conning you out of your vote.

So come election day, perhaps consider the state of our nation.  Our 40 trillion-dollar deficits.  Declining insurance coverage.  Inflation.  Unsustainable wars.  Crushing tariffs.  A president who sucks up to dictators and destroys alliances. 

Look at our reality.  Don’t just blindly go chasing a trans squirrel up a tree.

Because sometimes dogs are so oblivious to the things around them that they get themselves seriously hurt or even killed while chasing squirrels. 

And so do countries.   

Editor’s Note:  The squirrel chasing analogy doesn’t apply to all dogs.  Some dogs are so well educated by their owners (or trained, if you like) that just having their owner call their name will cause them to stop, pause, and come back to reality.  If only nations could do the same.