The following is a preview of Daily Signal Politics Editor Bradley Devlin’s interview with Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, on “The Signal Sitdown.” The full interview premieres on The Daily Signal’s YouTube page at 6:30 a.m. Eastern on Jan. 29.
For the first time in my lifetime, conservatives are dominating a battle in the culture war.
And thank goodness they are, because defeat in this battle, the battle against transgenderism, could spell an end to Western civilization as we know it.
Civilization begins with an understanding of man and his nature. When a society can no longer recognize the natural difference between men and women, it has abandoned civilization itself.
When we deny the differences, collapse the distinctions, and confuse our definitions of man and woman, that is not a feature of civilization. It is the defining mark of barbarism, and transgenderism is its modern expression.
Poll after poll shows a growing majority of Americans are against transgender issues and policies, from men in women’s sports to transgender procedures for minors, to men in women’s bathrooms. Some of these issues are now 80-20 issues.
It’s a remarkable feat, and it also makes one wonder how the conservative movement has had such resounding success against transgenderism when it resoundingly lost a very similar battle, the battle to defend traditional marriage.
Terry Schilling, the president of the American Principles Project, has been a driving force in combating transgenderism all over the country. He’s one of the few people who really saw transgenderism coming, and he’s smart enough to have learned from the mistakes made in the fight to protect traditional marriage and apply those lessons to fighting transgenderism.
Schilling joined “The Signal Sitdown” this week to discuss.
Shilling unpacks how transgenderism emerged as a political issue and how the right has managed to make transgenderism so politically toxic that the most effective advertisement in the 2024 election cycle was “Kamala Harris is for they/them.”
Despite the successes of the Trump administration and recent votes in the House, however, there’s more work to be done to fully defeat transgenderism.
“I think it’s all federal at this point,” Schilling told The Daily Signal. “The states are good for temporary victories that can help build momentum, but we need to get federal victories.”
“Ban all sex-change procedures and surgeries for minors and give liability protections for the adults,” which would allow them to sue if they later seek to detransition, Schilling continued, “pass a national women’s sports law,” and “protect private spaces.”
