“Take Away My Liberty, but Don’t Touch My Pronouns

When you are convicted of felony murder in America, you lose a bunch of your rights, including your constitutional right to liberty for as long as your prison sentence lasts. But one right you won’t lose, at least according to the NYT and WSJ, is your right to be addressed by the pronoun of your choice. This was clear from two pieces I read last week on the conviction of Lee Aldrich, a man who pled guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted first-degree murder.

You may remember reading about the mass shooting last November at Club Q, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs. Aldrich stormed into the place with a rifle and a handgun and let loose, killing five and injuring 17. It was subsequently discovered that, a year before, he had threatened to become “the next mass murderer.” It was also noted that he himself identified as nonbinary and that his preferred pronouns were “they” and “them.”

In reporting the plea deal, both newspapers seemed comfortable calling this sole perpetrator “they” and “them,” which made the rest of their reporting ungrammatical, confusing, and irritating. In my opinion, since the attack was undeniably a hate crime against the LGBTQ+ community, they should be able to get together and formally strip Aldrich of all his pronounal rights.

Note: For more on my stance on transgender rights, see “Readers Write,” below.

Jiu Jitsu: Beyond Self-Defense 

Watch this story about a 16-year-old high school wrestler who thwarts an attempted kidnapping.

Then watch this.

The story of Rancho Santana… 

The project my publishing partners and I started in Nicaragua 25 years ago, without a plan or a permit, has been made into a documentary. Click here to watch the trailer.