I'd say David Strom has the measure of the man

does this dress make me look klepto?

Is it bigotry to focus on Sam Brinton’s thefts?

Let’s face it: none of us would spend any time on Sam Brinton’s luggage thefts if he weren’t a prominent “non-binary” Energy Department official.

And that is the excuse that many in the media have used to soft-pedal the story: it wouldn’t be a story but for the bigotry of Right-wingers who want to use it to discredit the gender ideology sweeping the nation. Conservative media, and of course the 2nd tier media outlets desperate for clicks have splashed Brinton’s crimes all over the internet, but MSM outlets have soft-pedaled the story.

So the question to answer is: does the MSM have a point in this case? Are those of us who have been angry about the rapid advance of gender ideology been gleefully jumping on this story because it serves our purposes, and only because of that? And is it unfair to do so?

Well the obvious answer is “yes, but…” Everybody loves a story that fits their own priors, so it would be churlish to deny that part of the reason conservatives have consumed it so voraciously is that news stories that don’t support The Narrative rarely see the light of day. In fact, this one would not have but for the determined work of Alpha News right here in Minnesota. They dug up the story, and as I said the local MSM paper wouldn’t cover it at all until basically forced to by the international attention it had drawn.

But conservative schadenfreude doesn’t mean the story itself is unimportant or illegitimate. It actually isn’t at all.

Brinton is not just some random non-binary dude who happened to get caught up in a scandal and would otherwise have been anonymous. He was hired specifically to push gender ideology on the American public, and in the most in-your-face manner. So in-your-face that some LGBTQ+ activists actually worried that Brinton was something of a potential time bomb, given his sketchy history. [Editor note: it’s a fascinating side story, worth reading]

Brinton was trotted out as part of the LGBTQ++/565=screw you crowd. Along with Adm. Rachel Levine, Karine Jean-Pierre, and Biden’s embrace of the Dylan Mulvaney crowd hiring Brinton was explicitly a cultural and political statement. A symbol. And as a symbol, not merely a public employee of no note, it is totally fair to examine his conduct.

It is the Biden crowd, not we, who made Brinton this symbol of competence and diversity. On Bastille Day the Biden Administration sent Brinton and Levine to the French Embassy as the United States’ representatives to their celebration. That is extremely high profile, and was done to make a point.

So Brinton is a high profile symbol chosen specifically for his gender fluidity. That makes his behavior significant. Conservatives didn’t latch on to him to make a point, the Left did.

And, unsurprisingly, his behavior tracked exactly with the expectations of people who believe that Brinton’s gender confusion is a result of a mental illness of some kind. The guy parades around in female clothing, does bondage seminars, describes his bizarre sexual practices and teaches them to others, and steals women’s luggage to wear their clothes.

This all fits together. It’s not like the last item, stealing women’s clothes, is shockingly different that everything else. It shocks nobody, and demonstrates that normalizing his behavior was always stupid. It’s all of a piece–his crimes are connected to his other perversities, not some shocking exception. How many of those outfits he proudly parades around in were stolen? I would bet it would be more than one.

We have social norms to constrain human nature and desire; we are born as monsters of gluttony, utterly self-centered, and as basic barbarians. Parents, schools, churches, and other people shape the character of a child into something civilized, establishing boundaries that enable us to become good people. Tossing away all those boundaries creates Sam Brintons.