Department of Agro-culture

You know, for a culture that places such a high value on rugged individuality, toughness, and routin'-tootin'-ness, Texas seems to be full of delicate sensibilities. I realize this is a broad statement, and there's nothing wrong with being delicate, but I'm specifically calling out the Texas Department of Agriculture who handed down a new dress code for their employees that requires workers to dress "In a manner consistent with their biological gender." 

Pictured: the State of Texas fainting onto a divan because trans people.

"Excuse me! Don't worry, I'm not sick.
Someone just mentioned evolution."

-Republicans

Biological gender. Biological gender? I'm not an expert, but no, just no. Like, whoever wrote this policy should have looked it up first. It's not hard. Here's a link to wikipedia. It took me like three seconds. Gender is a social construct, but I'm going to let that go for the moment because Texas is run by Republicans and Republicans are allergic to facts that clash with their delicate worldview. Shit, there's that word again. 

"Something I don't understand and that has
 no negative impact on my life? Ban it, ban
it now! Quickly, before I have to think!"

-Also Republicans

Evidently, should employees fail to dress in a manner...blah blah blah, they can be fired. And that feels super unconstitutional, but that's probably just because it's super unconstitutional. Obviously the ACLU is all over this, but I want to know why. Why the dress code that is. I mean, we know why. They, right-wing goons that is, are terrified of things they don't understand so they attack and come up with policies and pass laws to intimidate people. And for whatever reason the idea that some people are born with a gender identity contrary to their biological sex absolutely sets their world on fire. 

Above: Texas Gov. Gregg Abbot explaining
why the state inspecting your kids' genitals
when they play sports is for their own safety.

It wasn't that there was a rash of cis-gendered people showing up to work at the Department of Agriculture in drag, although I fail to see why that would be an issue either. It's that the powers that be either don't understand, don't like, or just outright fear trans people. Probably all three. It's the same reason the Montana House has barred trans lawmaker Zooey Zephyr, and why the GOP is working itself into a rabid foam tizzy passing as many anti-trans laws as it can. They're cowards. Pickup truck driving, gun-toting, stetson hat wearing, cowards. 

I'm just saying that a doctor who saw you for four
minutes, at birth, maybe shouldn't determine
how you should dress and act your entire life.

Oh, and as for the "biological gender" thing, most anti-trans legislation Republicans pass for the children, or whatever, use something along the lines of "sex as assigned at birth." It's what they mean when they say "biological gender," but it's still dumb. Sex as assigned at birth is just that. The doctor looks at the genitals and slaps a pink or blue hat on the baby. But science, however the State of Texas feels about it, is a thing and it tells us that it's more complicated than that.

Not all heroes wear capes. Of course, 
school boards would probably loose their
minds figuring out the gender of capes.

Sometimes the sex organs can be ambiguous, chromosomes might not fall neatly into XX or XY, and, as mentioned before, a certain percentage of the population will simply not be the gender they were assigned. Or any at all. Again, I'm not an expert on these things, so I'll stop there and not innumerate the many ways and reasons Gregg Abbot, The Texas Department of Agriculture, Ron DeSantis (yeah, him too), the Montana legislature, the Republican Party, and every shitty school official who ever booted a kid from prom for their fashion choice, are dumb hateful idiots, but they are. And I realize dumb and idiot are kind of the same thing, but it bears emphasis. 

Anyway, all this to say that a dress code crafted specifically, and sloppily, to discriminate against a group of people is the act of small, mediocre people terrified of any challenge to their limited understanding of the world around them. 

Pictured: Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller,
seen here dressing in a manner consistent with a nineteenth century cowboy.
 Or a child who likes to pretend to be a cowboy. Take your pick.