• Delegate Leigh Finke, a former academic and author, was given the honor 
• Finke was elected just last November as the state’s first trans legislator 
• The publication has previously awarded trans White House official Rachel Levine

A transgender legislator from Minnesota who was only elected three months ago has been named the state’s ‘Woman of the Year’ honoree by USA Today. 

Leigh Finke, a former academic, journalist and author, was voted into her heavily left-leaning district in the Twin Cities metro area last November with 81 percent of the ballot. 

She was honored alongside several other people – including former First Lady Michelle Obama and the United States women’s soccer team. Transgender assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine was one last year.

Finke is the first transgender legislator to be elected in the state, which is part of why the paper chose to honor her. Finke transitioned in 2017. 

While the state’s Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan praised the award, some were less than thrilled, including former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who wondered ‘What will ever be left for biological females?’ 

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Biologist Richard Dawkins Declares There Are ‘Only Two Sexes’, Decries Woke ‘Bullying’ of J.K. Rowling

“Universities are places where you should be free to speak your mind, and listen, even to something that you don’t like.”

British evolutionary biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins lashed out at modern leftist concepts on gender and the woke “bullying” of women such as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling for her feminist critique of the transgender movement in the West.

Appearing on Piers Morgan’s programme on TalkTV on Monday evening, University of Oxford emeritus fellow Richard Dawkins decried the state of modern discourse, particularly surrounding issues of transgederism and on college campuses in general.

“It’s bullying. We’ve seen the way JK Rowling has been bullied, Kathleen Stock has been bullied. They’ve stood up to it, but it’s very upsetting the way this tiny minority of people has managed to capture the discourse to talk errant nonsense,” Dawkins said.

The God Delusion author went on to plant himself on the side of “science” in the debate, saying: “There are two sexes. You could talk about gender if you wish and that’s a subjective [statement].”

When pressed by Morgan on his response to people who say that there are “100 genders”, Dawkins replied: “I’m not interested in that. As a biologist, there are two sexes and that’s all there is to it.”

For challenging woke orthodoxy surrounding gender, J.K. Rowling has revealed that she has been subjected to “many death threats” and has had her family home doxed by leftist activists.

Continuing her strident stance against what she claims is an anti-woman movement, Rowling said last week: “I believe, absolutely, that there is something dangerous about this movement, and it must be challenged.”

In response to the statements from Dawkins, Christian author Larry Taunton said: “I’ve crossed swords with Richard Dawkins many times and disagree with him on much—the existence of God most of all—but I appreciate him not bowing to the woke mob on male-female biology. Bravo, Richard.”

However, the left has begun to strike back at Dawkins for his wrong-think, with fellow atheist activist Hemant Mehta writing: “It’s so damn sad that Dawkins, who wrote some wonderful books explaining evolution, chose this particular hill to die on.”

Commenting on the shift in his world of academia on open debates, Richard Dawkins went on to say: “I think it’s very sad. Universities are places where you should be free to speak your mind, and listen, even to something that you don’t like, and it’s very tragic they have bought into the idea that if you don’t like what you think you’re going to hear from someone, you should shut them up.”

“They want to feel safe and [the] university is the one place you should not feel safe. You want to be physically safe but intellectually, you should be challenged.”

“There are people for whom the word discuss doesn’t mean discuss, it means you’ve taken a position,” he concluded.

Demonstrating the validity of the comments from Dawkins, House of Lords Peer, Baroness Claire Fox revealed this week that she was barred from appearing at a debate at Royal Holloway, University of London for retweeting a supposedly transgender joke from comedian Ricky Gervais.

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Arkansas enacts law to protect right of girls to female-only spaces in public schools

Arkansas has become the latest state to protect the right of school girls to the privacy and safety of female-only restrooms and changing rooms after a bill was enacted Tuesday prohibiting transgender students from using spaces that do not align with their biological sex.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the bill, which applies to multi-person restrooms and locker rooms in public and charter schools from kindergarten through to 12th grade, reports Fox News.

“The Governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them and believes our schools are no place for the radical left’s woke agenda,” Alexa Henning, spokesperson for Sanders, said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”

The law goes into effect 90 days after the current legislative session ends on April 7 and will be in place for the start of the 2023-24 school year.

The law further requires schools to provide reasonable accommodations for transgender students, such as access to gender-neutral, single-stall restrooms and changing rooms, but critics claim there is no mention of providing funding to schools in order for this to be carried out.

Violation of the new law could result in fines of up to $1,000 from a state panel and parents will be allowed to file private lawsuits if the new law is not enforced.

“Each child in our schools has a right to privacy and to feel safe and to feel comfortable in the bathroom they need to go to,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Mary Bentley, earlier this year.

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