Episode 38: Castillo Cross-Examines Mike

Senator Castillo rose and slowly approached the witness chair like a predator stalking her prey, wielding a legal pad as her weapon. She stood a moment, eyeing him. “You know, Dr. Andrews,” she began, “not every student is a cold, unemotional robot, just full to the brim with logic and learning. Some of us expect our teachers to have a certain amount of… empathy and understanding for their students. For the students who are confused. For the students who don’t see the world in stark, black and white, scientific terms. For the students who are trying their best to figure out who they are and how they feel. Don’t you have the least bit of empathy for your students who are struggling with those questions?”

“I don’t think anyone would get into teaching for a career,” Mike observed, “if they didn’t enjoy mentoring, guiding, coaching, and helping students learn about the subject matter and learn about themselves in the process. I certainly went far above and beyond the minimum required to collect and cash a paycheck. I just don’t think I’d be doing my students any favors by helping them lie to themselves.”

“That ‘minimum required’ you mention is set by the state legislature,” Senator Castillo observed. “Is it not?”

“Can’t say as I ever met any of our state legislators,” Mike noted, “or received any direction or feedback from them. I’m responsible to my principal, the superintendent, and ultimately to the children I teach, and their parents.”

“You do recognize,” Senator Castillo pointed out, “that you are ultimately responsible to the state legislature and the people they serve, don’t you?”

“I’ve always recognized I am responsible to the specific people I work with, my students and their parents, and to my fellow teachers, and to my principal and my school district,” Mike smiled. “That business about the state legislature… well, until recently, I was happily ignorant of their role in my life.”

“So, now you DO understand,” Senator Castillo wasn’t going to let Mike off the hook, “don’t you? That you have an obligation to follow the will of the state legislature in your teaching, don’t you?”

“After the events of the last few weeks,” Mike acknowledged, “Yes, I do understand that better.”

“You do understand,” Senator Castillo pressed on, “that the state legislature passed the GAIA Act and expects you to abide by it, don’t you?”

“I do,” Mike confirmed.

“But you haven’t followed their guidance as laid down in the GAIA Act, now, have you?” Senator Castillo asked.

“I have obeyed the GAIA Act,” Mike asserted.

“Only if we accept your weird, contrived set of definitions,” Senator Castillo protested, “so you can interpret the GAIA Act in a manner contrary to the intent of the legislature!”

“These are not ambiguous words or complex terms,” Mike countered. “Mine are the standard, accepted definitions. As to the intent of the legislature, I can’t comment. But I would hope they’d make that intent clear enough in the language of their law so someone on the receiving end of it, like me, could understand it.”

“You do understand that the legislature expects you to affirm transgender students,” Senator Castillo asked, “don’t you?”

“No,” Mike replied. “I don’t understand that. That’s not what the GAIA Act says. It doesn’t say anything about affirming them.”

“The GAIA Act says it’s unlawful ‘to teach any theory that denies the gender definition adopted by any person,’” Senator Castillo reminded Mike. “How can you possibly claim telling a trans woman she’s really a biological man isn’t denying her gender identity?”

“Because gender identity and biological sex are two different things,” Mike explained patiently. “A trans woman IS a biological man who identifies as a woman. Recognizing the fact that he is a biological man in no way denies the fact he identifies as a woman and has adopted… a more feminine behavior and appearance.”

“That’s not what the state legislature meant when they passed the GAIA Act,” Senator Castillo countered, “and surely you know it.”

“You and your experts haven’t been able to successfully offer a definition for woman, let alone gender identity,” Mike argued, “so I’m using common-sense definitions that are scientifically correct.”

“I can’t believe anyone with your transphobic attitude could be allowed anywhere near our children,” Senator Castillo declared.

“Objection!” Senator Travis rose. “Argumentative and badgering the witness.”

Judge Connor deliberated his response carefully before ruling. “Sustained.”

Senator Castillo paused a moment and then resumed her questioning. “You have a Ph.D. in biology?”

“Yes,” Mike confirmed, “I do.”

Senator Castillo looked down at her pad. “Can you tell us about 5-alpha-reductase 2 deficiency?”

“It’s a rare genetic condition that causes individuals with XY chromosomes to present as intersex,” Mike explained. “Individuals with this condition have a deficiency in the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase type 2 which prevents the conversion of the hormone testosterone into dihydrotestosterone or DHT. DHT is a potent androgen responsible for the development of male external genitalia during…

“So, despite having XY chromosomes,” Senator Castillo cut him off, they don’t necessarily present as male?”

“If the condition is severe enough,” Mike acknowledged, “affected individuals may have a range of genital characteristics that may not conform to typical male or female standards. As I said, it’s an example of intersex.”

“Then,” Senator Castillo demanded, “how can you say gender has to be binary?”

“I never said gender was binary,” Mike frowned.

“I mean sex,” Senator Castillo corrected herself. “How can you say sex is binary?”

“Because there are only two sexes,” Mike explained, “male and female. Females produce eggs and gestate live young. Males produce sperm to fertilize the female’s eggs. They have different anatomical features corresponding to their respective reproductive roles. The existence of people who cannot easily be classified as one or the other does not change the fact there are only two sexes. And unless their intersex condition arises from chromosomal abnormalities, even most intersex individuals can be classified as XY males or XX females but with some developmental issues with respect to their anatomical features.”

“You’re denying the existence of intersex transgender people!” Senator Castillo proclaimed.

“No, I’m affirming the existence of biological sex,” Mike countered, “as something that exists, in reality, independent of how some people might chose to adopt a gender identity. You are taking people with real, objective anatomical features that fall between male and female archetypes, and you are conflating them with transgender people who do have easily classifiable anatomical features but who are uncomfortable with their biological sex.”

“Are you aware,” Senator Castillo asked, changing the subject, “that gender identity non-affirmation microaggressions make transgender people more depressed and suicidal?”

“No,” Mike replied. “I’m not familiar with the research on that issue.”

“So, when you insisted your student was female despite his identifying as male,” Senator Castillo forged on, “you were literally increasing his risk of depression and suicide, inflicting harm upon him. You do acknowledge that, don’t you?”

“You mean,” Mike asked for clarification, “when I told a student who was biologically female that she was still biologically female no matter what gender identity she chose to adopt?”

“You denied the gender identity of your student,” Senator Castillo declared. “Didn’t you?”

“I never denied her professed gender identity,” Mike explained. “I merely insisted she was still a biological female, independent of her self-declared gender identity.”

“HIS identity!” Senator Castillo insisted.

“SHE was still a biological female,” Mike countered. “Sue never expressed any desire to be referred to with masculine pronouns.”

“Would you have used HIS pronouns if HE asked?” Senator Castillo glared at him.

Mike thought about that a moment before replying, “no, I wouldn’t have.”

“Do you dispute,” Senator Castillo pressed further, “all the experts that insist that by denying HIS gender identity you inflict harm on your student?”

“Again, I DID NOT DENY her professed gender identity,” Mike reiterated. “For what it’s worth, I suspect there is more harm in affirming a student’s false assertion that a desired gender identity trumps their biological sex than there is in denying it.”

“So,” Senator Castillo looked contemptuously at him, “you have no intention of apologizing for the harm that you did to your student?”

“No.

“I won’t apologize.

"Because I did nothing wrong.

“I didn’t harm her.

“Wishing doesn’t make it so,” Mike replied with a casual grin. “That’s a fundamental principle of all science, not just biology. You can’t arbitrarily decide you’re male or female and trump your biological nature.”

Senator Castillo scowled. “Hundreds of experts from the Assistant Secretary on down all agree that gender identity is real and cannot be denied by reference to biological sex. REAL scientists and…”

“Wait,” Mike frowned. “If gender identity is real and cannot be denied by reference to biological sex, then why are we here?”

“Because ATTEMPTING to do so is a gender non-affirmation microaggression that inflicts REAL HARM on VULNERABLE STUDENTS,” Senator Castillo insisted, “as REAL scientists and REAL doctors with FAR better credentials than yours acknowledge.”

“Then, gender and sex ARE two different things,” Mike pointed out, “and…”

“I’M asking the questions here,” Senator Castillo cut him off coldly. “REAL scientists and REAL doctors with far better credentials than yours acknowledge the existence of gender identity and the importance of affirming it. A few fringe ideologues like Dr. Lachman aside, the overwhelming consensus is that gender identity is real and no appeal to medicine OR biology can deny that.”

Senator Castillo paused; the disgust evident on her face.

“Let’s cut to the chase, Dr. Andrews. YOU are a FAILED and FRUSTRATED academic who wasn’t GOOD enough to get a REAL job doing REAL science at a REAL university, so you ended up HERE teaching high school biology. Why should anyone care what a LOSER like you has to say about…”

“Objection!” Senator Travis rose to his feet and slammed his legal pad down on the table for emphasis. “Senator Castillo is being argumentative and badgering the witness.”

“I’d like to answer that question, your honor,” Mike interjected, “if it please the court.”

Judge Connor looked at him a moment before nodding and saying, “go ahead.”

“Our community may be off the beaten trail, Senator Castillo, but many of us who were born here or have chosen to settle here love it, nevertheless. Our high school students deserve a good education. Teaching them is a worthy calling.”

Senator Travis watched the nods of agreement from the jurors Senator Castillo had offended, and he offered a nod of agreement of his own, smiled, and sat down.

“More to your point, science isn’t a democracy,” Mike continued. “Scientific conclusions aren’t a matter of majority vote. You know, Einstein’s theories were very controversial in his day, and a bunch of his critics, many of them not even physicists, all wrote essays and articles attacking him. They collected all their hit pieces in a big, impressive book entitled A Hundred Authors Against Einstein. Einstein’s reply was, ‘if I were really wrong, it would only take one.’” He held up a finger to emphasize the point.

“So, YOU think you’re some kind of Einstein, now,” Senator Castillo shook her head incredulously at her witness’s hubris. “You’re a backwoods… you’re just a high school teacher,” she corrected herself, “whose retrograde scientific ideas are denied by all the experts.”

Mike smiled. “The great physicist Richard Feynman once defined science as ‘a belief in the ignorance of the experts.’ A real scientist confirms things for himself instead of relying on expert opinion, and while you and all your supposed experts may DENY my conclusions and those of real experts like Dr. Sophia Lachman, they certainly haven’t REFUTED them.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Senator Castillo insisted. “The scientific consensus has spoken, and if you’re any kind of scientist at all you need to go along with them.”

“Nothing says, ‘I haven't a clue how science works and I don't understand the scientific method,’ more blatantly than the absurd assertion that the hypothesis with the most votes is always correct,” Mike replied.

“Such arrogance!” Senator Castillo proclaimed. “Why should the jury listen to you instead of President Buchmann and Assistant Secretary Levine and the scientific consensus?”

“Because what I’m saying makes sense,” Mike replied, “and because I’m right.”

“The Assistant Secretary AND President Buchmann AND the state legislature AND all REAL scientists and doctors,” Senator Castillo noted contemptuously, “ALL of them say otherwise.” She gestured disdainfully at Mike, turned her back and said dismissively, “No further questions.” She sat down.

Judge Connor looked to the defense table to see if Senator Travis had any follow-up questions and saw Senator Travis shaking his head no. “The witness may step down,” he declared.

Senator Travis gave Mike a warm handshake and clapped him on the back as he resumed his seat.