Good morning –

Shakespeare wrote that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," but I'm not sure we'd rush out to buy something called "Stinky-dung Weeds" for our sweetheart. I close the week reflecting on the power of names.

But first, here is the Texas Minute for Friday, June 16, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Texas Sues Biden Education Department For Weaponizing Federal Funds Over Transgender Issues

• Texas is suing the U.S. Department of Education for threatening to withhold as much as $6 billion in federal funds from schools that don’t adopt “transgender” ideology. Erin Anderson reports the lawsuit is challenging the Biden Administration’s interpretation of Title IX, a federal statute enacted in 1972 to protect girls and women that prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex” in educational institutions.
       

• In 2021, Biden’s Department of Education issued guidance to schools expanding “sex” to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
       

• According to the Texas lawsuit, the new interpretation of Title IX seeks to “radically transform educational institutions” by equating sex with gender identity or “transgender” status. 

         
• Schools risk losing federal funding if they “misgender” students, fail to use “preferred pronouns,” or maintain sex-separated facilities and sports teams.
        
• The lawsuit accuses Biden administration bureaucrats of “weaponizing” Title IX in tandem with private entities – like the left-of-center ACLU – that are using the federal documents to intimidate school districts.
       

• This will be the 50th lawsuit the Office of the Attorney General has filed against the Biden Administration.

Aggies Hire NY Times ‘Diversity’ Advocate To Head Journalism Program

• Texas A&M has hired former New York Times Senior Editor Kathleen McElroy, a proponent of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, to direct their journalism program. Valerie Muñoz has the story.
    
• McElroy previously served as Director of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, where she focused on race and its intersection with journalism in her PhD program.
       
• "We can’t just give people a set of facts anymore. I think we know that and we have to tell our students that. This is not about getting two sides of a story or 3 sides of a story, if one side is illegitimate," said McElroy in a 2021 NPR interview.
      
• Now define "legitimate"...

Texas Military Department Backpedals On LGBT Event

• Updating a story from yesterday, the Texas Military Department is now backing away from an event with an LGBT activist group. Emily Wilkerson reports TMD officials now claim “the event was not sanctioned, approved or authorized by the Texas Military Department.”  
          
• A source told Texas Scorecard that he was informed by TMD officials “the event ...  will not be happening. They believe individual service members did it without authorization.”
        
• TMD officials have not confirmed the cancellation. It is unclear what, if any, actions will be taken against “service members” who acted “without authorization.”
            
• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is the Commander-in-Chief of the Texas Military Department, which includes the Texas National Guard, the Texas Air Guard, and the Texas State Guard. He has not responded to requests to address the issue.

Therapist Admits to Teaching Progressive Sex-ed... To 4-Year-Olds

• At a recent LGBT event in Denton, a state-licensed therapist working at the Denton County Public Health offices booth admitted to teaching progressive, comprehensive sex education to four-year-olds. Soli Rice has the details.
    

• In an undercover recording from Current Revolt, a videographer strikes up a conversation with the therapist. She tells the videographer she teaches comprehensive, progressive sex education at Koan School to children from four years old to high school.

Texas Responds to Fentanyl Crisis

• Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law four new measures designed to address fentanyl abuse in Texas. As Matthew DeLaCruz reports, these signings come after the governor declared fighting the fentanyl crisis an emergency item for the 2023 legislative session.
     
• Within the last five years, foreign drug cartels and domestic dealers have saturated Texas with deadly, untraceable drugs laced with fentanyl – an opioid drug easily accessible in illegal drug markets. Since 2022, some 2,000 Texans have lost their lives due to illicitly manufactured fentanyl.
       
• “Fentanyl is an epidemic that has taken too many lives,” said Abbott.
       
• One measure will classify fentanyl deaths as murder for the purposes of prosecution, while another provides public universities with Narcan to respond to fentanyl and opioid overdoses.

📺 WATCH: The Headline

• This week on The Headline, Tim Hardin teases next week's release of the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Index and Michelle Evans talks about medical liberty.
      
• You can watch The Headline on the Apple TV or Roku apps, on an iOS or Android device, or on the Texas Scorecard YouTube channel.

Friday Reflection
Naming Names

In almost every public battle, the real fight is never the fight itself. The real fight is the fight over what the fight is about. This means establishing the terms that are used to describe the fight and the terms of victory. Because when you are defining the fight, you are much more likely to win the fight.

For example, in the crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico, there is a widely divergent set of acceptable policy outcomes that flow depending on whether those crossing the border without permission are referred to as “undocumented migrants” or “illegal aliens.” A “border invasion” requires an entirely different approach than a “humanitarian crisis.”

But perhaps more important, even, are the brand names used to define opponents.

In the modern era, Donald Trump has become the master of the “put-down” nickname. No one can think of poor Jeb Bush without thinking of him as “Low-energy Jeb,” and Hillary Clinton will forever be “Crooked Hillary.”

But no one in history seems to have understood this better—or employed it more successfully—than the Roman Emperor Hadrian.

After the Jewish Revolt of 68 to 73 A.D., which included Jerusalem’s destruction, everyone in Rome thought their Jewish problem had been put to rest. Not so, replied the remaining zealots and their descendants. The Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 A.D.) was similarly unsuccessful, but it managed to infuriate Hadrian.

He resolved to wipe Jews, and Israel, from the map. Literally.

Throughout Roman rule, the region had been known as Judea. Why? Because a thousand years earlier, Israel had split into two kingdoms—one in the north, called Israel, and one in the south (including Jerusalem), called Judah. Over time, that second name became Judea and was synonymous with both the region and the people – "Jew" derives from Judea.

So, Hadrian decided to change the name. He looked back in history and remembered that the hated enemies of Israel from centuries early had come from Crete. They were known as the “Sea People” and had established cities in the land of the Jews. Don’t remember “Sea People”? Sure you do; the name is rendered in the Bible as the Philistines.

Hadrian merely Latinized the Hebrew name to “Palastinia.” Henceforth, in the records of Rome and the successor overlords, the region was known as “Palestine.”

But to be clear, there had never been a nation or people who called themselves that name; it was only used in the context of opposing Israel and was first employed after the time of Jesus by an angry pagan emperor.

Hadrian understood that by changing the name he could change the terms of the debate. It would be easier for him to eradicate the Jews from the land if their name was stricken from the land itself.

Naming, framing, and branding are important skills for engaged citizens to both identify and employ. 

Most importantly, we must be wary of using the brands and definitions set by our adversaries… And, frankly, we should be more aggressive in framing both opponents and policies in ways that make it easier for our fellow citizens to join effectively in the fight.

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