Editorial: Sledgehammer approach to gender persuasion clearly isn't working. Try patience.

The nationwide backlash against Bud Light for presenting a single commemorative beer can to a transgender brand influencer seems ridiculously overblown. The Anheuser-Busch top-selling brand is suffering a 26% drop in sales as a big segment of the beer-drinking population pushes back against what critics complain is an overly aggressive attempt to force acceptance of gender-fluidity among an American mainstream that just isn't there yet.

Polls suggest the backlash against Bud Light is a strong warning sign for progressives to ease off the gas pedal and maybe consider more gradual and subtle forms of persuasion. No one likes being force-fed a social or political agenda. That said, Americans do have a demonstrable record of coming around (albeit grudgingly sometimes) if they’re given the time to adapt to the changes they’re being asked to accept.

What's happening across the country these days is anything but subtle or patient. Transgender or gender-fluid individuals don't appear to exceed more than a single-digit percentage of the total population. Yet advocacy for this small minority overwhelmingly dominates the conversation, particularly among progressives, in ways that can distract people and sap political momentum from bigger-picture issues like gun control and abortion rights. Texas in recent days has had two major mass shootings, and yet outrage still seems to focus on Bud Light. What's wrong with this picture?

Polls indicate the nation is deeply divided on questions of pronoun usage and transgender acceptance — even within the Democratic mainstream. On specific questions of employment or housing rights, most Americans say discrimination against transgender individuals is unacceptable, according to a 2022 Pew Research poll. But strong majorities oppose transgender athletes playing on teams that don't match their sex at birth. About 43% of respondents say views on gender issues are changing too quickly.

A 2019 YouGov America poll indicated half of American adults are uncomfortable with pronoun drift and referring to someone with a gender-neutral pronoun. A big part of the problem, we suspect, is that the they/them pronoun demands the defiance of long-accepted grammar rules — rules that have very practical foundations — in order to accommodate a small sliver of the population. Polls indicate additional impatience with people who sign off their email messages or social-media postings with he/him or she/her when the person's gender identity has never been in question. Putting it in an email makes a social statement aimed at readers who might deem it inappropriate, if not even a little offensive.

That's how a tiny issue like a commemorative beer can blows up into a controversy far out of proportion to its real significance. Americans feel they’re being pushed too hard, too fast without being given a chance to process what's happening. The current tactic of sledge-hammer preachiness simply isn't working. A little more patience and subtle persuasion might yield better long-term success.

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