A St. Louis trans activist says Missouri politicians supporting restrictions on gender transition treatments are pushing “ethnic cleansing,” and should be driven out of restaurants and other public venues such as ballgames.
“These people should not be welcome in civil society,” Daniel Bogard, rabbi at Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis and parent of a 9-year-old transgender child, says in a TikTok video. “They shouldn’t be able to go to restaurants in St. Louis or Kansas City and be left alone. They should be shouted and driven out. They shouldn’t be able to go to a Cardinals game without being harassed. These people should be made unwelcome everywhere they go.”
Bogard justifies his call to hound and harass his political opponents by claiming legislation to prohibit transgender treatments on minors – and the state attorney general’s roughly one-year pause on “experimental procedures, such as gender transition interventions” for all ages – amounts to fascism. He also likened it to the mass killing or expulsion of a minority group.
“Trans people aren’t an ethnicity. But the totality of what Republicans in Missouri are pushing and implementing is absolutely no less than ethnic cleansing,” Bogard claims. “Friends, this is fascism, and fascist policies and fascist politicians demand anti-fascist responses. It is time for new tactics.”
At the conclusion of his one-minute video, Bogard says, “I say this, as a clergy member and as a parent of a trans kid, to our attorney general: F— you.”
Condemnation of Bogard’s call for harassing Republicans in public places was swift and sure.
“This far left radical @RavBogard does not speak for Missouri’s Jews or Judaism,” tweeted GOP attorney general candidate Will Scharf, a former gubernatorial aide and assistant U.S. attorney. “His brand of radical gender ideology is completely inconsistent with traditional Jewish values, theology, and legal principles.”
“I am a Republican from Columbia. I see people who I know and I know disagree with my politics all the time,” Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden tweeted. “We usually exchange pleasantries, ask how our families are, and go about our business. Twitter is not real life, and politics shouldn’t be so all consuming that nothing else matters in your life.
“Specifically for a person of faith, this view of the world is just simply sad. I hope he gets the help he needs to live a normal life.”
Capitol observers say Bogard has been a leading voice in support of transgenderism in Jefferson City. Jewish Telegraphic Agency writes that he’s “a frequent visitor to Jefferson City as a trans rights activist,” and “has been going to the state Capitol for five years now.”
