The Daily Signal - INTERVIEW | New Book ‘She Is She’ Combats Attempt to Erase Women

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

In a day and age when libraries are holding drag queen story hours and pro-transgender children’s books like “I Am Jazz” and “My Princess Boy” are being pushed on kids, pro-family content is needed more than ever.  The new book, “She Is She” by Ryan and Bethany Bomberger explores and celebrates what it means to be female.   Bomberger joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to share the inspiration for the new book, and to discuss the importance of protecting the identity of our kids within today’s culture. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

She is she apparently is a controversial thing to say. It's so insane. My wife says if we had written this 10 years ago, people would have been like, what, what? Why are you right? That's ridiculous. Welcome to The Daily Siddal podcast. Today is Monday, March 27th. I'm Friedan Allen.

And that was Ryan Bomberger, co-author of the new book, She Is She. In a day and age, when libraries are holding drag queen story hours and pro-transgender children's books like I Am Jazz and my princess boy are being pushed on kids. There is a need more than ever for good children's book content. And the new book, She Is She by Ryan and Bethany Bomberger. It's out now. It's available. It is a colorful children's book that explores and celebrates what it means to be female. And Ryan is joining us on the show today to share the inspiration for this new book and to discuss the importance of protecting the identity of the identity of the of our kids within culture today.

Stay tuned for our conversation after this. As conservatives, sometimes it feels like we're constantly on defense against bad ideas. Bad philosophy, revisionist history, junk science, and divisive politics. But here's something I've come to understand. When faced with bad ideas, it's not enough to just defend. If we want to save this country, then it's time to go on offense. Conservative principles are ideas that work.

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We are joined today by Ryan Bomberger. He is the co-founder of the Radiance Foundation and co-author with his wife, Bethany, of the new book, She Is She. Ryan, welcome to the show. I'm so glad to be here. I'm actually so sorry that Bethany cannot be here, but she's the one in charge of the Radians Foundation, and she has some other projects that she needed to be involved in. So she is definitely the better half. So I just wanted to plug that for a moment.

I love that. I love that. Well, we are going to talk in a few moments a little bit more. about the Radiance Foundation and what you all do and what your mission is there. But I want to jump in first by talking about your brand new book, She Is She. Tell us where the inspiration for this book came from. Okay. Well, I just so happen to have the book here with me.

I love it. Right here. She is she. Apparently is a controversial thing to say. It's so insane. My wife says if we had written this 10 years ago, people would have been like, what, what? Why are you right? That's ridiculous.

is, but it's necessary. And the motivation behind it is actually, well, it's kind of a multifaceted sort of thing. We live in Loudoun County, Virginia. People have probably heard about Loudoun County, Virginia, ground zero for school boards gone wild. And actually, I think it actually started with a friend of mine, Tanner Cross, who was a phys ed, who is a phys ed teacher, who at a school board meeting, he said, I love my students too much to call a boy, a girl, and a girl, a boy. And I remember when I saw that. I thought, first of all, why is it that a teacher is considered brave for saying something that's so true? But yet he was, he's one of a handful of teachers who actually stood up against these transgender policies. And that really just stuck with me. And so my wife

and I got involved in these school board meetings and meeting with parents and talking about how to frame these issues. And so we thought this is really ridiculous because what the school is doing is saying, hey parents, you don't know what you're talking about. Hey parents, we're the ones who are more reliable. total strangers to your children, the consultants that they bring into the school, actually have better advice for your children than you do. And so, of course, we reject that nonsense. And so we're sitting around the table and talking about all the ridiculousness of pronouns. And Bethany said, why don't we just write a book about pronouns? And why don't we just, you know, she is she?

I'm like, yeah, she is she. She is not he. She is not we. She is she. And that's how that was born. Our heart for kids, we have four kids, two girls. two boys. So that's, that's pretty much the origin of she is she. I love it. I love it. And you have a beautiful book. The illustrations are, are just lovely. It's colorful and it's straightforward, and it has

that sort of fun rhyming Dr. Seuss feel to it. Yeah, let's see. Let's hold up some pictures. I love it. She is she. That's actually our daughter, our youngest daughter. Oh, is it? Yes, and this is our youngest son, Justice. So she is she, she is not he. She is not we. And, of course, and this goes to the whole thing with sports. And I guess we'll touch on this in just a moment. Sorry, I can't turn the pages fast enough. But she is she. I mean, with this book, we want to celebrate

undeniable biological, beautiful her. We want to celebrate femininity. We don't celebrate motherhood. None of us would be here without our mothers. And of course, fathers obviously play a vital role in that too. But we, in a day and age where there are all these, you know, books and the ideology that is confusing children their core identity. We wanted to introduce something that is meant for children, two to eight,

but maybe even older, that just says, wait a minute, you're beautiful. You're who you were meant to be. Yeah, yeah. Well, and this book has already received some really, really glowing reviews and comments. Eric Mattaxas, he endorsed the book, and he wrote of it, Ryan and Bethany Baumberger's book, She Is She is an unmitigated delight. Not only does it bravely state the bold truth about gender when so many shrink from doing so, but it does this beautifully with wit and style and joy. So in a time when we need more really good content for kids, and we're really seeing kids targeted in so many ways with a very specific political agenda. How are you all promoting this book? Are you all planning on maybe doing any public readings in public libraries or in schools?

Yes, we're actually beginning, we're getting ready to. to begin that initiative, and it's interesting already, where we get different explanations as to how a library will bring a book into their collection. Most people don't realize you can donate a book to a collection. The library typically will put it on the shelf, or they'll use it in book sales.

But we found already with our first book, Pro-Life Kids, that there was all kinds of resistance to putting this book. But they're perfectly fine putting books that possess all kinds of pornography and quite honestly pedophilia. That's fine for the American Library Association. So we're excited about the storybook hour that we will be doing, and I will not be dressed in drag. My wife will be the woman who will be reading the book.

But this is so vital for kids because they are inundated with such a toxic ideology that when we can't even understand our core identity, then what can be true? What can we know to be true? And that's the whole point of this. It's not just about the erasure of girls and women. It's about the erasure of objective truths. Ryan, why do you think we have seen such a targeted assault really on kids specifically from the transgender movement? Well, I'm not going to blame just the LGBTQ plus plus activists because it really is a lost mentality.

As a Christian, I understand that there is division between the lost and the saved, those who actually believe in biblical truths, which are reinforced by science and those who don't. The targeting young kids is so intentional. And it's intentional in every form of activism because they want to generate activists. They want to say, and this is a very Marxist approach, hey, parents don't know what they're talking about. Parents are the enemy. And we've seen this in communist nations. And in fact, one of my friends became friends from the whole involvement with school board meetings. She's from communist China.

She grew up in this. She knows all the same language, all the same vernacular that's being used. but they understand that kids are an easy target. And when you talk about public schools, they spend the majority of their time in public schools, more so than in one-on-one contact a lot of times with their own parents and their own family. And so here you have it. You've got fertile ground here. And unfortunately, children are being used as testing subjects for people's emotional and sexual affirmation.

And that should never, ever be happening. Well, and of course, within this conversation over the past several years, we've seen a lot of controversy over the issue of women's sports. And I know you kind of address this in the book. She is she. You have a picture of a young girl jumping over a hurdle like in track. And so there was some new news just out recently that world athletics, they announced that they are not going to allow boys who have gone through puberty already to compete against female athletes. What are your thoughts on this?

And do you see this as maybe a little bit of a tipping point where some of these large athletic associations are starting to realize, hey, this actually isn't fair to let men who identify as women to compete against women. Right. And that's the whole point. It's supposed to be fair. That's why we have Title IX. Title IX that ensured girls and women were able to have sports, many times not established in schools. And so here you have a level playing field all of a sudden being steamrolled over by LGBTQ activists. all for the sake of a pseudo-scientific approach. I love the fact that World Athletics made this ruling because what they're acknowledging, and they're saying someone who's already gone through puberty, because we understand prior to that, there aren't massive differences,

but there are significant differences once somebody goes through puberty, and it doesn't matter what the level of their testosterone is. It doesn't matter what drug-induced change in their body. It doesn't change their DNA. It doesn't change them from male to female. But they understand that the body, that the body's already different. Lung capacity is greater. Muscular structure. There is greater strength

of our body and lower body strength. There are significant differences. Longer arms. I mean, if you're a swimmer, these are already, these already exist because someone's gone through puberty because our DNA instructs our bodies to develop differently. So this is a, this is a great win for women, especially as we're seeing the Biden administration, this overtaking of Title IX. that's supposed to protect women, but now it's protecting guys who somehow identify falsely as women. I love it. I have two girls. I don't want them to be displaced or replaced by a guy.

It's not fair. Yeah. And I know that this is an issue that for you is something that both you and your wife have been tackling for a long time. And it really overarching embodies just this value for the family and protecting family values. Talk a little bit about your own story. if you would, and how your own story got you into really working around the issue of family values and led you and your wife to start the Radiance Foundation. Yes, well, I'm one of the exceptions cases when it comes to abortion, especially now in a post-Rural America,

where the exceptions are abused even more. I'm the 1% that's used 100% of the time to justify abortion. I had a courageous birth mom who I'm forever grateful to that even though, even she experienced the horror and the violence of rape, she did not make me a victim of the violence of abortion. And so I grew up in an incredible family. I was adopted and loved. I was the first one adopted in my family. Out of 13 kids, 10 of us were adopted. And so every year there was like a new flavor added to the family. And you know, you grow up in a situation like that and you understand this whole myth of the unwanted child is just not true. My parents, Henry and Andrew and Bromberger, shredded that myth. They loved us. They loved us into our destiny.

they, you know, they love the Lord. And when you love the Lord, the natural outflow of that is loving people. They didn't just love us. They loved everyone they came in contact with. And that changed our lives. It changed the way that we see others. And so when people talk about the marginalized, I was one of the most marginalized among the marginalized.

So that's why my wife, Bethany and I, when we started the Radians Foundation, that's why our focus is on, you know, protecting the most vulnerable, being that voice for the voiceless. And we love doing it. We have four kiddos, two of whom were adopted. As I mentioned, I have two girls and I have two boys. And our whole approach to family, our whole approach to why, you know, an intact family with a married mother and father are the best for a child to flourish is backed up by science, by study after study, by study. And so the pro-life movement and the pro-life worldview is reinforced by science.

We know that we all begin at the point of fertilization. And so it's a very natural thing to talk about our core identity when it comes to gender. and they're only two, male and female, that's reinforced by science as well. Are there defects? Are there just like, you know, some of my siblings who have physical disabilities, doesn't make them worth less. It doesn't make, you know, me worth more. We all have equal and irrevocable worth.

But it really informs the way that we address these core issues, our faith, science, and just common sense. I mean, it really is. A lot of it's just basic common sense. Totally. Absolutely. Well, and when we look at our culture today, you know, it's hard to deny that family values are under attack, that they're facing opposition. Could you talk just for a moment about the moment in history that we find ourselves in and how we can really go about restoring family values back to a central place? The attack on the family is just from every side.

I mean, the battle has increased exponentially since I was a kid. I can't even believe we're fighting some of these battles. In fact, recently, the House Republicans passed the Parental Rights Bill. And of course, it was opposed by every Democrat. And why is that? Why do they actually stand on the side of activists and strangers and people who aren't the ones responsible for that precious life of that child, of that student? And it blows my mind.

but when you look at the ideology, I mean, you've got radically different ideologies the Republican Party and the Democrat Party. Democrat Party still, I mean, let me just put it this way. The Democrat Party is the party that denied people my complexion, our personhood. And today it's now the party that denies females, their womanhood. And their anti-family policies are, it's not shocking because they just don't see they don't have the same basis. And I'm talking about the leadership.

I have many friends who are Democrats. but the Democratic leadership is out of control. They don't see family as the strength of every community. And this is part of the problem. That's why so many of their policies undermine family. They want to redefine family. Look at the Black Lives Matter movement. They want to deconstruct and dismantle the Western concept of family.

It's not a Western concept. It's a biblical concept of a married mother and father caring for their children. And that's never going to change. I don't care how much culture shifts and how much people try to re-engineer things, a mother and a father, married mother and father, always matter. It is not putting down people who are single parents.

I have friends who are single parents. I have sisters who were single parents, and they did all they could do, but they were never meant to play the role of both parents. And so we see this attack that's coming, not just from public school, not just from news media, but from Hollywood, and actually sometimes is coming from Bible evading churches.

Well, and I love the fact that, You all are kind of looking at this moment in history. You're looking at what's going on. And you've asked the question, what can we do? And you and Bethany have taken action. And of course, one of the ways you've taken action is through these books. So you've written first, your first book is pro-life kids. Now She is She.

There's another book coming out this summer. He is He. Can you give us a little bit of a preview? Yes. Well, I wouldn't use the phrase coming out because people might be confused. So I'm just going to say it's going to be released or it will be a little. available in this summer. But, you know, we believe in gender equality. And so he is, he really celebrates what it means to be a boy. I mean, we hear all the time the phrase toxic masculinity.

And what they really mean is that masculinity is toxic. And I hate that. I hate that boys are constantly, you know, derided and demeaned. I mean, you look at programs. My kids went to a charter school for a while. And all the programs seem to be geared toward girls. And girls are wonderful and they're awesome. But so we're boys. And so we really want to celebrate what it means to be a boy. And the fact that boys are a little different doesn't mean that girls can't play sports and girls can't climb trees. That's that's a that's a nonsense sort of position. But we really want to just come alongside parents who want to embrace and celebrate their boys and what it means to be a boy, what it means to be a man, what it means to be a father, a protector, a provider. Yes, a woman can be a

provider too. And many households have two providers. But there is something that is different from a psychological standpoint, from an emotional standpoint, from a spiritual standpoint. That's why women and men compliment each other. And in this book, we really just want to celebrate boys and what it means to be a man, what it means to be a father. And so we can't wait for that. I wish they could have been released at the same time, but are an incredible illustrator. I have to throw out his name, Ed Kaler. We love him. He was not able to do both books at the same time. He's a very busy man. But honestly, he captures our heart in all the books that we've done. And we can't wait to do, more through our publishing company, Barrow Publishing.

But yeah, he is he will be available this summer, late this summer. And for those who want to get copies of the book and who want to get more information on the Radiance Foundation and even get involved, how can they do that? Well, they can get, she is she right here at sheish.com. That's the easiest way to get it. You can also pre-order He Is He as well. But you can also see all the content that we create that's fearless, factual, and freeing at radiance. dot life.

Awesome. Ryan Baumberger. Thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it. And again, for anyone interested in getting the book, She Is She. You can just visit the she is she website. SheisShe.com.

Ryan, thank you for your time today. We truly appreciate it. Thanks so much, Virginia. And thank you all so much for joining today's episode. We love having you here on the Daily Single Podcast. If you have not had a chance already, be sure to check out our evening show right here in this podcast feed where we bring you the top news of the day. Also make sure to

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