I'll let anyone else who cares to comment on the gender-identity basis of this story, but I couldn't help noting this observation by Argentine President Christina Fernandez:
Argentina is showing the world that equality is just as important as liberty, she said.
Well, that's the eternal political struggle, isn't it? But she's quite wrong. Liberty and equality are never equal -- they can't be, because as one increases the other diminishes. The extreme of liberty is anarchy, with which there can be no equality; the strong win, and the weak lose. The extreme of equality is totalitarianism, with sameness forced by brutal oppression, and there is no liberty at all. In between the extremes, there is a push and pull as we try to find the right balance.
So though we seek the equilibrium of freedom and equality in some kind of harmony together, we really do have to choose which one to emphasize. And the correct answer is: freedom, first, last and always. Freedom is the prime value because with it, everything is possible, and without it, nothing is.
That was the founding premise of this country (and a happy July the Fourth eve to you, too). Unfortunately, we have a president who not only agrees with Fernandez but would probably go the extra step and say that equality is more important.
