I had the chance to see the Overton Window firsthand on a trip to Oregon for my daughter’s college graduation.

If you aren’t familiar with the term, the Overton Window originates from Joseph Overton, a political scientist who developed the concept in the mid-1990s. He said that at any given time, there is a range of ideas considered politically acceptable to the general public and that politicians operate within that window of ideas. A key aspect of his theory is that the Overton window can shift over time as public values evolve. He noted that politicians can intentionally manipulate what the public deems acceptable, which results in a shift in the Overton window.

I recently observed how the political left in Oregon attempts to influence the public at a university venue I visited. I attended a graduation ceremony in a recently constructed theater building on my daughter’s college campus. When I attempted to use the bathroom facilities, I found that the bathrooms were not separated by gender, unlike in every other large public building I have ever visited.

The building used for my daughter’s graduation had two extensive restroom facilities located right next to each other, probably similar to those you have used in public buildings. Each restroom had a long row of toilet stalls, but both facilities were unisex and unlabeled by gender. Men and women were free to use whichever restroom they wanted to. I must admit that the bathroom stalls were a bit more private than the ones most of us are accustomed to, but it was a bit disconcerting not to know which of the two rooms to use. When I first entered, I was shocked and thought I had walked into the wrong facility when I noticed a young lady washing her hands at the sink.

You can see this same shift in the Overton Window here in Alaska. The diminished size of our Permanent Fund check is just one example.

I asked my daughter about this, and she explained that this was a positive innovation in bathroom design in large facilities. This change was made because in large public venues, the women’s bathrooms typically have a long line. With the new unisex bathrooms, everybody gets an equal opportunity to use the toilets.

While she might be correct in that respect, she overlooked the societal manipulation that is happening. This “modernization” is nothing more than a Trojan Horse that will be used to shift the Overton Window to normalize boys being present in girls’ private spaces.

Politicians in Oregon want the public to believe that a boy with gender dysphoria is a girl if he thinks himself to be a girl. A boy recently won a state track championship event here, participating as a trans girl. You may have heard of it. Local politicians want boys to participate in physical activities against girls because that validates the politician’s belief system, and they don’t care if the public disagrees with them.

Politicians are forcing unisex bathrooms in new facilities to shift the Overton Window, normalizing the practice of males and females using the same restrooms in public. That way, in the future, when a boy uses the girls’ locker rooms to change, it will have become a normalized practice, and any parent who protests will be labeled a bigot or sexist if they complain.

To be clear, I have no issues with men and women sharing small restrooms in restaurants and similar locales, where bathroom space is limited and only one person is in the bathroom at a time. However, the public should draw the line when the practice is used in large facilities and locker rooms intended for use by both biological sexes.

My prediction is that male sexual predators disguised as “girls” will use this as an opportunity to prey on actual young girls. Parents in Oregon should be outraged and refuse to go along with this, but given the way politics works here, I predict they will be unable to effect change.

The state of Oregon is a lost cause. Cities with large liberal populations dominate the state’s politics. The cities have enough voters to ensure their representatives control the state legislature and can pass laws independent of conservatives. The reality is that conservatives in most of the state are unable to vote their way out of this mess, meaning the purple-haired crazy people in the big cities will continue to force their opinions on everyone else.

You can see this same shift in the Overton Window here in Alaska. The diminished size of our Permanent Fund check is just one example. If politicians had announced 20 years ago that they would take most of the PFD to fund the government, they would have been voted out of office. However, over time, they have shifted the narrative, slowly nibbling away at the dividend, claiming it is to help schoolchildren. We have gotten to the point where our PFD will likely disappear altogether.

I can only imagine what the lefties will try next, and it is a shame we don’t have enough conservative legislators in Juneau willing to stop them.

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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