An Identity Crisis of a Decade

A transgender “man” just gave birth to a child named Jamie in Great Britain fathered by a transgender “woman.” This seems a fitting coda to the 2010s.

The decade in search of an identity passes mercifully at midnight. It began with the first black president. It ended with the first orange president. Many of the same people who voted for hope and change cast ballots to make America great again. Along the way, Americans joined tea parties, occupied Wall Street, wore red MAGA hats, and proclaimed that black lives mattered. People seeking to lose their individuality found mass movements more than eager to subsume their identities in the glob.