On this week’s episode, we welcome husband and wife duo Ryan and Bethany Bomberger to discuss their new children’s book, “She is She,” which explores what it means to be female. We talk about what led them to write a children’s book and how it compares to the pro-transgender books being pushed on kids. They also share their thoughts on transgender social media star Dylan Mulvaney and the boycott of Bud Light and other brands who have partnered with him in brand campaigns.

Bethany and Ryan Bomberger are the founders of The Radiance Foundation, a faith-based, factivist, nonprofit organization. Their innovative and bold work has earned extensive mainstream media coverage including in the New York Times, MSNBC, Fox News, and many more. Bethany Bomberger is an international public speaker, author, and educator. She taught for over a decade in public and private schools in both suburban and urban settings. As a homeschooling mama of four, she’s an advocate for school choice. Bethany is the Executive Director of The Radiance Foundation. Ryan Bomberger is the Chief Creative Officer of The Radiance Foundation. He’s an Emmy Award-winning creative professional, international public speaker, columnist, factivist, and author of Not Equal: Civil Rights Gone Wrong. Ryan was adopted and loved into a family of fifteen (ten were adopted). Both Ryan and Bethany are adoptive parents and passionate about creatively addressing culture-shaping issues with content that is fearless, factual, and freeing.


TRANSCRIPT

Beverly Hallberg:

And welcome to She Thinks, a podcast where you’re allowed to think for yourself. I’m your host Beverly Hallberg, and on today’s episode, we have husband and wife duo, Ryan and Bethany Bomberger to discuss their new children’s book, “She Is She,” which explores what it means to be female. We’re going to get into what led them to write a children’s book and how it compares to the pro-transgender books that are being pushed on kids. We’re also going to get into their thoughts on pro-transgender social media star Dylan Mulvaney and the boycott of Bud Light and other brands who have partnered with him in campaigns. And just a little bit more about Bethany and Ryan. They are the founders of the Radiance Foundation, a faith-based, nonprofit organization. Their innovative and bold work has earned extensive mainstream media coverage including the New York Times, MSNBC, Fox News, and many more. And it is a pleasure to have you on She Thinks today.

Bethany Bomberger:

Yay. It’s fun to be with you.

Ryan Bomberger:

It’s great to be here.

Bethany Bomberger:

Thanks for having us.

Beverly Hallberg:

So I thought we’d just start by you all explaining about “She is She.” Tell us about the book itself.

Ryan Bomberger:

Well, the book “She Is She” is written by my favorite co-author, my wife Bethany, it’s really just a book that celebrates beautiful, undeniable, biological “her” in a culture that tries to deny objective truths. We’re simply just reinforcing the truth that she is she. Crazy to think in 2023 that that is actually controversial.

Bethany Bomberger:

Right. And at the Radiance Foundation, it’s our heart to illuminate that every life has purpose. And so we are not afraid to tackle some really difficult culture-shifting issues and just educate people about these issues. And our prayer is that once they understand the totality of what’s going on in these situations, that they’re going to be motivated to live out lives of purpose and be able to really move through the sludge that’s being said to them and decipher what’s true and what’s a lie.

Before running the Radiance Foundation, Ryan ran an ad agency for years. He was a creative director and so his heart for messaging is really profound. And while he was doing that, I was a teacher in both public and private schools and now homeschooling for a bunch of years. And we both realize the absolute power that comes when you have a tool in the form of literature, especially for children. And so after I had written my first book, Pro-Life Kids, we were joking about writing a book that really just used pronouns to explain simple truths that are now becoming so much more complex. And so our little joke about let’s write a book called She Is She actually came-

Ryan Bomberger:

Came true.

Bethany Bomberger:

Yeah. Came to fruition. And so I think it is powerful to really speak to this issue and frame what it means to embrace the beautiful, undeniable, biological differences between guys and girls.

Beverly Hallberg:

And did you ever think, let’s say five years ago, 10 years ago, that you would need to write a book that would have to explore this? I’m assuming that a bit of the reason why you did is because you saw literature pushing and pushed in the other direction. Correct?

Ryan Bomberger:

Well, and we’ve live in Loudoun County for 10 years.

Beverly Hallberg:

Yeah, we do.

Ryan Bomberger:

So that was quite an influence. We were inspired there. In fact, one of our friends was one of the teachers who said he’d love his students too much to call a boy a girl and a girl a boy. That’s Tanner Cross. And so that was really inspirational. And so we felt moved. How could we not speak to this issue? We have two boys and two girls by the way.

Beverly Hallberg:

Yes.

Ryan Bomberger:

Whom we love crazy. And we want our girls to understand what it means to be incredibly powerful and empowered girls. And same thing with our boys, to be incredibly powerful and powerful boys. But that girls and boys are radically different. I watch my wife give birth. We are equal, but we are not the same. Not the same.

Beverly Hallberg:

Well, I think all women appreciate you saying that because I think most women get a little offended when men say that they can have children.

Ryan Bomberger:

No, no.

Beverly Hallberg:

And I think it’s so interesting too that there is this huge focus on girls. Is there a reason why you wanted to focus on girls before focusing on boys?

Bethany Bomberger:

Yes. And “He is He” is coming out next year.

Ryan Bomberger:

I wouldn’t say coming out though. I would say “He is He” is going to be released. Got to be careful with the words that we use today.

Bethany Bomberger:

Okay, is going to be released.

Ryan Bomberger:

So released later in the summer.

Bethany Bomberger:

Absolutely. We’ve watched statistically over the last 10 years as the numbers have increased. I read one place, they talked about the number 2000% and another study talked about 4000%, either way or if we met in the middle, we’re talking about a 3000% increase in females that are seeking out gender treatment and are really looking to take some of these puberty-blocking drugs, that are looking to have different types of surgeries. And we realize that there’s a push to erase women and we’re not just going to stand by and say, “This is okay.” In fact, I’m mad at all those women out there who are, we call them fake feminists, but these feminists who are yelling about this and that, but somehow they’ve lost their voice when it comes to this issue.

Ryan Bomberger:

The erasure of themselves. The erasure of women.

Bethany Bomberger:

Which we’re seeing in sports. We’re seeing it across the board.

Beverly Hallberg:

And your book does celebrate femininity. But I’ve been curious about this question, which is what about girls who are less feminine? There seems to be this huge push by the transgender movement to have girlhood and be extra girly. Dylan Mulvaney is an example of this, the social media influencer. What about the girls who are traditional tomboys? How would this book appeal to them? What are your thoughts on that?

Ryan Bomberger:

In fact, we had a reader actually send us a video of her adorable little daughter reading the book, because… I don’t even like that term tomboy because what it assumes is that girls can’t climb trees and play sports and get muddy. And I mean we have princess warriors, they do all that. They have no problem with that. So I even hate that term. The book does celebrate femininity in the sense that we’re celebrating what it means to be a girl, but that spectrum of what it means to be a girl. And that’s why we lay out all these different roles that girls and women play. But of course, in fact, one of the featured images is a girl running track. There’s nothing wrong with a girl wanting to play in sports. It doesn’t mean that she’s a boy.

Bethany Bomberger:

And what you like doesn’t determine your biological self. Just because blue could be my favorite color doesn’t mean I’m a boy. And so that’s just a little bit more of the fiction that’s being put out there and why we’re seeing so much confusion because it’s simply nonsensical. So boys can pick up a doll. It doesn’t automatically make them need transgender surgery.

Ryan Bomberger:

They may be interested in what that toy is. There was a video on Twitter I just watched where it said the liberal woman who was saying that her daughter was trans ’cause she ate green vegetables and so therefore she had to be a boy. What? I mean, this is the insanity of it all. And so we’re really just trying to lay out in rhyme just the beauty of what it means to be a girl. And then we have two sections in there. One that says what does the Bible say, and then what does science say? And that’s really important because those who supposedly embrace science are the ones ignoring it, saying things like your gender at birth. And of course medical associations understand that our gender is determined at fertilization, not at birth, but they’re using this phraseology to confuse the public. And we’re trying to actually get rid of some of that clutter.

Beverly Hallberg:

And it is such an interesting time as we’re talking about all these issues. And I think of specifically the singer Lizzo who celebrates her weight and says, “I’m heavier.” And she says she’s beautiful just the way she is. So we have a society that wants to say, “Yes, fat shaming is bad.” Which I happen to agree with that. We don’t want to fat shame people, but at the same time, and they say, “You can be beautiful just the way you are.” But then we’re also telling children, if you feel differently than your body, you should change it. I think there are a lot of conflicting messages out there right now.

Bethany Bomberger:

That’s because the culture embraces confusion. And when we place truth in front of them and actually gives clarity, it gives framework for all these things that they’re hearing. My oldest is 18 and our youngest is 12. And I will tell you, we talk about very difficult issues. We talk about them at home, we delve into things. We have adopted kids, we have biological kids. So we talk about those issues too. But my point is we want our children who are just getting hit with just an onslaught of information to have a-

Ryan Bomberger:

Misinformation.

Bethany Bomberger:

Misinformation, right, to have a standard by which they weigh everything that’s coming in. And so I think as parents, that’s really what our goal needs to be. It needs to be to present truth and let that be the standard because guess what? These kiddos are growing up in a world where they are hearing things that we couldn’t dream of being heard even when we were young.

Ryan Bomberger:

I mean, truth isn’t contradictory. And that’s the problem with the left is that they can’t keep track of all the lies. They can’t keep track of all the misinformation. And that’s what we try to also impart. Not just to our own children, but we speak in college campuses all the time. We speak in so many different venues and we’re trying to convey the fact that truth does not contradict itself. And so when you have truth, there’s this constant that happens. And unfortunately in our culture, we have this upheaval that’s happening because it’s nonstop contradiction.

Beverly Hallberg:

And of course children’s books, kids love to read, usually like to read, love to be read to. This is the reason why we do have libraries that hold Drag Queen Story Hours. This is why there are even children’s books like “I Am Jazz” being pushed because children’s literature really does reach so many kids. And so I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the transgender movement and what they’re trying to do in literature. I think a lot of parents have been shocked to hear some of the stuff that is in libraries that children have access to. How bad is it really?

Bethany Bomberger:

Actually-

Ryan Bomberger:

Bad. I mean, beyond bad.

Bethany Bomberger:

I feel like as parents we just always want to hope for the best. But we have to come to grips with the reality that there is an agenda targeting our children at younger and younger ages. We watch clips of stuff that goes on all the time, watching preschoolers and a teacher who is trans was holding a doll and was expressing the fact that this doll could be a boy, it could be a girl, but it doesn’t really matter. There is a very targeted agenda.

And we know, especially as a teacher, and really one of the reasons as I shared that we wrote “She is She,” we know that literature is powerful, whether you’re reading it to yourself or if you’re reading it out loud, as a teacher, I know that it hits so many different senses. You’re being drawn in by imagery, you’re understanding text. And so a lot of the books, like you said, “I am Jazz,” “My Princess Boy,” “One Of A Kind Like Me,” these are all being put into our libraries because there’s really, like I keep saying, a targeted agenda that our children would begin to believe that this lie is true.

Ryan Bomberger:

And that the tragedy there too is that this is material often that is so inappropriate for children. Here in Loudoun County, you can’t even read Loudoun County, Fairfax County here in Virginia. You have parents who are being scolded by school board members because they’re reading the words from these books. Pushing porn and pedophilia, normalizing sexualization, the radicalization of children, normalizing sexual relationships between adults and minors. This is part of all that’s going on. Of course, we see this with Drag Queen Story Hour where Life Site News for instance, showed photos of drag queens with children lying on top of them. I’m like, what in the world? This is not normal. Would you have a firefighter in a story hour rolling around on the floor with children?

So this is the problem that we’re seeing. And of course as parents, our hearts go out to those who are actually genuinely confused, with actual gender dysphoria. But this is not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the social contagion of adults pushing this on children where entire classes all of a sudden are changing their pronouns. Not just because of the literature, but because of what’s being pushed in public school and normalized. It’s not normal to take drugs. When I was a kid, it was just say no to drugs. But apparently it’s now just say yes to body-altering drugs and body-mutilating surgeries. This isn’t okay.

Beverly Hallberg:

And as you just mentioned, there are a lot of parents who go to these school board meetings and will read the literature, talk about what’s in it. Have parents had much traction, for example in Loudoun County, have you seen any type of reversal of allowing this type of literature in libraries?

Ryan Bomberger:

Some books have been pulled out. But the insane thing is some of the books like “Lawn Boy,” which actually promotes pedophilia have been put back in. So the problem is we have school board members who ideologically are on the far left, who have no problem with this because it’s LGBT. I call it LGBT privilege. And so you’re actually putting young children in jeopardy because you’re putting books like
“This Book is Gay” with explicit sexual images for young children. And they’re being put back in. We have seen some victories. Of course, we’ve seen some school board members removed, but we’ve got a long battle ahead of us-

Bethany Bomberger:

We do have a lot-

Ryan Bomberger:

And parents who need to be involved.

Bethany Bomberger:

And I will say I am encouraged though by those that aren’t, that are waking up from their sleepy stooper if you will. They’re saying, “We trusted sending our kiddos to school. We trusted that what they were getting in this county, especially where they’re well funded, we were trusting that they were getting solid educations.” And yet they’re realizing at some level, “Hey, I can’t just blindly trust what’s going on.” And there has been an awakening. Do we have a long way to go? Yes. But I am encouraged by the awakening that we’re seeing happening.

Beverly Hallberg:

And it’s been interesting ’cause this is also the same time that there has been the rise of Dylan Mulvaney, who I mentioned earlier. And this is a social media star and he, his claim to fame is putting videos out, talking how many days he’s been a girl as he likes to be referred to it as. And a lot of brands have come behind him. Bud Light most famously, they’ve lost a lot of business because of it. You also have Oil of Olay, Nike, a lot of brands have joined, but there’ve been boycotts of those brands. Just in your scene of it, what do you take from it? Do you think that there’s enough of the public that isn’t okay? Again, it’s saying transgender people need to be treated with dignity and respect, and adults can live as adults want. But don’t tell me that I have to call somebody a woman who’s a man. Do you find that there are a lot of people who maybe are afraid to speak out, but these boycotts show that there is a lot of traction for those who think that we should celebrate women being women?

Ryan Bomberger:

Yeah. There’s a lot of fear, unfortunately in the American public where people don’t necessarily want to speak up and speak out. But I think just over the past year or two that there has been a change, the tide has changed a bit because people are seeing how insane a lot of this is because it’s not just an issue of corporate America. I mean the church of corporate America that wants us to bow to everything that they say and do. It’s not just them. It’s politics, politicians who want to erase women. It’s medical associations that are actually erasing women and replacing with pregnant person and uterus owner and birthing person. People are seeing the ridiculous, ridiculousness of this. And so here you have Dylan, someone who was not known prior to all of a sudden becoming “transgender.” He’ll never be a girl.

He can’t go through girlhood. He’s a guy, he’s a biological guy. But the fact that corporate America is embracing this should be such an insult. If someone who is Brown… I think of Hershey’s too. Hershey’s who featured a transgender individual. My thought is would they have featured someone in blackface? Of course not. But then why are they featuring somebody in woman face? And that’s what our culture and our society is now facing. And there is this uprising, people being so fed up with this insanity. Unfortunately, as Bethany mentioned, not the feminist groups, the fake feminist groups, they don’t care because they’re just erasing themselves. But there are genuine, just everyday Americans like us who are saying, “Enough is enough. We’re tired of this erasure. We’re tired of you trying to force this on us and we’re going to do something about it.” And we vote with our dollars. And we’re seeing how Bud Light was impacted that way.

Bethany Bomberger:

And I think when we turn on, in general, when we turn on the television, we hear the media and we see… My kiddos like to watch basketball. So when the basketball games are on, and I’m looking at leaving the commercials and we see what’s going on with Disney, in the regular day, most people think that their voices have been silenced. And I think most people who are really finding issue with what we’re seeing going on in culture. So I think the boycotts are giving us a little boost in reminding us that folks, we’re not the minority in thinking that what’s going on is detrimental to our kiddos. And even though it might feel like we’re in the minority, when we see how these, like Ryan said, these big corporations are displaying their perspective. These boycotts are showing us that, “Hey guys, you’re not alone. That you’re actually part of a larger majority.”

Ryan Bomberger:

And as Christians, of course, we understand that there’s intent to design. Genesis 1:27, God made us male and female. Jesus reiterates this in Matthew 19. I mean, there is a reality out there. And of course our compassion is that, and this is what love does, it elevates people. But this whole culture of tolerance just pretends there are no issues and keeps people exactly where they are. And that’s a problem when there’s genuine confusion and hurt. But what we’re seeing is this promotion of body mutilation to a generation. I mean, what do we want? A castrated generation? This is literally what it’s being celebrated right now. And I think that’s why people are saying, “Wait a minute, this has gone too far. The acronym that never seems to end is actually causing some serious harm to really young and innocent people.” And I think people were doing a double take on some of this stuff.

Beverly Hallberg:

And so as far as the age range, what is the right age range for this book? And what about somebody who’s listening say, “Look, I’m not a person of faith. I happen to agree with you on the topic itself.” Is it a book where even people who aren’t of the Christian faith, this is a book that would work for their children?

Ryan Bomberger:

People love it across the spectrum.

Bethany Bomberger:

Absolutely. We’ve gotten so much positivity. I mean, “She is She.” She’s not he, she’s not we, she is she. She’s a grammy, she’s an auntie, she’s a bestie, not a grampy. It’s just a really simple text. And yet it gets a across so much. And I think that folks across the board are getting things from it. I’ve had emails from folks that are just moms that are just, they’re like, “We giggle every time we read it. We get something from reading it out loud.” And so I do think that it really reaches across the spectrum. And I think it’s probably pre-K to second or third grade.

Beverly Hallberg:

Got it.

Bethany Bomberger:

But I used to teach elementary school and I taught middle school, and I would bring picture books in to my eighth graders and read them in the morning. Every couple of weeks I’d bring in a different one and they would sit there and they’d soak it in. And I think that, like I said, even though the adults that are reading it are just getting a boost in their own souls and they’re getting a reminder of what truth really is, so.

Ryan Bomberger:

And on sheisshe.com, there are actually further resources, not meant for young children, but meant for teens and adults that actually go into the medical side of it, that go into some of the personal stories, the stories of detransitioners. And so there’re great resources at sheisshe.com as well that are secular nature, that are also spiritual nature. And so people can pick from that what they want. But what we find is that the science is reinforcing the biblical truths that we’re getting across. But sheisshe.com really does contain a great resource for those who want just perhaps the scientific aspect. And they can have great convos…

Bethany Bomberger:

No.

Ryan Bomberger:

Great convos with their kids. And that’s the important thing. We have to talk about this. We cannot fear engaging these conversations.

Bethany Bomberger:

Right. And I was just going to piggyback off that and say the exact same thing. We can’t fear talking about it. So our heart is to give folks, take that fear away and replace it with the confidence that comes when you have tools to articulate truths about very difficult issues. And that’s our ultimate goal.

Beverly Hallberg:

And just final question for you to talk about the fear that is out there. You guys have faced, I’m sure while you’ve had wonderful positive reviews on this book, you’ve probably had a lot of people say negative things. What has it been like to hear those negatives and what gave you really the strength to speak out, even if this is supposedly a controversial thing to say?

Bethany Bomberger:

Yeah, there’s definitely been our fair share of negativity and-

Ryan Bomberger:

Death threats.

Bethany Bomberger:

Death yes, for sure.

Ryan Bomberger:

The list goes on.

Bethany Bomberger:

The list goes on.

Ryan Bomberger:

Since we started the work with the Radiance Foundation. So it’s nothing new. And when people just have an aversion to truth, they’re going to act out in different ways. And so we see it differently. One, we do this because we’re called to love every human being, not every human doing. And so it’s okay if we’re called names. It’s normal. It’s something you shake off because there’s something far more important than ourselves. And that is getting across truth because we love people enough to see them elevated out of their situations.

Bethany Bomberger:

And I think courage in this culture is really sometimes hard to find. And yet when you know in the depths of your soul that truth is being squashed and lies are being peddled, that there’s just something, especially in the mama heart and that teacher heart like, “Hey, listen, I care about you long term, enough to speak into things that other people might not.” Truth really… Love does not delight in evil, but it rejoices in truth. And so I feel like when things hit us at a cellular level so hard, and we know what is being taught to these kiddos is really hurting them as individuals, as citizens, as a society, that we couldn’t put our head on the pillow unless we speak out about truth.

Beverly Hallberg:

Well, the book is called “She is She.” It is beautifully illustrated, as you said. It has wonderful rhymes. And “He is He” coming out when did you say?

Bethany Bomberger:

Next summer?

Ryan Bomberger:

This summer.

Beverly Hallberg:

Next summer. Oh, this summer. And it’s sheisshe.org to buy the book, is that correct?

Ryan Bomberger:

sheisshe.com.

Beverly Hallberg:

.com. All right. Well, we so appreciate your work on this and for joining us today, Ryan and Bethany Bomberger. “She is She” is the name of the book. We hope you get it. Thank you both for joining us.

Ryan Bomberger:

Thank you so much.

Bethany Bomberger:

Thank you for having us.

Beverly Hallberg:

And thank you all for joining us. Before you go, IWF does want you to know that we rely on the generosity of supporters like you. An investment in IWF fuels our efforts to enhance freedom, opportunity, and wellbeing for all Americans. So please consider making a small donation to IWF by visiting iwf.org/donate. That is iwf.org/donate. Last, if you enjoyed this episode of She Thinks, do leave us a rating or review on iTunes. It does help, and we’d love it if you shared this episode so your friends can know where they can find more She Thinks. From all of us here at IWF, thanks for watching.