Lest Ye Be Judged [FICTOID]

From his lofty position on the bench, he could do something about the way he felt.

He felt sad, melancholy, nostalgic.  The very exclusive men’s club he belonged to just started admitting women.

They did so because the great-grandson of one of their founding members — a legacy of a family that dominated the club for generations — transitioned to female.

This presented the membership committee with a quandary:  Unofficially the club held to the standard that men were men, women were women, and no amount of surgery or hormone treatments could alter that.

On the other hand, the rules did not permit them to simply expel the now memberless transitional member without due cause, so if they acknowledged the transition they would lose a major source of donations.

The finance committee cast the final decisive vote:  “We need his -- “  “Her.”  “ -- her and her family’s donations so suck it up and change the rules.”

This change sparked the judge’s melancholy.  The product of a bad marriage, the partner in another bad marriage (his second; his first bad marriage ended when his wife ran off with a Bolivian pool boy / aspiring porn star), the father of a daughter that treated him with the same naked contempt he displayed towards her alcoholic mother (his second wife), the judge found the club’s thoroughly masculine high-testosterone environment (but a chaste environment, a healthy wholesome heteronormative environment) offered him the scant amount of enjoyment he found in his otherwise deservedly miserable life.

But with the doors now thrown open to females, how could he ever find peace and contentment again? 

His last place of refuge gone, all he could do was stand (or rather, sit) fast and fight.

As a judge, he could inflict damage on his hated enemy:  The female sex.

He ruled against female attorneys.  If they served as defense counsel, he stacked the odds in the prosecution’s favor; if they served as prosecutors, he threw out the charges against male offenders.

Male defendants would receive the kid glove treatment; females got harsh sentences and high fines.

In family court matters, he always deferred to the husband / father, granting they exclusive custody of their children.

His bias appeared so blatantly obvious he received countless reversals from higher courts, but he didn’t care.

He could avoid reversals by changing his attitude, but why should he?

Changing his attitude meant changing his identity, and that he said would be the death of him.

© Buzz Dixon