“I am not vaccinated, but I identify as someone who is vaccinated,” read a comment at the end of a recent article on vaccine mandates. Though doubtless intending to be flippant, the reader has a point—and possibly a legal claim.

The reader’s vaccination status could be verified by a new blood test. Is it possible that scientific and medical tests could verify the actual status of someone who “identifies” in a condition at odds with reality?

Take, for example, Shiloh Heavenly Quine, previously known as Rodney Quine. In February 1980 in Los Angeles, Rodney Quine and an accomplice gunned down Shahid Ali Baig, a father of three, then stole Baig’s car and $80. Quine is twice-married and has fathered two daughters, but claims to have sought female status since the age of nine.

According to an August, 2015 LifeSiteNews report, federal Judge Jon Tigar, an Obama appointee, “assigned himself to Quine’s case and appointed a team of San Francisco lawyers and the Transgender Law Center to represent him.” Tigar’s view was that denying a prisoner’s “gender reassignment” surgery (what until recently was called a sex-change operation) may constitute “deliberate indifference” to a serious medical need and, if so, would be unconstitutionally “cruel and unusual punishment.”

In 2015, California became the first state to pony up taxpayers’ money for the sex-change operations of convicted violent criminals. On January 5, 2017, Shiloh Heavenly Quine, 57, became the first U.S. inmate to receive state-funded sex-reassignment, at a cost of some $100,000. Previously confined at the Mule Creek State Prison for men, the convicted murderer is now inmate WB1121 at the Central California Women’s Facility.

But is Shiloh Heavenly Quine a woman in the same sense as an unvaccinated person can “identify” as vaccinated? In other words, is the status a matter of “science”? Quine still sprouts a beard—kind of a giveaway—but skeptics might consider factors such as hormones, chromosomes, and skeletal structure.

According to Frederic Delavier, author of Women’s Strength Training Anatomy, “the female pelvis is adapted for gestation” and is “proportionately wider than that of the male.” In addition, “the pelvic ring is wider and more circular to facilitate the passage of the newborn.” And generally speaking, “the female skeleton is not as massive.” Those tests could all be applied to Quine, and someone like Dr. Rachel Levine.

The former Richard Leland Levine “transitioned to a woman in 2011” and is now Dr. Rachel Levine, billed by CBS News as “the first female four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps history.” No word whether the admiral’s pelvis, hormones, chromosomes, and organs match those of a male or female. Even so, questioning the admiral’s claimed status can bring punishment.

Twitter suspended the account of Representative Jim Banks (R-Ind.) for saying that Levine is a man, and locked the account of Frontpage Magazine editor Jamie Glazov for asking “does it matter if Rachel has a penis or not?” If Glazov and Banks thought that infringed on their free-speech rights it would be hard to blame them. Consider comedian Dave Chappelle, who dares to call gender “a fact” and the LGBTQ crowd the “alphabet people.”

These folks believe they are off limits to criticism and comedy alike and they have accused Chappelle of “transphobic hate speech.” The alphabet people tried to get Chappelle canned from Netflix, which stood by the popular comic and First Amendment advocate.

A gender status verified by medical science would have no need to infringe on the rights of others, and brand skeptics as hatemongers in the grip of some “phobia.” For Levine et al., it’s not a matter of science but of proclamation, bundled with the demand that others must go along, ignore the science, and surrender their free-speech rights.

Should a comic portray Quine or Levine as a he-said-she-said kind of case, or speculate about a tuck-and-roll job, this would draw charges of hatred and transphobia. On the other hand, it’s no joke that governments increasingly come down on the side of unreality.

The United States Department of State has issued the first passport with an “X” designation for gender. Jessica Stern, the government’s “special diplomatic envoy for LGBTQ rights” claims the new passport reflects the person’s “true identity.” No word of any medical-scientific verification.

California now demands that department stores display products such as toys and toothbrushes in “gender-neutral” ways. According to Assembly Bill 1084, authored by Silicon Valley Democrat Evan Low, stores must also have a special section to display “a reasonable selection” of gender-neutral items. The first violation incurs a penalty of $250, doubled for the second. Californians might find it hard to recall a law demanding that stores sell and display any product, for any reason. Stores normally sell what their customers want to buy.

For their part, embattled Americans should be clear about the dynamic behind these developments. This is all about the Dictatorship of the Subjunctive Mood (DSM), the imposition of unreality, sanctioned by government, but not applied in an equal manner.

The unvaccinated person who “identifies as vaccinated” has as strong a case for acceptance as Shiloh Heavenly Quine, Caitlyn Jenner, or Dr. Rachel Levine. Trouble is, government has yet to grant that person equal treatment under the law.

If persons such as Levine get a gender “X” passport, persons who identify as vaccinated should be granted an authorized vaccine card. A court case could settle it but one thing is certain: To paraphrase the peasant Dennis (Michael Palin) in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” DSM is no more a basis for a system of government than, “strange women lying in ponds, distributing swords.”