Their statements are phrased in such a way as to make it impossible, without declaring oneself to be a disreputable person, to disagree with what they are saying.
Self-determination is the guiding principle already and, given the suspicion and hostility visibly trans people can face, declaring oneself to be a gender at odds with your sex at birth is not a "whim".
To declare oneself against it is a safe bet, even in a case as complicated as that of Darfur, a civil-war-ravaged patch of the Sahara, where many political factors and military factions have contributed to the anguish.
To declare oneself as a secular is considered equivalent to being considered an atheist in the public imagination.
These occasions were in the face of a general indifference to the music; writing in the centenary year, the musicologist Deryck Cooke opined that at that time, "to declare oneself a confirmed Delian is hardly less self-defamatory than to admit to being an addict of cocaine and marihuana".
To risk one's life for the common good is to declare oneself outside this cultural logic of acquisitive individualism; the veteran is an outsider to us by definition, and no amount of yellow ribbons can change that fact.... .. Apparently, many Americans do not understand veterans.
To declare oneself "not vulnerable" would be inauthentic and would leave a leader living in a perpetual state of denial and stress.
To curate on a visible platform is to declare oneself an arbiter of taste, it is to make a strong statement about quality, to shape an influential avenue for publicity, visibility and book buzz.
In some parts of the country the only quick path to treatment is to declare oneself suicidal.
Perhaps the only way to receive worse treatment would be to declare oneself an atheist.
When I've commented on how wasteful it is to declare oneself "starving," then decide after two bites of a second helping that one is actually "stuffed," they have said, "That's O.K., we can feed it to the worms!" One thing that I truly did not expect was the satisfaction I felt tossing chopped-up apple cores, cucumber peels and broccoli and tofu that are left on dinner plates into the composters.
