Transgender man wins women's 100 yd and 400 yd freestyle races.

I was very struck by the cyclist Emily Bridges who refused to compete in an “open” category in cycling.

No they have to race against biological women cyclists only! Why ??

Cheating!! Same as Thomas and others. It’s not about rights, it’s not about competing - it’s about mediocre athletes wanting an advantage.

It’s Lance Armstrong but with ideologues supporting you.

This just popped into one of my sports feeds this morning…

https://marathonhandbook.com/aayden-gallacher-oregon-state-championship/

Whilst I don't think it's fair to the athlete, who is competing as the rules allow, it shows how these rules, which allow male sex athletes to compete in the female category, are very unpopular in reality (as well as being fundamentally unfair, IMO).

Everybody is ending up worse off under these rules.

It goes towards what a lot have been saying in here, that those who support this kind of nonsense of letting males compete against females and lobbying it as "fair" are pretty much on a faith based foundation. They will use every and any excuse that this should be allowed over some rubbish to do with human rights…it is pathetic and evil.

The sooner that some common sense kicks in, along with just understanding that it is scientific fact, the better.

Is this the same event or another one? It came up in my feed this morning, but I can't be certain it's not the same race, as the camera angle is different.

Title IX is in the process of effectively being rescinded by the Biden administration by allowing male students who declare themselves to be female to participate in female sports on the grounds of anti LGTQ+ discrimination. They haven't yet released the separate set of rules dealing with transgender athletes’ participation in sports, but if the rules are as currently proposed, that will be the result, so that is how schools and universities are being advised to proceed in the run-up to the final publication.

The revised regulations for Title IX, the law outlawing sex discrimination at federally funded schools, expand the definition of sex-based discrimination and harassment to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sex stereotypes, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.

The U.S. Department of Education already interprets Title IX to include protection against discrimination based on gender identity and sexuality … But the new rules make that explicit under Title IX without room for interpretation otherwise. The department released a resource for schools as they work to draft policies that align with the new rules. In it, the department states that schools must adopt, publish, and implement a “nondiscrimination policy.”

https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/new-title-ix-rule-has-explicit-ban-on-discrimination-of-lgbtq-students/2024/04

The disaster in the US is that the issue has been allowed to be hijacked by their ideological warfare, so that leftwing (well, Democrat-voting) women like Martina Navratilova can't be too outspoken while remaining a Democrat.

It has also meant that a rightwing nut like Ted Cruz has ended up speaking up for female prisoners' rights against a female judge who is apparently happy to sacrifice them.

It's crazy. I can only justify it as an example of a stopped clock being right twice a day.

In the UK things are looking rather better, with for instance Labour people such as Wes Streeting at last admitting that they have got this wrong:

I think if we allow this to be seen as a right/left opposition, women will lose out. Because the truth is that neither the right nor the left actually care about women - they just use women's issues in different ways, but always subservient to the interests of men in the party.

It's a different event (different stadium, different winning margin), but quite possibly the same athlete (I can't tell from the footage one way or the other). The video I referenced was the Oregon State Championship, so very likely to be influential for college scholarships. Of course, Oregon is a "blue" state, which makes the public booing even more telling. This can't be put down as just some kind of MAGA/republican political reaction.

Title IX is where this issue becomes deadly serious and life-changing, without doubt. Like it or not, the reality is that sports scholarships are often the only realistic chance for some people to be able to afford a college education in the USA. So to have male sex athletes take from the (limited, finite) pool of female scholarships will more than likely have a life-altering negative effect on the female sex athlete who misses out on a scholarship they would otherwise have attained.

What I'm alarmed by is that 15-20% of the population think that belief is acceptable to foist upon everyone else.

I know where you're coming from there. Any opinion polls I've seen (which are mostly online polls, so aren't that useful really) are generally more than 95% against allowing transwomen to compete in the female category. I think the likely explanation is that it is explained by the population being polled. A poll of people with a big interest and understanding of sports in general is likely to poll more strongly against allowing transwomen to compete in the female category than a poll of the general population (Because their desire to be inclusive and kind will not be offset by an understanding of how the unfairness to female sex athletes deeply undermines the whole ethos of fair sporting competition)

https://swimireland.ie/2024/05/29/swim-ireland-transgender-and-non-binary-participation-and-competition-policy/

Swim Ireland sees sense.

Thats not quite what the ruling states, WA had already ruled transgender atheltes had to swim in an open category, lia was appealing the ruling to CAS which decided lia had no standing to bring the case as she is not a member of usa swimming.

While it is understood that World Aquatics was prepared to argue the merits of the scientific evidence at Cas, the hearing solely focused on whether Thomas, who is no longer a member of USA swimming, was allowed to challenge its rules.

On Wednesday it ruled that Thomas had no standing to sue World Aquatics’ transgender policy, with a key paragraph stating: “The panel concludes that since the Athlete is not entitled to participate in ‘Elite Event’ within the meaning of USA Swimming Policy, let alone to compete in a WA competition, which occurs upon registration with WA prior to a competition or upon setting a performance which leads to a request for registration as WA world record, she is simply not entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions.

Transgender/non-binary athlete, Nikki Hiltz qualifies for US women's olympic team at 1500m. Hiltz goes by they/them pronouns, but is biologically female and though transgender, hasn't taken any masculinizing medication.

So, they qualify for the women's team, which is all fine. You wonder what does transgender even mean in cases like this? If you reject your birth gender, then why do you want to compete in that category? In any case, it goes to show that sports bodies are right to focus on sex for their categories, rather than the fuzzier concept of gender.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5614255/2024/07/03/nikki-hiltz-transgender-nonbinary-runner-olympics/

The female athletes, whether nonbinary or trans, generally seem to choose to remain in their sex category. Which is sensible of them of course, and as long as their testosterone levels are normal for women, I have no problem with that.

Oddly though, this is exactly how you get male posters busily virtue-signalling over on the UK politics thread about how silly women like JK Rowling are to be "obsessed" with trans women in female categories when she "doesn't care" about trans men (also mostly in female categories!) Instead of realising that this is because JKR and other women do not "hate" trans people, as they are saying, they have decided that this is because she does hate trans people but is just too stupid to understand that trans men are also trans.

I don't know how much point there is in even trying to explain. You can bring a horse to water, but when his desire to virtue signal is greater than his thirst…

Attention seeking, I couldn't tell you the names of other competitors but hers will be widely publicised for 'trans' reasons.

You're showing a complete lack of understanding of elite-level sports, and as a result, frankly, you're talking rubbish in the above quote.

The amount of time, effort, dedication (and natural talent) that it takes to win a race at that level is phenomenal, with the chances of getting the rewards being very very far from being high. Nobody goes through the thousands and thousands of hours of training, day after day, month after month, year after year, just for "attention seeking". They are in that race because they have given over a huge proportion of their life to being a top class athlete and competing at the highest level. Not to seek attention.

Fair dues to them. They are doing exactly what I'd hope to see all athletes doing. They compete in the category corresponding to their biological sex, without their gender identity having any influence on which category they compete in.

It appears they also ran a superb gutsy race and showed great tactical skill. Bravo all around. I hope they get tons of attention, because their performance in that race absolutely merits it.

I couldn't possibly comment. 😏