Well, at this moment it’s really about dividing Democrats, because allowing transgender competitors in sports isn’t a cut-and-dried issue with them.
The problem really is, gender is not binary. Biology is not simple like that. But we put up binary classifications in sport for competitiveness reasons. It screws over the outliers in some cases, there also really isn’t a very easy or simple solution either.
Yeah, that’s the problem really about this “debate.”
“X is a man!” is an easy argument on one side. Very black and white. Simple.
On the other side it’s “Well, the science says…” and “It’s complicated because…” etc.
Then again, that’s the problem with any subject that conservatives take on.
I wish this topic could just always start with this admission.
Admit it’s an actual thorny issue and, importantly, that it’s completely separate from the rest of the supposed transgender “issues” which are just made up fearmongering nonsense.
I’m just amazed that we went through all the controversy around Caster Semenya, and apparently didn’t figure out a way to keep it from happening in the future.
Or the IOC didn’t, anyway.
It’s insane that they would let an athlete go through this again. This is the exact same controversy, and it’s gonna be hell for Khelif, even though none of it is her fault. It’s the IOC who screwed up.
The only people who screwed up here were the people who saw a woman they deemed to secretly be a man.
Well, I guess and the Italian boxer who totally dropped her guard after throwing some weak noodles.
It’s fucking retarded that the progress of major sociopolitical issues is being stunted by squabbles over fairness in motherfucking sports.
Nobody complained about genetic disorders when Karl Stromberg won gold in swimming at the 1952 Olympics. There weren’t cries about not allowing competitors who were born with syndactyly.
Yes, this is the deeply disappointing part, beyond this woman being disqualified at the Olympics. She did nothing wrong and has been competing, winning and losing for years and now her sport cares. There was plenty of time, years, to decide how to handle intersex competitors if anyone legitimately cared.
The olymic committee did figure out their standards and by them she’s a woman.
How do you keep engagement whores and right wing weirdos from screaming “That’s a man” at anyone they deem to be one?
Right wing weirdos like Riley Gaines (sp?) screaming about this don’t bother me, because they are horrible fucking people. But when people who should know better - like Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova (sp?) - say it, it does bother me. I do wonder if they bought into the misinformation about her being a trans woman vs being born female (but maybe intersex).
Martina’s a super weirdo herself who has gone full TERF, speaks at anti-trans rallies, and supports Trump.
Didn’t know that - OK, so she’s also a horrible fucking human being.
Pioneering lesbian Trump supporter is a very particular, and very sad, kind of crazy.
This does not sound like the words of a Trump supporter:
screenshotted from story here.
Apparently it’s not the first time she’s referred to him as a psychopath. This one is from January.
Another tennis magazine reported that: “ Martina Navratilova mocks Donald Trump after he faces another legal setback in his election fraud claims”
Also per her Wikipedia article
She’s also said:
She’s also spoken about this filth at Rallies which raise funds for Trump.
If you’re raising money at events like this for Republicans, you support Trump.
That’s a specific organization that focuses on female sports, so, no, I don’t think you can extend that to support for Trump, especially given she explicitly did not support Trump.
Just because there is an overlap on the set of people who support Trump, and the set of people who opposed trans athletes in female sports, that doesn’t mean they are the same people.
Oh good. Sadly it wasn’t a hard thing to believe in Martina’s case since the has been so vocal about the trans in sports issue, but I’m glad she hasn’t totally lost her mind.
It sounds like she’s been radicalized on the trans-in-sports issue. Perhaps following a similar path to Rowling. I do think this supports @Timex’s theory that responding with kindness to people on the edge may work better than attacking them — attacking them radicalizes them.
Here’s a quote from her in June 2019 (from her Wikipedia article).
folks tried niceness with Rowling as well.
Instead it was the gateway drug to worse things.
Niceness never cures brainworms.
What works best is making sure shitheads don’t get a platform anywhere respectable in the first place.