Standing tall above her competitors

Rachel McKinnon’s world championship Saturday is raising more eyebrows.

Cycling’s first transgender world champion has fired back at heated criticism surrounding her breakthrough victory at the 2018 UCI Masters track championships.

Canadian philosophy professor at South Carolina’s College of Charleston Dr Rachel McKinnon endured a torrent of online trolling after taking to social media to celebrate her world championship win in the women’s 35-44 sprint final at the Velo Sports Center in Los Angeles earlier this week.

An image of McKinnon standing tall above her competitors during the medal presentation ceremony has spread globally in the wake of her controversial victory — just as she predicted.

So McKinnon’s good at predicting as well as cycling.

But was it predictable because people are such nasty transphobic bigots? Or was it predictable because McKinnon has the body of a large man? Was it predictable because people are irrational and hostile to Difference, or because McKinnon has an unfair advantage over the women in the competition? McKinnon of course would say it’s for the first reasons, but then McKinnon has an interest.

An elated McKinnon claimed, to her knowledge, she is the first openly transgender athlete to win a world championship in any sport, after nudging past Van Herrikhuyzen on the final straight in a time of 12.903 seconds.

But it doesn’t make sense to put “transgender athlete” in one giant box, given the fact that sport is divided into men’s and women’s because women and men are sexually dimorphic and men have huge physical advantages on most criteria. It’s just not a genuine “first” for a male-bodied cyclist to win a race against female-bodied cyclists, even if it is in the literal sense “the first openly transgender athlete to win a world championship in any sport.” It’s not a genuine first because it’s not a genuine win; it is, to put it bluntly, cheating.

I would think this would be obvious even to the most ardently dogmatic trans activists. I would think that if only on pragmatic grounds – it doesn’t look good. But then I would also expect McKinnon to be able to see it, and that’s apparently a lost cause.

McKinnon hit out at the criticism immediately following her victory both on social media and in interviews.

She told velonews.com she enjoyed no physical advantage over her competitors despite being born a male.

What utter bullshit. McKinnon’s legs are like trees.

She said there is no research to suggest that testosterone and body development would in anyway enhance the physical performance of transgender athletes.

She recently told USA Today that policing the testosterone levels of transgender athletes violates their human rights — declaring that should override all debates surrounding potential unfair playing fields for transgender athletes.

“We cannot have a woman legally recognised as a trans woman in society, and not be recognized that way in sports,” McKinnon said recently.

Yes we can. We can make an exception for sports. That’s a thing we can do.

“Focusing on performance advantage is largely irrelevant because this is a rights issue. We shouldn’t be worried about trans people taking over the Olympics. We should be worried about their fairness and human rights instead.”

Oh no it is not. There is no “right” for people with male bodies to compete against women in sport. That pretend “right” is at least as absurd as the claimed “right” to have one’s chosen “identity” validated.

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