What is it to be “legally and medically female”?

Sky News did a chat with cycling champion and famed trans woman Rachel McKinnon.

RM: I’m legally and medically female, but the people who oppose my existence still want to think of me as male, they use the language of that I’m a man, and so there’s this stereotype that men are always stronger than women, and so if you think of trans women as men, then you think there’s an unfair advantage.

No. We don’t “think of trans women as men” – that’s just what they are. It’s McKinnon who does the thinking of people as what they’re not; those of us who reject the bullshit just know men when we see them. We don’t “think of” McKinnon as a man, we just know he is one, and we don’t “think of” it as fair for him to race on the women’s team in order to scoop all the top prizes. We don’t “think” there’s an unfair advantage, we just know it. (Here’s a hint: how many medals did McKinnon win before he started racing on the women’s team?)

The interviewer presses him.

Interviewer: Do you accept that there may still be an advantage?

RM: Is it possible? Yes. However, the range of body sizes and strength levels within a sport – you can be successful with massively different body compositions, even within my sport.

Then why wasn’t McKinnon successful when he raced on the men’s team? It is just pure coincidence that he’s grabbing all the medals now that he’s moved over?

[rude noise] Of course it’s not. He did it calculatedly, and he’s bullshitting everyone in sight, laughing to himself at all the fools who are buying it.

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