Take your “inclusion” and
Welsh ministers wrote to the Welsh Rugby Union expressing “concern” about its ban on transgender women competing in female-only games.
Concern about not allowing men to compete in women-only games. How did we get to such a stupid place and why can’t we get the hell out of it?
Their letter stated “inclusion” should be the “starting point” for decisions on transgender people’s participation in any part of society.
No it should not, because the issue is not “transgender people’s participation in any part of society,” it’s men’s intrusion on women. As always, calling it a “transgender” issue conceals the actual issue. Men aren’t shut out of women’s spaces and games and the rest because they’re “transgender” but because they’re men. Women sometimes need to get away from men, for our own safety or for fair competition or to have any hope of winning a prize. Women would almost never win Oscars for acting if there weren’t a separate category for women, because there are vastly more roles for men, and most of the roles for women get little dialogue and little to do. That’s just one example of many.
Introducing the ban in September 2022, the WRU said it was based on “current medical and scientific evidence”.
Evidence, that is, that competing against men in rugby is dangerous to women. Apparently the Welsh government doesn’t give a shit.
The Welsh government’s deputy sports minister, Dawn Bowden, and deputy minister for social partnership, Hannah Blythyn, wrote that their “preferred position was to follow a case-by-case approach, rather than a blanket exclusion of transgender people”.
Again. It’s not “transgender people”; it’s men.
Also how revolting to see two women in government putting women’s safety at risk for the sake of this stupid ideology.
The deputy sports minister also raised the issue at a meeting with WRU officials in January 2023, when according to the minutes she said the Welsh government was “disappointed in the difference in treatment between trans men and trans women”.
Excuse me, I have to go bang my head against the wall for a few hours.
Don’t know how I managed the trick, but I think I posted a comment about ” why are all the TiMs invading women sports such bruisers instead of average or smaller guys like me” in a post from a couple of summers ago instead of here.
If you come across it, do with it what you will.
Does the Welsh Rugby Union really want such discussions? I doubt that I would if I were in their shoes (boots). I would have thought that the sensible response to a letter of concern from ministers would be a polite letter of reply raising the obvious countervailing concerns, pointing out that balancing such concerns is the responsibility of ministers in writing legislation, and asking when such legislation will be written and an independent regulator or police officer might be in touch as opposed to a politician abusing a bully pulpit by banging on about their preferences being subject to disappointment.
What’s in it for them? Not that politics should be about self-gain (thanks Mr. Trump!), but how do these two women see their efforts to ruin women’s sport? Certainly not as “efforts to ruin women’s sport” but that’s what’s going to happen if they get their way. Politics should at least be about being aware of the results of your actions, otherwise, why bother? If they’re not willing to talk to people who will be predictably and adversely affected by this proposal than they’re not doing their jobs. They’re not setting free a deprived, downtrodden minority, but inserting MEN into women’s rugby, with great potential for physical harm to those already in the league because they’re actually women. It’s not “liberation,” it’s a home invasion.
Still, one wonders, what are they thinking? What parts of the trans bullshit won them over? Do they really believe that TiMs are not male? Do they really believe that TiMs are disadvantaged more than women? Have these two cabinet ministers(!) consulted with women to see what they think? Have they talked to any uncaptured sports scientists who know the science behind male and female bodies? Unless of course they don’t care what this does to women, and are using this little exercise as a way to earn Stonewall points, and they’re not interested in anything other than looking virtuous and progressive to others who’ve swallowed this stupid ideology. News flash: outside of your little self-satisfied, self righteous bubble, there’s a bigger world of reality and policy that you’re blindly fucking around with, that results in lost opportunities and broken bones for women. If you’re not going to bother with little details like that while in government, then you shouldn’t be in charge of anything with more real-world impact than counting paperclips, or be allowed to operate any machinery more complicated than velcro.
We have always had, and will always have, Quislings, Vichyists, and collaborators.
Perhaps they are so influenced by the patriarchy that they suffer a form of Stockholm syndrome, a little like the battered woman who says “He only does it because he loves me”.
Gosh, I wonder why the WRU are treating transgender men and women so differently?
I’m gobsmacked by people who actually think it’s possible to decide whether to include or exclude trans-identified males from women’s spaces using a “case-by-case approach.” The nature of the claim, that transwomen are a TYPE OF WOMAN, completely precludes it. They’re built like an ox and just as strong? Some girls are big. They completely pass as female and nobody in the woman’s restroom would even know they’re trans? What about those poor transwomen who don’t? Where are we going to draw the line?
I had a conversation recently with a friend of mine who had never even heard of a liberal, feminist critique of including transwomen into all women’s spaces. Her responses were predictable. “There are so few.” “They pass.” “We should accept and love.” “That’s not happening.” And of course “we need to do things on a case-by-case basis, which would eliminate the problems you mention.” But … how?
Bruce @ 1 – Sorry – I looked for it but can’t find it. If you know the title of the post I think I could find it.
[…] a comment by Sastra on Take your inclusion […]
Having played a fair bit of rugby, and in Wales, where I captained a college team, I can say that these two Welsh ministers are ignorant and insane. The WRU are absolutely right.
[…] a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Take your “inclusion” […]