Parts by name parts by nature
Suing her school was not how Evelyn Parts envisioned her final semester at Swarthmore College. Parts, 22, a distance runner and team captain of the school’s varsity cross country and track team, set big goals for senior year. The Towson, Maryland native had qualified for the 5,000 meters in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s Division III Centennial Conference Championship for Women’s Indoor Track & Field set for last March in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For her, it was the biggest competition of the season.
But she was never given a chance to run. Parts, who goes by Evie, was banned from competing with her team because she is a transgender woman.
Thus Teen Vogue cheerfully admits it lies to us in the first paragraph.
It also misrepresents the issue in the usual way. Parts was banned from competing on the women’s team because he is a man. “Transgender” is beside the point (because meaningless); the point is that he’s not a woman. However fragile and dainty and girly he may think he is, he’s not a woman. A “transgender woman” is a man. Men don’t get to compete against women, especially in a championship.
“There’s so much on my mind that nobody else has to think about,” Parts tells Teen Vogue about the ordeal. “This is not fair that I’m having to think about this. Everybody else is thinking about race strategy, and I’m thinking about whether I’ll be able to race.”
Whiney jerk. Any thought for the women he’s cheating? Of course not.
