Tepid
Just one little thing here.
Penn to ban trans women from women’s sports
By Tuesday afternoon, the Penn website showed other athletes holding the school’s top times in Thomas’ events. The site was annotated with a note that read, “Competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season.”
“While Penn’s policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules,” Penn President J. Larry Jameson said. “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
Grudging. Minimal. Reluctant. Insufficient.
Of course “some students” were “disadvantaged” – or to put it another way, several female students were grossly cheated. It was wildly, offensively, insultingly unfair, as we loudly said at the time, but the Penn administration and all the other right-thinkers brushed off our objections for the sake of rewarding that great big dude with his giant shoulders and hands. The admission should be a whole lot less grudging than “some were disadvantaged.”
“Our commitment to ensuring a respectful and welcoming environment for all of our students is unwavering,” Jameson said. “At the same time, we must comply with federal requirements, including executive orders, and NCAA eligibility rules, so our teams and student-athletes may engage in competitive intercollegiate sports.”
You completely failed to ensure a respectful and welcoming environment for all of your students when you let William Thomas cheat.
I notice they say ‘some student-athletes’ were disadvantaged. No, you shit, some WOMEN were disadvantaged because of a MAN competing against them. There is a name for the kind of athletes that were disadvantaged; it is a type of athlete that was disadvantaged forever until ‘some’ fought for their right to have a sports program. It was only grudgingly that a lot of schools began to have women’s sports, and they have never really reached an equal par with men’s sports. Now these strong, talented women are being reduced to ‘some’ student-athletes.
Well, that’s a big fat lie, Mr. J. Larry Jameson. You didn’t merely “waver” when it came to respectfully welcoming your women swimmers. You set a predator among them with no warning, and gagged them from complaining by threatening dismissal from the team. You forced them to endure the double humiliation of undressing in front of this male fetishist, and being criminally assaulted by his own indecent exposure, swaggering his naked penis in front of them with impunity. And that doesn’t even include the disrespectful and unwelcoming treatment of being forced to compete against a brazen cheater, who robbed the women of their rightful records and prizes. At least most of the women competitors can be restored to their rightful positions in the finals. But there are permanent losers to whom nothing can be restored: the women competitors that Thomas eliminated in each round of competition, depriving those women of their right to advance in the competition. Not to mention the rank injustice done to the woman athlete whose place Thomas took on the Penn team. There’s nothing that can be restored to her who was deprived of the opportunity even to participate in her own sport.