Where Megan Rapinoe talked all this nonsense is in an interview with Sean Gregory in TIME that starts with a discussion of Title IX.

What does Title IX mean to you?

Oh, goodness. I mean, Title IX gave me the opportunity to play soccer in college and get a scholarship. I don’t think I even knew about it until probably I got to college, or a little bit after. It wasn’t in my consciousness. That’s kind of the amazing thing about my generation is, we didn’t have to think about it. It was just there for us.

Ok stop right there. Title IX gave her those opportunities as a woman, which she wouldn’t have had without it. Athletic scholarships … Read the rest

People allow themselves to say the most bizarre nonsense on this subject.

these comments from @mPinoe on #trans women in sport are so important.

what are we actually talking about here? why should success in sport trump someone's right & freedom to participate? why should a medal or a record take priority over someone's life?https://t.co/VQDCAFv6Oe

— Samantha Lewis (@battledinosaur) June 21, 2022

The thing is Samantha Lewis isn’t just a random bystander (like me for example). She’s a women’s football writer. This makes her questions extremely odd – like a doctor asking “What is the point of medicine? Why do we interfere with people’s right to be sick?”

Why should success in sport trump someone’s right & freedom to … Read the rest

I remember when Republicans talked about law and order. Must have been a long time ago.

State election officials testified before the January 6 committee on Tuesday, recounting how Donald Trump and his allies pressured them to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election in the weeks leading up to the deadly Capitol attack.

Trump continued his efforts even after members of his own party repeatedly told him that reversing the election results would violate state laws and the US constitution, the officials testified.

As a result of Trump’s persistence, election officials and poll workers were subjected to violent, hateful and at times racist threats from the former president’s supporters.

And yet he’s still not in prison, … Read the rest

Speaking of the necessity of choice between competition and inclusion –

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on When you operate with the value of compassion first.

If participation in sports is now to be based on “compassion,” and “inclusion,” then trans-identified prospective athletes are going to have to line up behind the millions of boys, girls, men, and women who fail to make the team of their choice. Or is their “exclusion” somehow okay? The vast majority of these “excludees” are not going to be allowed to try to game the rules by trying out teams they’re not qualified for. High-schoolers aren’t going to be permitted to sign up for primary school teams. Adults aren’t going … Read the rest

About that World Athletics item – Sean Ingle yesterday:

The World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, has hailed swimming’s decision to ban transgender women from elite female competition as in “the best interests of its sport” – and hinted that track and field could soon follow suit.

If it’s in the best interests of one sport it’s surely in the best interests of all of them.

Lord Coe was in Budapest on Sunday as swimming’s governing body, Fina, voted to bar from women’s events trans athletes who have experienced any part of male puberty. Within 24 hours he announced that the World Athletics council would also be reviewing its transgender and DSD (differences in sex development) athletes policies at the

… Read the rest

Sean Ingle notes that finally the powers that be are having to pay attention.

The biggest battles in this summer of sport are being fought over in the boardrooms and backrooms, as federations wrestle with the thorniest question of all: should transgender women be allowed to participate in female sport?

It’s only “thorny” because fools made it thorny. It wasn’t thorny before. It was settled practice: men didn’t play on women’s teams or race against women or get in the ring with women.

For years most have regarded the issue as too dangerous to touch: the sporting equivalent of playing pass the parcel with a live grenade. Now, though, they have no choice. The emergence of elite trans women,

… Read the rest

Jeez. Trump can’t even subjunctive.

“If I didn’t endorse him [DeSantis], he wouldn’t have won,” Trump told the New Yorker, which published an in-depth story profiling DeSantis’s rise.

Tsssss. No no NO. “If I hadn’t endorsed him, he wouldn’t have won.”

Anyway, the point is, the repellent governor of Florida Ron DeSantis is getting too much attention for Trump’s liking, so he very naturally announces that that attention is all thanks to him, the great and powerful Oz.

The governor’s rising star and declining interest in hanging out with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, are fuelling resentment among the former president’s inner circle. One Republican political consultant told the New Yorker, “Trump World is working overtime to find

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Bjarte Foshaug on When politics becomes identity.

Re. communist China, on of the main lessons I learned from Jung Chang’s biography of Chairman Mao was that the endless purges and show-trials were not even meant to smoke out any real dissenters. At least that wasn’t their main function. The real purpose was conveying the following message: “Someone is going to get it during the next purge whether they are in fact guilty or not. Make sure it’s not you!”. And of course the way to make sure it wasn’t you was by making sure it was somebody else. In other words, it wasn’t enough to be “innocent” of any heretical tendencies. In fact, … Read the rest

Gee, thanks, BBC. What star woman athlete did they book onto the Today program to talk about men in women’s sports?

Fallon Fox. A man who broke a woman’s skull.

What was @BBCRadio4 @BBCr4today thinking by inviting trans fighter Fallon Fox onto the show to talk about FINAs new trans policy for womens swimming .

Fox is on record saying “I enjoyed” fracturing a woman’s skull and “I love smacking up terfs’ @NadineDorries @JustinOnWeb https://t.co/ONbO561EC6 pic.twitter.com/M4S7IjeQFT

— FairPlayForWomen (@fairplaywomen) June 21, 2022

… Read the rest

Man who identifies as woman says it’s all a big mistake.

Those who support these moves sometimes argue that segregation between trans and cisgender women in sports is regrettable, but necessary for fairness.

It’s not “segregation.” That’s a loaded word in this context, and it’s not the right one in any case. Women and men are already separate categories – women and men. That’s not “segregation,” it’s reality.

Also, I don’t say keeping men out of women’s sports is regrettable. I don’t think it’s the least bit regrettable; what’s regrettable is not doing that. What’s regrettable is letting William Thomas and Rhys McKinnon steal all those wins from women.

They argue that the performance gap is so large that

… Read the rest

Originally a comment by Artymorty on A broader range of social justice causes.

All across the left, we’re seeing this. It’s because the left have conceptualized the causes we hold dear — the environment, gay rights, anti-racism, women’s reproductive rights — not as fixed, external objectives we’re trying to achieve at this point in time in political history (reduction in greenhouse gases, equal rights for sexual and racial minorities, access to contraception and abortion, etc.) but as relative, internalized political identities on an ever-shifting political spectrum. When a progressive cause gains ground and enters the mainstream zeitgeist, it’s not seen as a victory but a loss: the cause is no longer appealing to the activists who championed it because … Read the rest

Two steps forward one step back.

British sports governing bodies are under mounting pressure to reform their policies after world swimming banned transgender athletes who reached male puberty from elite women’s events.

Although the policy could have been passed just by Fina’s executive bureau, endorsement was sought from national governing bodies at an extraordinary general congress in Budapest ahead of the World Swimming Championships.

More than 70 per cent of governing bodies agreed, with 15.3 per cent against, and 13.1 per cent who abstained.

Those are the forward. Now the back.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced a new policy on Thursday, opting to allow transgender women to compete if they have gone through puberty provided their testosterone

… Read the rest

The thing about “the environment” is, we all live in it. We all depend on it for life. In that sense it’s not really political, and working to preserve it is not really political, because of the “all” bit.

But apparently activism to do that has become increasingly political.

When Aaron Mair ascended to the board presidency of the Sierra Club, he brought a new mission to the century-old environmental group: Where once it devoted itself solely to conservation issues, now it would embrace a much broader range of social justice causes.

That makes no sense to me. Social justice causes are fine, but conservation needs full attention all by itself.

Mair’s arrival accelerated then-executive director Michael Brune’s own

… Read the rest

Yet more terms that need to be defined. “Compassion” for instance.

This, from Megan Rapinoe, reads as a very decent summation of the correct answer to any “trans person in sports” debate, and also, a pristine example of what personal politics look like when you operate with the value of compassion first. pic.twitter.com/7YjYc5MRdg

— foster kamer. (@weareyourfek) June 19, 2022

If you operate with the value of compassion first, why does the compassion go to the Lia Thomases and not to the women he deprives of wins and medals? Why does he get compassion while they get told to accept it and shut up? Why does he matter while they don’t?

As for just disgusting, it’s what Rapinoe says that’s … Read the rest

Well that’s normal and safe and decent, just the sort of thing we want in a member of the US Senate.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1538881246109093890

Don’t be fooled. He doesn’t just stand there with the gun, and give us a talk. He goes all the way.

Bill Donahue at the Post says it’s a trend:

In late April, Republican Senate candidate and former Missouri governor Eric Greitens posted on Twitter a rather unsubtle video that captured him visiting a shooting range with Donald Trump Jr. As the clip opens, Greitens and the former first son are already hunched over their semiautomatic rifles. One second in, we watch as the shooters fire a hail of bullets — two hails, actually — until they

… Read the rest

It seems the Bristol police did as little as possible to stop the intimidation.

Mark Shelford is Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner, and ASPBristol is the Bristol police.

https://twitter.com/EcuadorianMum/status/1538584051833085956 https://twitter.com/EcuadorianMum/status/1538584055918247936

Women are still the enemy.… Read the rest

Shouty men out in force in Bristol today, bellowing in the faces of women.

https://twitter.com/thewomencov/status/1538516264821325824

Women & GC men have been blockaded at a Bristol pub by trans activists who won't #LetWomenSpeak The police have closed the pub's gates pic.twitter.com/IGyduVuKVU

— Louise (@Loolovestea) June 19, 2022

Little lads crayoning – ‘Colston – Terfs are next’. pic.twitter.com/DPqwA7wpQa

— Sarah Phillimore (@SVPhillimore) June 19, 2022

Colston is the slave merchant whose statue was thrown in the harbor.

https://twitter.com/WRNWales/status/1538495194198331392

Welcome to Bristol! Interesting to see which side has to cover their faces pic.twitter.com/UutpYwgB84

— Sarah Phillimore (@SVPhillimore) June 19, 2022

Chanting & mob approving:

"Trans rights are human rights!"
"You're dinosaurs!"
"Die out!"
"You are going to die out!"
"Your ideas are ancient

… Read the rest

The blessings of empire:

During the heyday of the British empire, thousands of women from India and other parts of Asia were brought to London to look after young children – but many of these nannies were later abandoned and left to fend for themselves. Now, a building in London which housed them is set to be commemorated with a blue plaque.

That’s nice. Drag them half way around the world and then abandon them.

“Ayahs and amahs were basically domestic workers and the backbone of British families in colonial India. They looked after the children, entertained them, told them stories, and rocked them to sleep,” says Rozina Visram, historian and author of Asians in Britain: 400 Years of

… Read the rest

They just can’t ever word it honestly. BBC headline:

Fina stops transgender swimmers from competing in women’s elite events

Male swimmers.

Fina, swimming’s world governing body, has voted to stop transgender athletes from competing in women’s elite races if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty.

They could have worded it so that the male puberty part comes first, but no, it has to be the “transgender” part first.

The decision was made during an extraordinary general congress at the ongoing World Championships in Budapest.

…

The issue in swimming has been catapulted into the spotlight by the experiences of American Lia Thomas.

Not so much the experiences as the photos and video clips. … Read the rest

A win at last!

https://twitter.com/FondOfBeetles/status/1538532982226669569

I had to look up FINA: it’s a [or the] competitive swimming organization type thing.

The vote was massive.

Superb! Here are the slides:https://t.co/AGM6PUEK3R

— Cathy Devine (@cathydevine56) June 19, 2022

Good news at last.… Read the rest