"Men in women's sports came ravaging through our cities"????? Is the old coot so far gone that he can't remember whether he's slamming immigrants, Black people or trans athletes? As for the world not laughing at us, Mr. President, EVERYONE with the possible exception of J.K. Rowling is laughing at you.
Did you miss the attacks on any woman who says she doesn’t want to see a male penis in her locker room? You sound like a true member of the crime-attack syndicate. Your post oozes with mental illness.
The Republicans are having a ridiculous overreaction to trans women athletes. Plus, they've taken leave of common sense. No guy, because he's disappointed with his performance in sports, is going to go through the trouble of getting gender reassignment surgery and taking hormones to have a permanent change in identity to female just to win in sports. It's too damned much trouble.
The Democrats have failed in addressing this nonsense. It's an easy argument to disprove and I don't know why they don't develop a quick, fact filled message. There must be some bright young person who can put together a fact sheet, if they're too lazy to educate themselves. Enough of allowing these Heritage Foundation freaks to write an agenda that targets such a small number of people. Maybe the Democrats and the Republikkkans need a quick biology lesson.
I looked at your headline today and thought it simply self-evidently true… and almost skipped reading the article , which would have been such a mistake.
This essay does an especially good job picking the relevant facts from the bad-faith arguments and sheer NOISE out there, and giving it context.
I support trans women (and trans men) because I support humans and human rights. But even if that weren’t the case, as a feminist I would be a fool not to support trans women… if only because there is no world in which trans women are excluded that doesn’t ultimately harm _all_ women.
Thank you for an exceptionally well-written piece!
Great piece full of logical reasoning and actual facts. The problem, I think, is that the Dems let MAGA define this nonissue for too long. It has become an unfalsifiable claim, impervious to facts or truth. If we push back with honest numbers, the rightwing just shifts the claim—“Well, what about this bullshit hypothetical?” The Dems will always be on the defensive.
The way to deal with all cowardly bullying is to go on the offense. Don’t ask why the right is obsessed with women’s sports and virtually nonexistent transgender athletes. Don’t hit the with stats and facts.
Instead, ask what their obsession is with people’s, particularly women’s, genitalia. They want to inspect children’s genitalia? Demand to know why. Who will conduct these inspections? Will they take photos? Will they share them with others?
If this all sounds perverse, it’s because it is. MAGA has an unhealthy obsession with children’s sexuality. Call it out. If a Rep candidate tries to campaign on opposing transgender athletes, their Dem opponent should ask them directly if they intend to personally inspect the children. Raise the spectacle of every child being scrutinized. Let parents imagine the implications of their own kids being exposed to MAGA perversions. Put the MAGA weirdos on the defensive by mocking their obsessions.
Doing so would take guts and resolve beyond what most Dems demonstrate, but it’s the only way to neutralize the unfalsifiable claim and (more importantly) take the heat off our transgender citizens who are just trying to live their best lives.
There are no genital inspections, this is a red herring, a hysterical lie. Athletes’ sex is verified via (a) their original birth certificate, (b) a one time cheek swab, less invasive than a Covid test, which shows whether the athlete has the SRY gene, or (c) their family doctor who conducts the _required_ annual physical every single athlete is required to have before playing, who attests to the athletes’ sex on the form they must bring to the school
There is a difference between what is done and what is being called for, as the article indicates. No one has claimed that genital inspections are taking place, only that they have been proposed.
Who is proposing genital inspections? In Washington state there is a ballot measure before the voters this November that mandates girls’ and women’s sport be only for natal females. The measure specifies verification of female athletes’ sex by the routes I explained above—if it passes no one at a school will be inspecting anyone’s genitals.
Protection of the female category in sport (and prisons and changing rooms) is very important to many many citizens on the political left. A majority (or large plurality) of Democrats in polls over the past three years favors reserving girls’ and women’s sport for females.
These Dems who feel this way (I’m one of them) don’t hate trans people. They (and I) strongly support protecting trans people from discrimination in housing, employment, and public-serving businesses, and we want trans people to live with dignity and safety.
But in a certain limited set of spheres we separate people by sex for very good reason, and sport is one of them. Just as trans people have the right not to be discriminated against in the areas I outlined above, female athletes have a fundamental civil right to fair competition in sport, which means males must not be included in girls’ and women’s sport irrespective of someone’s gender identity.
Athletes compete with their bodies, not their identities, and natal males have substantial strength and speed advantages over females, even after hormone treatment and even if they have had their puberty blocked. (Google “male mini puberty”) This is a girls’ and women’s fundamental human and civil rights issue and many many people on the left feel this way.
I despise Trump and loathe MAGA, they are destroying our democracy and the way they are talking about this issue is ugly and nasty.
But on the issue itself, girls’ and women have a right to female only competition. And all this talk about “genital inspections,” trying to stoke hysteria with something totally false is itself an ugly way to demagogue a girls’ and women’s rights issue.
I’m not going to address everything you claim here. Let this stand as an example of the whole. You state that we divide the sexes in sport “for very good reason.” You also state, “Athletes compete with their bodies, not their identities.” I’m curious how you rationalize that contradiction.
The fact is that transgender females in women’s sports is a shrinkingly rare occurrence. All those on the left who make an issue of this nonissue have fallen into Trump’s trap. It’s like railing against noncitizens voting when we know that they just don’t. I’ll bet you don’t fall for that Trump lie. Why does the lie about transgender women in sports have such traction? And why do you refer to transgender females as “males” as in “males must not be included in girls’ and women’s sport.”
You seem very passionate about this matter, but I wonder why given its near non-existence in reality.
The real threat to WOMEN is Republican white men. Never mind sports and which sex plays what when.
Of all the issues the human race faces to make a stand on, and idiots pick trans people. The real problems:
Max Miller. Ken Paxton. Donald Trump. Another Republican man arrested in the last 24 who's name escapes me. Epstein. The list is long and seemingly endless.
The midterms is a nice plausible cover, but the target around “trans athletes” is removing the legal protections women enjoy while in public life. All women. THF has let the cat out of the bag and the Court has paved the way to create “categories” of people to which Title IX does not apply. Bostock’s days are numbered. It’s not an exaggeration.
This administration is haphazard, wasteful, exploitative, vindictive, and cruel, but when it comes to women, they’re *not* ineffective. Between EOs and the Court - and the dismal view of women taken by society at large - every policy goal they’ve set regarding sex and gender has been achieved … why would they stop there? They won’t unless voters kick them to the curb, and new reps stand up to the Court and the Executive with laws that protect individual rights and *punish* violators. (There’s that accountability thing again.)
Look around: women are dying of childbirth complications like it’s 1910. Dying. Who knows what’s happening to women in ICE detention? Or still in the military? Or the girls in Washington state who want to play sports?
Conservatives want women out of the workforce, out of the Dr’s office, and out of public life, 1890’s-style with a dash of Handmaid’s Tale and TPAC Trad-Wifery thrown in; and Vought & Todd Blanche will make sure it happens whether TFG is alive or not. Vance is even worse.
The attack on women by this administration is real and ongoing, but very view people if anyone seem to be upset enough to leverage it against conservatives inside any party.
Its a non issue accept to maybe 5 people..Since when does a democracy legislate for 5 people? Clue- it doesn't- its meant to stir up outrage in those out seeking a reason to be outraged. We never should have given it the air to survive. Authoritarian! Name it. Say it. Repeat it.
This is the most thoughtful, informative, well-written piece on this topic that I've seen. It's difficult to combat with facts and truth such a strategically demagogued issue, but Democrats cannot allow this to go unanswered. Context is everything, but simplicity is required for the American audience.
If Heritage wants to steer women into less demanding activities more aligned with average female interests and tendencies to maximize their fertility and womanliness, then they should know that other women and I want to steer them straight to hell.
A brief parenthetical note: in his novel, Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein says that women are by far the best spaceship pilots— better at maths, better at analyzing spatial relationships, quicker reflexes to deal with emergencies, etc. The Captain of one of the key spaceships—who saved the young protagonist’s life by solving a complex problem in ballistics in seconds in her head—was a woman. I bet that this sort of thing would send Pete Kegsbreath around the bend—if he wasn’t there already.
There is no such thing as "average women interest" there are jobs demanded of them. Autonomy is the issue. Leave us alone and we will succeed where our talents lead.
Many, many years ago, when Newsweek was still a real publication, they had a cartoon: to the left was a dinosaur—on its back, four paws in the air, Xs instead of eyes—it was labeled, “Communism.” Next to it were a bunch of cavemen with clubs, dressed in Fred-Flintstone-style costumes—they’d obviously just killed the dinosaur. To the extreme right there was another caveman, identical in appearance to the others. One of the cavemen in the group said something like, “What we do now?” Another replied, pointing to the guy alone on the right-hand side of the cartoon, “Let’s kill Ug—he gay.”
There is a certain type of person who is not happy unless he has someone to hate. And indeed, it was not long after that cartoon appeared that a whole slew of Republican politicians were hollering about the Evil Gay Menace to Everything Americans Hold Dear.
Well, that dog won’t hunt any more—so now it’s those same Republicans who are hollering about the Evil Transgender Menace to Everything Americans Hold Dear—men in women’s sports are “ravaging through our cities,” according to 🐔🌮….
What I want to know is, who are they going to hate when hating transgendered people doesn’t work any more? Jews? There is a historical precedent—but not a good one. Lepers? Another, better, historical precedent—but nowadays there simply aren’t enough lepers to go around. Southpaws? That could actually destroy the Great American Game Of Baseball, and no one wants that ( I think,,, I could be wrong…) Maybe the Republican National Committee should set up a Blue-Ribbon Commission to find a new threat to Everything Americans Hold Dear…. Or maybe not….
Ravaging? Well considering that trump does not exist in the real, connected world he just vomits up what's fed him. Our job is to clean it up over and over and over..
Hell, pushing women out of competitive sports entirely makes us worse than the Soviet Union. Even the Soviet Union allowed women to be mothers and compete in sports. One example was Tatyana Ovechkina, a point guard on the Olympic gold-medal women's basketball team. She had already given birth to her first child before winning either of her Golds. (Her story was even more inspirational then in that she nearly had a leg amputated at the age of 7 after being hit by a car when walking home from school and spent months in the hospital.)
She went on to run the women's basketball program for the Russian Federation and also the women's basketball program at her old club, Moscow Dynamo. And went on to have two more children. Her youngest child even would wear her old number when playing sports.
I'm no fan of the Soviet Union or their government or their politics and can't stand Putin. But love Tatyana's story.
It is impossible to change your sex. It can’t be done. It is pure idiocy to pretend it can be done. Cisgender is a slur. There is no such thing as cicgender. It is a made-up, meaningless term.
Male bodies should never be allowed to compete against women. Full stop, end of the story.
Wear your woman costume and enjoy yourself. Just stay out of women's spaces, places, and sports. Self-mutilation and drugs will never change your sex.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CHANGE YOUR SEX. IT CAN’T BE DONE.
You know this is yet another culture war issue during a critical election year that Republicans pull out of their asses bc they don't have anything else to run on. During Bush/Kerry it was gay marriage at the last minute in Ohio and in the past it was racism, always racism like the Willie Horton ad.
"Men in women's sports came ravaging through our cities"????? Is the old coot so far gone that he can't remember whether he's slamming immigrants, Black people or trans athletes? As for the world not laughing at us, Mr. President, EVERYONE with the possible exception of J.K. Rowling is laughing at you.
So, when did transgender cross country runners start gangs and organized crime syndicates to mug people and shake down local business owners?
Did you miss the attacks on any woman who says she doesn’t want to see a male penis in her locker room? You sound like a true member of the crime-attack syndicate. Your post oozes with mental illness.
Trans caravans, you bet! 🙄
The Republicans are having a ridiculous overreaction to trans women athletes. Plus, they've taken leave of common sense. No guy, because he's disappointed with his performance in sports, is going to go through the trouble of getting gender reassignment surgery and taking hormones to have a permanent change in identity to female just to win in sports. It's too damned much trouble.
Oh, Rowling is laughing, too. With glee.
The Democrats have failed in addressing this nonsense. It's an easy argument to disprove and I don't know why they don't develop a quick, fact filled message. There must be some bright young person who can put together a fact sheet, if they're too lazy to educate themselves. Enough of allowing these Heritage Foundation freaks to write an agenda that targets such a small number of people. Maybe the Democrats and the Republikkkans need a quick biology lesson.
I looked at your headline today and thought it simply self-evidently true… and almost skipped reading the article , which would have been such a mistake.
This essay does an especially good job picking the relevant facts from the bad-faith arguments and sheer NOISE out there, and giving it context.
I support trans women (and trans men) because I support humans and human rights. But even if that weren’t the case, as a feminist I would be a fool not to support trans women… if only because there is no world in which trans women are excluded that doesn’t ultimately harm _all_ women.
Thank you for an exceptionally well-written piece!
Belongs on a bumper sticker and yard sign: “there is no world in which trans women are excluded that doesn’t ultimately harm _all_ women.”
Great piece full of logical reasoning and actual facts. The problem, I think, is that the Dems let MAGA define this nonissue for too long. It has become an unfalsifiable claim, impervious to facts or truth. If we push back with honest numbers, the rightwing just shifts the claim—“Well, what about this bullshit hypothetical?” The Dems will always be on the defensive.
The way to deal with all cowardly bullying is to go on the offense. Don’t ask why the right is obsessed with women’s sports and virtually nonexistent transgender athletes. Don’t hit the with stats and facts.
Instead, ask what their obsession is with people’s, particularly women’s, genitalia. They want to inspect children’s genitalia? Demand to know why. Who will conduct these inspections? Will they take photos? Will they share them with others?
If this all sounds perverse, it’s because it is. MAGA has an unhealthy obsession with children’s sexuality. Call it out. If a Rep candidate tries to campaign on opposing transgender athletes, their Dem opponent should ask them directly if they intend to personally inspect the children. Raise the spectacle of every child being scrutinized. Let parents imagine the implications of their own kids being exposed to MAGA perversions. Put the MAGA weirdos on the defensive by mocking their obsessions.
Doing so would take guts and resolve beyond what most Dems demonstrate, but it’s the only way to neutralize the unfalsifiable claim and (more importantly) take the heat off our transgender citizens who are just trying to live their best lives.
There are no genital inspections, this is a red herring, a hysterical lie. Athletes’ sex is verified via (a) their original birth certificate, (b) a one time cheek swab, less invasive than a Covid test, which shows whether the athlete has the SRY gene, or (c) their family doctor who conducts the _required_ annual physical every single athlete is required to have before playing, who attests to the athletes’ sex on the form they must bring to the school
There is a difference between what is done and what is being called for, as the article indicates. No one has claimed that genital inspections are taking place, only that they have been proposed.
Who is proposing genital inspections? In Washington state there is a ballot measure before the voters this November that mandates girls’ and women’s sport be only for natal females. The measure specifies verification of female athletes’ sex by the routes I explained above—if it passes no one at a school will be inspecting anyone’s genitals.
Protection of the female category in sport (and prisons and changing rooms) is very important to many many citizens on the political left. A majority (or large plurality) of Democrats in polls over the past three years favors reserving girls’ and women’s sport for females.
These Dems who feel this way (I’m one of them) don’t hate trans people. They (and I) strongly support protecting trans people from discrimination in housing, employment, and public-serving businesses, and we want trans people to live with dignity and safety.
But in a certain limited set of spheres we separate people by sex for very good reason, and sport is one of them. Just as trans people have the right not to be discriminated against in the areas I outlined above, female athletes have a fundamental civil right to fair competition in sport, which means males must not be included in girls’ and women’s sport irrespective of someone’s gender identity.
Athletes compete with their bodies, not their identities, and natal males have substantial strength and speed advantages over females, even after hormone treatment and even if they have had their puberty blocked. (Google “male mini puberty”) This is a girls’ and women’s fundamental human and civil rights issue and many many people on the left feel this way.
I despise Trump and loathe MAGA, they are destroying our democracy and the way they are talking about this issue is ugly and nasty.
But on the issue itself, girls’ and women have a right to female only competition. And all this talk about “genital inspections,” trying to stoke hysteria with something totally false is itself an ugly way to demagogue a girls’ and women’s rights issue.
I’m not going to address everything you claim here. Let this stand as an example of the whole. You state that we divide the sexes in sport “for very good reason.” You also state, “Athletes compete with their bodies, not their identities.” I’m curious how you rationalize that contradiction.
The fact is that transgender females in women’s sports is a shrinkingly rare occurrence. All those on the left who make an issue of this nonissue have fallen into Trump’s trap. It’s like railing against noncitizens voting when we know that they just don’t. I’ll bet you don’t fall for that Trump lie. Why does the lie about transgender women in sports have such traction? And why do you refer to transgender females as “males” as in “males must not be included in girls’ and women’s sport.”
You seem very passionate about this matter, but I wonder why given its near non-existence in reality.
The real threat to WOMEN is Republican white men. Never mind sports and which sex plays what when.
Of all the issues the human race faces to make a stand on, and idiots pick trans people. The real problems:
Max Miller. Ken Paxton. Donald Trump. Another Republican man arrested in the last 24 who's name escapes me. Epstein. The list is long and seemingly endless.
The midterms is a nice plausible cover, but the target around “trans athletes” is removing the legal protections women enjoy while in public life. All women. THF has let the cat out of the bag and the Court has paved the way to create “categories” of people to which Title IX does not apply. Bostock’s days are numbered. It’s not an exaggeration.
This administration is haphazard, wasteful, exploitative, vindictive, and cruel, but when it comes to women, they’re *not* ineffective. Between EOs and the Court - and the dismal view of women taken by society at large - every policy goal they’ve set regarding sex and gender has been achieved … why would they stop there? They won’t unless voters kick them to the curb, and new reps stand up to the Court and the Executive with laws that protect individual rights and *punish* violators. (There’s that accountability thing again.)
Look around: women are dying of childbirth complications like it’s 1910. Dying. Who knows what’s happening to women in ICE detention? Or still in the military? Or the girls in Washington state who want to play sports?
Conservatives want women out of the workforce, out of the Dr’s office, and out of public life, 1890’s-style with a dash of Handmaid’s Tale and TPAC Trad-Wifery thrown in; and Vought & Todd Blanche will make sure it happens whether TFG is alive or not. Vance is even worse.
The attack on women by this administration is real and ongoing, but very view people if anyone seem to be upset enough to leverage it against conservatives inside any party.
Good article here: https://www.clasp.org/blog/the-dangerous-and-violent-reality-of-controlling-women/.
Thanks for the link to the article.
Yes it's a war on women. Or rather another wave in the war on women. It's relentless and exhausting.
Its a non issue accept to maybe 5 people..Since when does a democracy legislate for 5 people? Clue- it doesn't- its meant to stir up outrage in those out seeking a reason to be outraged. We never should have given it the air to survive. Authoritarian! Name it. Say it. Repeat it.
This is the most thoughtful, informative, well-written piece on this topic that I've seen. It's difficult to combat with facts and truth such a strategically demagogued issue, but Democrats cannot allow this to go unanswered. Context is everything, but simplicity is required for the American audience.
If Heritage wants to steer women into less demanding activities more aligned with average female interests and tendencies to maximize their fertility and womanliness, then they should know that other women and I want to steer them straight to hell.
A brief parenthetical note: in his novel, Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein says that women are by far the best spaceship pilots— better at maths, better at analyzing spatial relationships, quicker reflexes to deal with emergencies, etc. The Captain of one of the key spaceships—who saved the young protagonist’s life by solving a complex problem in ballistics in seconds in her head—was a woman. I bet that this sort of thing would send Pete Kegsbreath around the bend—if he wasn’t there already.
In that case, can we send that copy to Kegsbreath even though he is far past the bend?
There is no such thing as "average women interest" there are jobs demanded of them. Autonomy is the issue. Leave us alone and we will succeed where our talents lead.
I need to keep this one.
Many, many years ago, when Newsweek was still a real publication, they had a cartoon: to the left was a dinosaur—on its back, four paws in the air, Xs instead of eyes—it was labeled, “Communism.” Next to it were a bunch of cavemen with clubs, dressed in Fred-Flintstone-style costumes—they’d obviously just killed the dinosaur. To the extreme right there was another caveman, identical in appearance to the others. One of the cavemen in the group said something like, “What we do now?” Another replied, pointing to the guy alone on the right-hand side of the cartoon, “Let’s kill Ug—he gay.”
There is a certain type of person who is not happy unless he has someone to hate. And indeed, it was not long after that cartoon appeared that a whole slew of Republican politicians were hollering about the Evil Gay Menace to Everything Americans Hold Dear.
Well, that dog won’t hunt any more—so now it’s those same Republicans who are hollering about the Evil Transgender Menace to Everything Americans Hold Dear—men in women’s sports are “ravaging through our cities,” according to 🐔🌮….
What I want to know is, who are they going to hate when hating transgendered people doesn’t work any more? Jews? There is a historical precedent—but not a good one. Lepers? Another, better, historical precedent—but nowadays there simply aren’t enough lepers to go around. Southpaws? That could actually destroy the Great American Game Of Baseball, and no one wants that ( I think,,, I could be wrong…) Maybe the Republican National Committee should set up a Blue-Ribbon Commission to find a new threat to Everything Americans Hold Dear…. Or maybe not….
Ravaging? Well considering that trump does not exist in the real, connected world he just vomits up what's fed him. Our job is to clean it up over and over and over..
Keep fighting the good fight, Brynn! Love your writing!
Hell, pushing women out of competitive sports entirely makes us worse than the Soviet Union. Even the Soviet Union allowed women to be mothers and compete in sports. One example was Tatyana Ovechkina, a point guard on the Olympic gold-medal women's basketball team. She had already given birth to her first child before winning either of her Golds. (Her story was even more inspirational then in that she nearly had a leg amputated at the age of 7 after being hit by a car when walking home from school and spent months in the hospital.)
She went on to run the women's basketball program for the Russian Federation and also the women's basketball program at her old club, Moscow Dynamo. And went on to have two more children. Her youngest child even would wear her old number when playing sports.
I'm no fan of the Soviet Union or their government or their politics and can't stand Putin. But love Tatyana's story.
It is impossible to change your sex. It can’t be done. It is pure idiocy to pretend it can be done. Cisgender is a slur. There is no such thing as cicgender. It is a made-up, meaningless term.
Male bodies should never be allowed to compete against women. Full stop, end of the story.
Wear your woman costume and enjoy yourself. Just stay out of women's spaces, places, and sports. Self-mutilation and drugs will never change your sex.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CHANGE YOUR SEX. IT CAN’T BE DONE.
But hey, that's a cool costume.
You know this is yet another culture war issue during a critical election year that Republicans pull out of their asses bc they don't have anything else to run on. During Bush/Kerry it was gay marriage at the last minute in Ohio and in the past it was racism, always racism like the Willie Horton ad.