Among all the heinous actions perpetrated by this power drunk tyrant and his cult of worshipful enforcers, it’s hard to single out the worst. But I believe that his efforts to destroy DEI, a blatant endorsement of racism, misogyny, transphobia, and ableism, may be the most fiendish act of all. He singles out the worst examples of our society and history and elevates them by executive edict to a perverse notion of virtue. It is truly a gobsmacking display of doublespeak that even Orwell would find laughable and would require Milton to invent new and deeper circles of hell to accommodate.
A. Trump is a liar; worse, a liar drunk with power. He’ll keep lying, but his power can be stripped; when enough people finally demand it.
B. The DEI issues are all instigated by Project 2025. Stunning that it’s not mentioned here. There is a faction of the right aiming to remake not just government, but society, into a Christian Nationalist state; to rebuild agencies that carry out this agenda as voiced by one person (Trump now, someone else later). Google Russ Vought.
Everything discussed here is in the Project 2025 playbook. No crystal ball required; it’s all there: only two sexes, publicly funded Christian schools, no gays (certainly not married ones), replace all mention of “the non-deserving from public life.” They decide who is deserving: of gov benefits, civil rights, voting rights, citizenship, housing, banking, healthcare, ALL OF IT.
Trans/sports thing: a distraction. Leveraging stale stereotypes to gin up fear, as “protecting” women & privacy. It’s not even new. It’s an old but reliable method to propagandize a sliver of society for political purposes. The Court will condone it & the Right will get what they paid for.
I’m sorry, I’m with them on the No Men in women sport thing…. You don’t lose your strength and size when transitioned. It’s gonna take some young women getting really hurt or killed to make people understand the difference in strength between men and women.
Erik, while on the surface what you say here may resonate with many, it leaves out some very pertinent facts.
First of all, I do agree that study in this area has been lacking. And that is due in great part to the fact that being trans has traditionally been the great unspoken condition. But, and it's a big "but," this research should be done not to resolve the whole "men" in "women's" sports debate, but to increase general knowledge and better determine the safest and most effective medication regimens, as well as identifying potential addressable psychological/family issues caused by the trans person attempting to realize their true persona.
In general, men do indeed have proportionally more muscle mass than women. Also in general, women have more fat mass than men. Despite the current concentration on muscle mass alone, each of these factors confer their own benefits when discussing sheer strength vs stamina, etc.
Also, what often gets lost in the shuffle is that it has been a relatively very short time that women have been allowed, much less encouraged to compete on any level in most areas of athletics.
In general, in numerous studies, the gap between men and women in athletics is narrowing. In particular in those sports requiring substantial stamina over sheer strength. Men's advances in record-breaking performances are lessening, while women's still currently appears to progress. Obviously, at some point, both will essentially top out, barring occasional genetic anomalies.
We also have to consider the historical bias against women becoming too strong, too competitive, too "unfeminine."
I posit that your saying "women will be killed" when competing with men is wildly incendiary. We have to look at how transitioning in a world where being able to obtain safe and effective mdication on a routine, consistent basis truly affects trans people, of both sexes. Currently the studies available indicate that many of those current tenets regarding inborn sex differences may be essentially constructs. That with proper training and appropriate medication, those differences are greatly, if not completely reduced. That a key factor may be access to treatment when first indicated, often before reaching maturity.
Also, before I cite a very recent paper, published in a respected, peer-reviewed journal, I want to stress something. The complete myth that even a completely physically unfit cis man can always best the most physically fit cus woman is a very old and very tired saw that is long past retirement age. And, the ridiculous notion that trans women are simply men who wish to prey on women also deserves to be retired. No man who is even marginally serious as an athlete would opt to compete as a woman simply to gain an edge, that would be a sour history at best. And, seriously, do you really feel a trans woman opts to go through societal hell simply to win their high school swim meet? Seriously?
Finally, no study of any kind has scientific validity without a parallel study of trans men. It is the only real way to resolve "nature vs nurture."
And here is the study, which openly acknowledges its limitations in the data gathering, as similar studies have not been done solely on trans athletes:
” In nonathletic trans men starting testosterone therapy, within 1 year, muscle mass and strength increased and, by 3 years, physical performance (push-ups, sit-ups, run time) improved to the level of cisgender men. In nonathletic trans women, feminizing hormone therapy increased fat mass by approximately 30% and decreased muscle mass by approximately 5% after 12 months, and steadily declined beyond 3 years. While absolute lean mass remains higher in trans women, relative percentage lean mass and fat mass (and muscle strength corrected for lean mass), hemoglobin, and VO2 peak corrected for weight was no different to cisgender women. After 2 years of GAHT, no advantage was observed for physical performance measured by running time or in trans women. By 4 years, there was no advantage in sit-ups. While push-up performance declined in trans women, a statistical advantage remained relative to cisgender women.
Limited evidence suggests that physical performance of nonathletic trans people who have undergone GAHT for at least 2 years approaches that of cisgender controls. Further controlled longitudinal research is needed in trans athletes and nonathletes."
Strange, I replied to you but I don't see it here. Anyway, please feel free to copy. And feel free to correct my typos! It was early and I was on my first cup of coffee. LOL. The only one that isn't clearly an error was all the fault of spell check. I meant to write "sour victory" and it ended up saying "sour history." Stupid spell check!!
This is a very, very tiny "issue" that was massively magnified by the Right to distract us from all the other attacks by this Administration on hard-won civil rights by trans people. It is a straw man, and you have gobbled the bait.
I agree on sports and that does not mean I condone his other policies. I have read other stories about polls, which I think are wrong, this same sub stack predicted a Kamala win.
Once again we are witnesses to the majesty and superiority of non-DEI hires. Can’t wait for Trump to transform the U.S. military into his personal Morality Police.
".....which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy."
I find it hard to believe that the guy who walked in on teens in various stages of undress (while they were getting ready for the Miss Teen USA pageant) cares about women being humiliated and deprived of privacy.
Among all the heinous actions perpetrated by this power drunk tyrant and his cult of worshipful enforcers, it’s hard to single out the worst. But I believe that his efforts to destroy DEI, a blatant endorsement of racism, misogyny, transphobia, and ableism, may be the most fiendish act of all. He singles out the worst examples of our society and history and elevates them by executive edict to a perverse notion of virtue. It is truly a gobsmacking display of doublespeak that even Orwell would find laughable and would require Milton to invent new and deeper circles of hell to accommodate.
A. Trump is a liar; worse, a liar drunk with power. He’ll keep lying, but his power can be stripped; when enough people finally demand it.
B. The DEI issues are all instigated by Project 2025. Stunning that it’s not mentioned here. There is a faction of the right aiming to remake not just government, but society, into a Christian Nationalist state; to rebuild agencies that carry out this agenda as voiced by one person (Trump now, someone else later). Google Russ Vought.
Everything discussed here is in the Project 2025 playbook. No crystal ball required; it’s all there: only two sexes, publicly funded Christian schools, no gays (certainly not married ones), replace all mention of “the non-deserving from public life.” They decide who is deserving: of gov benefits, civil rights, voting rights, citizenship, housing, banking, healthcare, ALL OF IT.
Trans/sports thing: a distraction. Leveraging stale stereotypes to gin up fear, as “protecting” women & privacy. It’s not even new. It’s an old but reliable method to propagandize a sliver of society for political purposes. The Court will condone it & the Right will get what they paid for.
Humpty Dumpty indeed. He'd make an enormous, inedible omelette.
I’m sorry, I’m with them on the No Men in women sport thing…. You don’t lose your strength and size when transitioned. It’s gonna take some young women getting really hurt or killed to make people understand the difference in strength between men and women.
Erik, while on the surface what you say here may resonate with many, it leaves out some very pertinent facts.
First of all, I do agree that study in this area has been lacking. And that is due in great part to the fact that being trans has traditionally been the great unspoken condition. But, and it's a big "but," this research should be done not to resolve the whole "men" in "women's" sports debate, but to increase general knowledge and better determine the safest and most effective medication regimens, as well as identifying potential addressable psychological/family issues caused by the trans person attempting to realize their true persona.
In general, men do indeed have proportionally more muscle mass than women. Also in general, women have more fat mass than men. Despite the current concentration on muscle mass alone, each of these factors confer their own benefits when discussing sheer strength vs stamina, etc.
Also, what often gets lost in the shuffle is that it has been a relatively very short time that women have been allowed, much less encouraged to compete on any level in most areas of athletics.
In general, in numerous studies, the gap between men and women in athletics is narrowing. In particular in those sports requiring substantial stamina over sheer strength. Men's advances in record-breaking performances are lessening, while women's still currently appears to progress. Obviously, at some point, both will essentially top out, barring occasional genetic anomalies.
We also have to consider the historical bias against women becoming too strong, too competitive, too "unfeminine."
I posit that your saying "women will be killed" when competing with men is wildly incendiary. We have to look at how transitioning in a world where being able to obtain safe and effective mdication on a routine, consistent basis truly affects trans people, of both sexes. Currently the studies available indicate that many of those current tenets regarding inborn sex differences may be essentially constructs. That with proper training and appropriate medication, those differences are greatly, if not completely reduced. That a key factor may be access to treatment when first indicated, often before reaching maturity.
Also, before I cite a very recent paper, published in a respected, peer-reviewed journal, I want to stress something. The complete myth that even a completely physically unfit cis man can always best the most physically fit cus woman is a very old and very tired saw that is long past retirement age. And, the ridiculous notion that trans women are simply men who wish to prey on women also deserves to be retired. No man who is even marginally serious as an athlete would opt to compete as a woman simply to gain an edge, that would be a sour history at best. And, seriously, do you really feel a trans woman opts to go through societal hell simply to win their high school swim meet? Seriously?
Finally, no study of any kind has scientific validity without a parallel study of trans men. It is the only real way to resolve "nature vs nurture."
And here is the study, which openly acknowledges its limitations in the data gathering, as similar studies have not been done solely on trans athletes:
” In nonathletic trans men starting testosterone therapy, within 1 year, muscle mass and strength increased and, by 3 years, physical performance (push-ups, sit-ups, run time) improved to the level of cisgender men. In nonathletic trans women, feminizing hormone therapy increased fat mass by approximately 30% and decreased muscle mass by approximately 5% after 12 months, and steadily declined beyond 3 years. While absolute lean mass remains higher in trans women, relative percentage lean mass and fat mass (and muscle strength corrected for lean mass), hemoglobin, and VO2 peak corrected for weight was no different to cisgender women. After 2 years of GAHT, no advantage was observed for physical performance measured by running time or in trans women. By 4 years, there was no advantage in sit-ups. While push-up performance declined in trans women, a statistical advantage remained relative to cisgender women.
Limited evidence suggests that physical performance of nonathletic trans people who have undergone GAHT for at least 2 years approaches that of cisgender controls. Further controlled longitudinal research is needed in trans athletes and nonathletes."
https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/109/2/e455/7223439
Thank you very much
may I copy this comment? I never know where to start, and this covers so much!
Strange, I replied to you but I don't see it here. Anyway, please feel free to copy. And feel free to correct my typos! It was early and I was on my first cup of coffee. LOL. The only one that isn't clearly an error was all the fault of spell check. I meant to write "sour victory" and it ended up saying "sour history." Stupid spell check!!
If you are concerned about athletes getting "hurt or killed" I suggest you focus your efforts on outlawing the game of football.
This is a very, very tiny "issue" that was massively magnified by the Right to distract us from all the other attacks by this Administration on hard-won civil rights by trans people. It is a straw man, and you have gobbled the bait.
I agree on sports and that does not mean I condone his other policies. I have read other stories about polls, which I think are wrong, this same sub stack predicted a Kamala win.
Still it is a coup full of deceit. Narcissism is characterized by a lack of empathy. Any empathy. Trump and Musk are afflicted. They live in a game of conning others. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/hornswaggling-over-100-days?r=3m1bs
Once again we are witnesses to the majesty and superiority of non-DEI hires. Can’t wait for Trump to transform the U.S. military into his personal Morality Police.
".....which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy."
I find it hard to believe that the guy who walked in on teens in various stages of undress (while they were getting ready for the Miss Teen USA pageant) cares about women being humiliated and deprived of privacy.