When most women look at Will Lia Thomas, we see a big, strapping, cocky, confident specimen of mighty, muscled-up manliness who measures 6'4 in height, oozes male entitlement and male egotism from every pore, and looks at women with the proverbial "male gaze." We see a man of intimidating, even frightening size and strength who could easily kill any one of us with his bare hands without working up a sweat.
This is why I get campaign donation solicitation emails from multiple GOP candidates that prominently feature the big photos of Thomas. This is also why rightwing media websites use the photos of Thomas when they are reporting on other transgender athletes in college or high school. Thomas is the perfect "bogy man." Some other trans athletes cannot invoke the same visceral reaction.
What? How can a post of mine on LRC be why you get emails from "multiple GOP candidates"?
If you're getting emails from multiple GOP candidates asking you for money - with or without pics of Lia Thomas - it's because you've contributed to GOP candidates in the past - or you've been a member and supporter of orgs that are in synch with the GOP and sell their mailing and donor lists to GOP candidates. Like the NRA.
I've been using email since the early 90s when aol was big and earthlink was my ISP and email provider, and I've been using the same set of mac.com adresses since the early 2000s. In all that time, I've never gotten a single email from any GOP candidate, much less one asking for a campaign donation. All the emails I've ever gotten from candidates in the USA asking for campaign contributions and alerting me to campaign events are from candidates who are/were Democrats - or third-party candidates like Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein.
In fact, whilst I was writing this post, I got an email from US Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California. He's one of the many Dem politicians from all over the USA that I get email from.
Khanna's latest email says:
Tomorrow, March 16, 2024 at 11:15am PT, Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17) will host an in-person town hall at Hyde Middle School, Multi-Purpose Room 19325 Bollinger Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014.
The town hall is open to attendees on a first-come, first-served basis. Tell us if you can attend by completing this form .
Rep. Ro Khanna's Cupertino Town Hall Saturday, March 16, 2024 from 11:15am-12:45pm PT Hyde Middle School, Multi-Purpose Room 19325 Bollinger Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014
Since I'm in Connecticut, I can't make it. But as I believe you live in CA, you might want to go yourself.
At the very least, you might want to sign up to Khanna's mailing list or make a donation to a Democratic candidate, the DNC, a Democratic PAC or an org like the DDDC or Swing Left. That way, you'll be sure to start getting some emails from Dem candidates to balance out all the ones you already get from Republicans.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
Trans athletes should be allowed to compete against those in their gender so they have people to race against, but they should be competing for awards in their own category
Not a right winger. They already have equal access. Nobody stopped Lia Thomas from competing on the men's team at Penn.
Allowing a male to compete in both the men's and women's division, as Lia Thomas did, isn't equality. You don't want equality. You want special treatment for trans athletes.
You say pretty right-wing (read: bigoted and closed-minded) things for not being a right-winger.
Lia shouldn’t compete in the men’s division as she is a woman.
Also, Lia did not compete in both the men’s and women’s division. She competed as a man when she was a man. She competes now as a woman since she is a woman.
You complaining about this would be like saying “She competed in both the junior and senior age classes!” Yeah, she did, but not at the same time.
Here’s an easy couple questions for you:
Should women compete in women’s sports? Is Lia Thomas a woman?
If you answer yes to both question, congratulations. You are a rational human being. You have arrived at the very obvious deduction that Lia should swim against women.
if you answer yes to only one question, you do not even think transgenderism is possible, so you don’t have a leg to stand on.
if you answer no to both questions, you’re fully delusional.
That's quite a right wing philosophy. Apply what you just said to the economy or to job opportunities or pretty much anything else and you'd sound very Republican. If your message to women is "I don't care that you're never going to see any kind of success, get over it" then why would you support things like affirmative action, diversity in the workforce and media, or social welfare programs in general. All of those things are helping disadvantaged groups have a better shot at success and happiness and all of them are in general more supported by left wingers. Honestly, its much more likely that a drug addict off the streets turns their life around and becomes rich than that a women wins any college sport against men. So why is it you would tell one "Life's unfair, get over it" and try to help the other?
Notes:
1. I realize that healthcare and jobs are more important than sports. It's still hypocritical though
2. I'm assuming you support the left wing initiatives and policies I mentioned since you clearly identify as left wing and have a strong resentment toward the right
"... when Thomas walked past them as they changed into their racing suits. The suits are so tight they “require 15–20 minutes to put on,” the lawsuit states."
Seriously? It takes 15-20 minutes to put on their suits? I know they are tight but that is just ridiculous.
Yeah, that’s bollocks. You can fling whatever crap you want in a lawsuit and see what sticks.
Their entire complaint is that Thomas walked past them being over 6 feet tall and possessing of penis.
"Let show everyone how smart I am by commenting on something I have no idea about"
Racing suits do in fact take a lot of time to put on. Especially brand new ones and they only are good for 15-20 uses on average in my experience. And you have to be very dry to put them on. So some warm up in a normal suit then change but need time to actually dry off.
Today, the Congressional Equality Caucus released the following statement on the proposed rule by the Department of Education relating to Title IX and students’ eligibility for athletic teams.
Trans athletes should be allowed to compete against those in their gender so they have people to race against, but they should be competing for awards in their own category
Why? What's so special about them that they get to operate by a different set of rules?
Not a right winger. They already have equal access. Nobody stopped Lia Thomas from competing on the men's team at Penn.
Allowing a male to compete in both the men's and women's division, as Lia Thomas did, isn't equality. You don't want equality. You want special treatment for trans athletes.
You say pretty right-wing (read: bigoted and closed-minded) things for not being a right-winger.
Lia shouldn’t compete in the men’s division as she is a woman.
Also, Lia did not compete in both the men’s and women’s division. She competed as a man when she was a man. She competes now as a woman since she is a woman.
You pretending that Lia Thomas is two separate people, doesn't jive with reality. The person that is Lia Thomas. DID compete in the men's NCAA and DID compete in the women's NCAA. Lia Thomas was afforded special treatment, not fair treatment.
You're the one that is full blown delusional, if you want to content that they are two separate people.
Trans women should participate in women’s sports. Trans men should participate in men’s sports. It’s simple. You act like there needs to be all kinds of exemptions, but there doesn’t.
So, Nikki Hiltz should just be a barista or whatever sociology major does. Because he ain't fast enough to be a pro runner.
That's quite a right wing philosophy. Apply what you just said to the economy or to job opportunities or pretty much anything else and you'd sound very Republican. If your message to women is "I don't care that you're never going to see any kind of success, get over it" then why would you support things like affirmative action, diversity in the workforce and media, or social welfare programs in general. All of those things are helping disadvantaged groups have a better shot at success and happiness and all of them are in general more supported by left wingers. Honestly, its much more likely that a drug addict off the streets turns their life around and becomes rich than that a women wins any college sport against men. So why is it you would tell one "Life's unfair, get over it" and try to help the other?
Notes:
1. I realize that healthcare and jobs are more important than sports. It's still hypocritical though
2. I'm assuming you support the left wing initiatives and policies I mentioned since you clearly identify as left wing and have a strong resentment toward the right
Healthcare and jobs are more important than sports. I’d go as far as to call them rights that all people should have. Winning a race is not a right.
Have you ever coached an athlete or had a child do a sport? Did they win every time? If they didn’t, did you tell them that every person that beat them was a cheater or had some kind of unfair advantage? I bet not. I bet you applauded their effort and gave them encouragement and advice for next time.
I am glad people like yourself are saying the quiet part out loud. It's not about competitive fairness for people like you. It's about imposing your moral views on other people.
It is amusing how the goal post is constantly moved. When the first lawsuit was filed about Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller, the plaintiffs demand was for them to sit out for one year to go through hormone replacement therapy. Although they never sat out the competition, they went through HRT, and Chelsea Mitchell beat them.
Then when Lia Thomas started winning races, Nancy Hogshead and her working group circulated a petition to demand NCAA adopt the new USA Swimming policy that limited the trans swimmers to those who started medical transition before puberty. In the petition, they stated it would be acceptable if Caleb Dressel transitioned into the fastest woman. And I signed that petition.
But Hogshead and her group have now shifted their position and are calling for a total ban.
So where will it end? Are youth sports and adult recreational sports the next target?
It’s rich that you’re accusing someone else of being underhanded by moving the goalposts when in the next breath you try to gain the upper hand in a dishonest way by telling big fat porkie pie lies about the lawsuit filed by Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell and Alanna Smith against the Connecticut authorities who allowed two teenage boys, Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller, to compete and dominate in girls’ HS sprints for several years running starting in 2017-18.
Never once in the original lawsuit filed in February 2020 or in any subsequent filings or oral arguments have the plaintiffs taken the position you falsely attribute to them.
The plaintiffs never asked or suggested that Yearwood and Miller take a year off from girls’ track so that they could use drugs to try lower the amount of testosterone their testicles pump out, then return to girls’ competition after a year of drug use - as though that would be a “fair and square” way of resolving the huge problem of boys like Yearwood and Miller muscling in on HS girls’s sports.
The original lawsuit clearly says that even if Yearwood and Miller were taking, or had taken, drugs to lower their testosterone levels, feminize their appearance, lower their hemoglobin, it would make no difference. They still wouldn't belong in the female category of sports.
Pages 19-20:
56. Plaintiffs do not know whether or if so at what time the male students who are competing in CIAC track events [Yearwood and Miller] began taking cross-sex hormones. Nor does this matter.
Administering testosterone-suppressing drugs to males by no means eliminates their performance advantage. Some physiological advantages— such as bone size and hip configuration—cannot be reversed once they have occurred. And suppressing testosterone in men after puberty also does not completely reverse their advantages in muscle mass and strength, bone mineral density, lung size, or heart size.
57. This reality is evident in the performance of male athletes who have competed “as women” after taking cross-sex hormones. For example, CeCe Telfer, a male who ran as Craig Telfer throughout high school and the first two years of college, certified compliance with the NCAA requirement of one year on testosterone-suppressing drugs and began competing in female track events in CeCe’s senior collegiate year, for the 2019 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons. CeCe’s “personal best” did not go down substantially in any event following at least a year on testosterone suppressing drugs, and in a number of events instead improved:
From the get-go, the lawsuit filed by Soule, Mitchell and Smith always asked that, effective immediately, CT’s policy allowing males to compete in girls' HS sports based on the males' gender identity claims be rescinded - and that a rule be put in place barring all male students from competing in girls’ HS track and field in CT.
The female plaintiffs in the Soule case have always sought to return fairness to girls’ HS sports in CT by getting officials to bar all male teenagers from HS girls’ competition across the board - regardless of how the male teens say they “identify” and what drugs they take or have taken in the past.
This post was edited 7 minutes after it was posted.
Card carrying “Dim” here. I firmly believe trans women should be excluded from women’s sports.
It’s not a left right issue. It’s a fairness issue.
Here's the problem. This is absolutely a Democratic Republican issue in that the Democratic party and Democratic lawmakers are doing their best to allow transwomen in women's sports at every level.
I happen to share some views with Democrats and some with Republicans. I may well vote Democrat, despite the fact that, as a woman and female athlete, I feel very strongly about this issue. But if I do so I won't be in denial. I'll know that I'm voting for men in women's sports - perhaps because there are other issues I view as more important or just hate Trump or whatever.
If you're a Democrat who doesn't want XY athletes competing against girls and women, you need to speak up and at the very least write to your representatives and lawmakers. Because right now, the Democratic party does everything they can to enable this unfairness, and the Republican party does the opposite. Regardless of what % of Democrats regular people think.
I'm also a Dem (well, a dem voter for the foreseeable future anyway, registered R still).
Its a social justice warrior issue for T r umpers.
Dems, it seems to me, are mostly silent on the issue and many or most privately agree that biological males should not be competing against women.
Also, the Renee Richards case looms over all this. Richards won.
Now that this challenge has been filed, perhaps federal courts, even the SC will consider it. Really though, until now, aggrieved parties have not done a whole lot to advance their cause. Why only now filing suit? Why not simply stand on the blocks/line and letting the dude swim/run etc alone? Show us you care. And they haven't really. Man up ladies, if its an issue for you. And I think it should be an issue for you.
Still male. You appear to be really hung up on appearance. It's strange. Looking female and being female are never going to be the same thing. No matter how badly you want it to be, it isn't.
Yes, JAHJ does seem to be really hung up on outward appearance.
He seems to think that eligibility for women's and girls' sports, access to female spaces and services, and who counts as a woman legally shouldn't be based on actually being female, but on whether someone outwardly looks "feminine."
What's more, to be considered a girl or woman in JAHJ's eyes, a person can be either sex, but must look "feminine" in the narrowest, most stereotypical sense in line with the shallow, artificial, frivolous and ageist standards pushed by today's fashion and beauty industries, pornography, gay male drag culture, and popular himstrel performers who do "womanface" like Dylan Mulvaney: young, nubile with long hair, makeup, colored fingernail and toenail polish, dresses, skirts, hot pants, lingerie, plenty of pink, slik, satin, chiffon, shiny fabrics, bows, ruffles, frills, flounces, knee-high socks, lace-trimmed anklets...
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
I'm also a Dem (well, a dem voter for the foreseeable future anyway, registered R still).
Its a social justice warrior issue for T r umpers.
Dems, it seems to me, are mostly silent on the issue and many or most privately agree that biological males should not be competing against women.
Also, the Renee Richards case looms over all this. Richards won.
Now that this challenge has been filed, perhaps federal courts, even the SC will consider it. Really though, until now, aggrieved parties have not done a whole lot to advance their cause. Why only now filing suit? Why not simply stand on the blocks/line and letting the dude swim/run etc alone? Show us you care. And they haven't really. Man up ladies, if its an issue for you. And I think it should be an issue for you.
Have you noticed what's happened to JK Rowling? It's not fair to expect young women to take that on. For the vast majority, being socially ostracized and possibly impacting future employment prospects is just not worth it. I work for a company that's all over DEI, and I can honestly imagine that I might lose my job if I were to become vocal about XY athletes in women's sports to the degree that it drew attention. (And in addition to being a past and present female athlete myself, I have three daughters. This does matter to me.) To expect a high school kid or college kid to take that on is completely unreasonable.
That a few are brave enough to do so (this lawsuit) is commendable, and again, if you're one of the quiet majority of Dems who think this is ridiculous, it's really time to at least write a quick e-mail to your representatives.
I'm also a Dem (well, a dem voter for the foreseeable future anyway, registered R still).
Its a social justice warrior issue for T r umpers.
Dems, it seems to me, are mostly silent on the issue and many or most privately agree that biological males should not be competing against women.
Also, the Renee Richards case looms over all this. Richards won.
Now that this challenge has been filed, perhaps federal courts, even the SC will consider it. Really though, until now, aggrieved parties have not done a whole lot to advance their cause. Why only now filing suit? Why not simply stand on the blocks/line and letting the dude swim/run etc alone? Show us you care. And they haven't really. Man up ladies, if its an issue for you. And I think it should be an issue for you.
The Renee Richards' decision was a one-off, though. The case was heard and decided by a lone (male) judge in New York's lowest trial court, and was never appealed.
The judge said in his ruling that his decision only applied to Richards, not to anyone else. Moreover, he said it only applied to Richards playing professional women's tennis, not to any other women's sports Richards might want to compete in.
(As Richard Raskin, Richards had been a star swimmer, football player, baseball pitcher as well as tennis player during his youth. Senior year in HS at boys-only Horace Mann in the Bronx, Richards was scouted by the New York Yankees and offered a position as pitcher for the nation's premier baseball franchise. But Richards declined, deciding to go to Yale and become an eye surgeon instead.)
Since the Richards' decision was never appealed to a higher court, it never went through any rigorous examination or challenge. But the decision is online.
One of Richards' main witnesses was the now discredited John Money, the man responsible for the tragedy of the (David) Reimer twins.
Richards' whole case was based on hooey, wishful thinking, male entitlement, and men's total ignorance of female anatomy, physiology, development and life experience - and total ignorance about the countless physical differences between the sexes that have a bearing on sports performance. None of the arguments made in the Richards' case nearly 50 years ago would hold up in a court of law today. In fact, many of them would not be made in the first place.
To paraphrase Margaret Atwood's famous line, one of the fundamental differences between the sexes is that "Men go through life afraid that women will laugh at them. Women go through life afraid men will kill them."
I like your post, but you could also generalise with endless examples "Men go through life trying to lay women. Women go through life trying to get laid by a bloke with money, have kids and take his money if he doesn't do what she tells him"
At its January 19, 2022 meeting, the NCAA Board of Governors updated the transgender student-athlete participation policy governing college sports. The new policy
Yes, World Athletics has put in place a new, stricter policy. But World Athletics' 2023 policy only pertains to elite international events that get factored into world rankings.
It's not clear if USATF has adopted the 2023 WA policy yet; and if so, whether USATF will apply it to competition within the US that has no bearing on international competition and the world rankings.
The one statment pertaining to transgender athletes that the USATF has online currently says USATF is still going by the 2015 IOC rules, even though the IOC has abandoned them. If this statment were not longer valid, then USATF should have taken it down or put a watermark on it saying it's been rescinded or supplanted.
But I have no idea if these sources are accurate and up-to-date.
One of the people I believe has had a hand in this lawsuit is William Bock, who for years was the/a lead attorney at the US Anti-Doping Agency and a longtime member of the Infractions Committee at the NCAA. Bock recently quit his NCAA post because he believes the NCAA is using the banner of "trans inclusion" to discriminate against women.
I have a hunch Bock - and quite a few other people high up the world of sports governance - are privy to a lot of back-room convos and maneuvering going on behind-the-scenes at the NCAA that those of us on the outside have no idea about.
Former NCAA board member Bill Bock joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to discuss the sportscaster Bob Costas's recent pushback on trans athletes in women’s sports. #foxbus...
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