Thursday, April 21, 2022

Anti-transgender laws target kids' sports

two people fencing
"About a dozen states, including Oklahoma, Arizona, Iowa and Florida, have passed laws banning trans athletes from participating in sports teams consistent with their gender identity. These laws really only target young trans kids in school who are looking to express themselves, play sports with their friends or who like me, escape their anxieties through competition."
"Opinion: I'm a transgender player in a women's hockey league. And that's exactly where I belong." Danielle McLean. CNN. April 20, 2022.

See this article by Steven Saus — Oklahoma senator didn't speak to a single trans person before drafting legislation to prevent people from accessing transition care until they're 26 — at which point they're likely uninsured under the Affordable Care Act. So, the sports law wasn't just about sports.

Kansas sports bill 2023

Well, look at this: "FIDE bans transgender women from competing in women’s chess events pending ‘further analysis’," Ben Church, CNN, August 17, 2023. Under regulations taking effect August 21, trans women must provide the chess organization with "sufficient proof of a gender change that complies with their national laws and regulations," and the organization can take up to two years to decide whether to allow them to play in women's tournaments. Also, "if a player holds a women’s title, but changes their gender to male, their women’s title will be 'abolished.' However, if the gender change is from male to female, all previous titles will remain 'eligible.'" The National Center for Transgender Equality noted that this policy "assumes that cis women couldn’t be competitive against cis men."

Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir tweets: Trans women being banned from competing with other women in chess shows you exactly how ridiculous this 'debate' has become. It's always been about gender essentialist ideas which focus on stereotypes and bogus biological 'superiority' of men.
Katy Montgomerie tweets: In banning trans women from chess the insane anti-trans lobby has fully revealed their hand. They don't just believe that sex is a non-material immutable binary, they also think that women are intellectually inferior. Which is what we've been saying they believe from the start
Literally not one person calling for blanket bans of trans women in sports & games cares about fairness or science or results - obviously, given that trans women under perform across the board. They just think men are superior and that the magic essence men get at birth is sacred
You see it when they describe biological changes in trans people's bodies as 'cosmetic'. For a lot of them that's because they are profoundly ignorant, but for some it's because the thing that makes you a man or woman is supernatural. They say biology a lot to sound 'sciencey'
To a transphobe there is a supernatural order. Men first, women second. Women are inferior in body and mind. And that cannot be changed, no matter what physical or social changes one undergoes. Because if it could be changed then that hierarchy falls apart. It threatens order
They think male violence is inevitable because it's part of what men are, and for that reason trying to change it is not just stupid but wrong. Boys will be boys because boys are immutable. And they're stronger and more intelligent than feeeeeeeeemales
Btw women's only leagues in chess are a good thing because they help combat the misogyny in the game Watch this if you don't understand

English Chess Federation ‘will not exclude trans women’ despite international ban, Maggie Baska, The Pink News, Aug 20, 2023

A Minnesota court granted a transgender woman athlete the right to participate in DGPT disc golf games for women. In response, the DGPT, "recognized as the top-tier professional league for disc golf athletes," said they'd stop holding women's games — but oddly, not men's games — in states where nondiscrimination laws might require them to allow trans women to compete with cis women. Erin Reed wrote: "DGPT released a statement that announced the cancellations, and cited 'competitive fairness' as their reason for cancelling all female professional games in states with strong protections around gender identity and human rights for transgender people. In the statement, they announce that they 'will not waiver' from this policy..." Note well: It isn't the transgender golfer, but the golf organization itself, that decided to stop hosting golf games. Reed said: "In adopting a similar stance — akin to the notion of 'taking my ball and going home' — DGPT is inflicting harm on the very individuals they purport to be safeguarding." ("Disc Golf Shuts Down 5 Events Because Trans Athlete Wins Court Case": Disc Golf Pro Tour has officially cancelled five events just to stop transgender athlete Natalie Ryan from playing after she won a major court victory. Erin Reed, Erin in the Morning (Substack), July 15, 2023.)

May 6, 2024, Minnesota began debating a state constitutional amendment:

"The Minnesota Equal Rights Amendment would be among the nation’s most expansive protections of abortion and LGBTQ rights if it is approved by lawmakers this session and then by voters on the 2026 ballot.

* * *

The amendment’s wording would prohibit the state from discriminating against anyone on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, disability or sex — including gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation. The state also couldn’t discriminate over a person 'making and effectuating decisions about all matters relating to one’s own pregnancy or decision whether to become or remain pregnant.'"

— Trisha Ahmed, "Minnesota lawmakers debate constitutional amendment to protect abortion and LGBTQ rights," AP, May 6, 2024

The Midnight Society tweets: [mysterious circle of robed figures] JK Rowling: hello children JK Rowling: today we begin our biggessssst challenge Jesse Singal: bigger than convincing our terf legion that men have a special bone that makes them good at chess? JK Rowling: no that was remarkably easssy actually

"Trans Kids Playing Sports 'Women’s Issue Of Our Time,' Nikki Haley Says," Nick Visser, HuffPost, Jun 5, 2023.

HuffPost headline: Trans Kids Playing Sports ‘Women’s Issue Of Our Time,’ Nikki Haley Says

No, it isn't.

A.R. Moxon explains this issue: (No Beliefs, Just Intentions, The Reframe (Substack), Dec 17, 2023):

"The Nobles moved [from Iowa to neighboring Minnesota] because one of their children is trans, and the government of their home state of Iowa has decided that it would be better if trans people didn’t exist quite so much in Iowa, and have passed a law to make that happen. ... There are a lot of intentions stated behind this: the desire for fairness in girls’ sports is one, for example—which is interesting, since Republicans have never been particularly interested in funding girls’ sports, and the actual impact of trans kids on high school sports in Iowa is best described as “undetectable.” The desire to keep girls safe in school bathrooms is another, which is sort of rich coming from the same people who refuse to make schools safe from gun massacres, and who insist on forced birth legislation that is making maternal mortality rates spike, and who pass laws that require genital inspection. ... what it actually represents is an eliminationist attack, designed to make trans people and their families not exist—not in Iowa anyway. ...anywhere Republicans are able to gain (or seize) power, they are moving to eliminate trans people. It’s a standard feature of the eliminationist bundle in the United States. It’s sort of table stakes if you’re courting support from nice good-hearted white Christian fascists."

See also: "Oh, it's about sports, is it?". It's a 14-minute read on Medium. Also, When trans people are cut out of sports in Nassau County, New York It's a 4-minute read on Medium.

Regarding this CBS article in 2024: "America's safest county is on Long Island, according to U.S. News & World Report. Here are all the Tri-State Area counties that made the list.: The safest county in the United States is located on Long Island, according to a U.S. News & World Report ranking."

"no group is more cosetted than the wealthy white christians of Nassau County, NY, and none are more threatened by their landscapers.
that said, i'll bet his audience tonight was heavily from Suffolkkkounty, where the South Shore will rise again." ( "Coup Otter," Bsky, September 18, 2024)

"Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump will be signing his 10th anti-trans executive order since taking office. This one explicitly bans trans girls and women from girls’ and women’s school sports, and was perhaps the heaviest blow to me personally and to my career. I posted a thread on Bluesky of some of my most significant work on trans athletes, and it’s safe to say that coverage of trans athletes—more than any other issue—is what built my career as a journalist. It’s hard not to feel like my words have failed the trans girl athletes of this country."
— Katelyn Burns, "The current ‘mindf*ck’ of being a trans journalist," guest post in the Handbasket, Feb 4, 2025

-
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

In case you missed it

Have you seen inside the book 'To Climates Unknown'?

The alternate history novel To Climates Unknown by Arturo Serrano was released on November 25, the 400th anniversary of the mythical First ...