My latest in PJ Media:
The authoritarian Left demands absolute conformity to its beliefs, no matter how absurd they are, and harshly punishes those who dare to step out of line. And so, everyone who sees transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas smashing records that were set by human beings who were actually born female is supposed to applaud happily and exclaim, “You go, girl!” Those whose applause is less than enthusiastic face personal and professional ruin as “transphobic” bigots who have no place in our modern, diverse, multicultural paradise. Those are the rules, and everyone knows them. But as in all totalitarian dystopias, much of the applause and support is less than wholehearted, motivated by fear of the consequences of dissent.
Behind the façade of joy and pride in Thomas’ accomplishments is growing discontent with the devaluation of women’s athletics that the participation of men who are pretending to be women has brought about. One UPenn swimmer, who is remaining anonymous for obvious reasons, revealed Thursday that “pretty much everyone individually has spoken to our coaches about not liking this. Our coach [Mike Schnur] just really likes winning. He’s like most coaches. I think secretly everyone just knows it’s the wrong thing to do. When the whole team is together, we have to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, go Lia, that’s great, you’re amazing.’ It’s very fake.”
According to OutKick, “friction has been building within the team” over Thomas’ presence and shattering of female records. On Friday, Thomas broke the Ivy League 500 freestyle record, and then on Saturday, he (sorry, I’m not playing the Left’s ridiculous pronoun game) set a new record in the 200 freestyle. OutKick also noted that, “in the 1650 freestyle final, Thomas didn’t just win and set new program, pool, and meet records. It was total annihilation. Penn’s Anna Kalandadze finished in second place — 38 seconds behind Thomas.”
Thomas’ outspoken teammate put all this in context: “The Ivy League is not a fast league for swimming, so that’s why it’s particularly ridiculous that we could potentially have an NCAA champion. That’s unheard of coming from the Ivy League. On paper, if Lia Thomas gets back down to Will Thomas’ best times, those numbers are female world records. Faster than all the times Katie Ledecky went in college. Faster than any other Olympian you can think of. His times in three events are [female] world records.”
The NCAA has rules for this sort of thing: “A trans female treated with testosterone suppression medication may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one year of testosterone suppression treatment.” This directive is relatively newly minted, and Thomas’ teammate doesn’t think it’s adequate to address the problem: “One year doesn’t mean anything. What about the years of puberty as a male, the male growth you went through as a man?”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Jim says
The best solution is to only allow biological females to compete as female athletes, and force trans-women to compete in male athletics. Since they grew up male and developed male physiques, that should not be hard for them to do. Judging from the picture, she still looks more like a man than a woman. And the whole idea of female sports is that women are by nature less strong and smaller than men on the average. This man must be suffering from some sort of sociopathy to think he can simply do this. Are leftists next going to revive the old negro baseball teams, or create separate sport leagues for different ethnic groups? That seems to be the trend now. But the Civil Rights movement was to eliminate these separate categories based on race or ethnicity. Now they want to bring them back in as identity politics and diversity. They are pushing the limits of reason and good sense, and somehow the totalitarian tendency in leftism rationalizes and justifies this.
Infidel says
Yeah, just like apparel clothes in many of the brands now call most men’s shirts ‘gender-neutral’, similarly trannies, regardless of which way they ‘traveled’, should now be branded ‘gender-neutral’ and be automatically deligated to men. Or maybe the IOC and other world sporting bodies, since they are so woke these days, can have championships in all the 57 genders and allow people to ‘flow’ from any gender to the other, w/ the exception of the women’s and men’s teams
Ironically, this gender revolution would force many girls and young women, who’d normally look forward to an active career in sports, to instead look to marriage for their future. Even though the era of single income families is long gone, even outside the West
Wellington says
How ironic that those bashing males for their chauvinism and not really caring about female athletics are now in the forefront of destroying female athletics with all this transgender nonsense. The “female” at Penn breaking swimming records is a dude gussied up with hormones and female clothing to pass himself off as a woman. Were a forensic anthropologist to examine this person’s skeleton, say 500 years from now, that forensic anthropologist would conclude that this person was a male.
Transgenderism is a disorder that should be sympathized with and not a lifestyle that should be applauded. As one woman author (who is very liberal and not a conservative) recently stated to Tucker Carlson, everyone is either a male or a female, all else is a lie.
somehistory says
Did this guy ever compete on the boy’s team? Perhaps he didn’t feel that he could win against other guys.
It’s obvious that some of these guys who put on a dress and makeup are on the prowl for rape victims they can attack within what should be a safe place for females to change clothes, etc.
Wellington says
Even assuming, somehistory, that none of these males posing as women have rape in mind, you still have wrong written all over this.
somehistory says
I was thinking of the teen rape victim in VA in the girl’s restroom by the boy posing as a girl, and whose father was arrested for going to the school and demanding some justice for his daughter. The boy went to another school, and did the same.
That’s just one instance. I’ve read of other assaults by males going into restrooms for ladies
But, you are right. Even if they don’t have rape on the mind, it’s still wrong.
tim gallagher says
You’re right, Wellington. This letting transgender types compete against women is going to destroy women’s sport completely. Women may as well give up trying to compete against the transgender invaders of their sports. I have noticed that some women are beginning to fight against this idea of letting transgender people compete in women’s sports out here in Australia. I hope that this nonsense which allows transgender athletes to compete against women is reversed or otherwise women may as well not even try to compete on such an unequal playing field.
PRCS says
If he’s still packing “junk’, he’s a man. Ditto another pretender, Racheal Levine.
James Lincoln says
PRCS,
Rachel Levine is a total fruitcake.
“Rand Paul questions Rachel Levine on gender-affirming care for minors”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krf0Cm-FKro
somehistory says
About 2 dozen of the bm terror group, tried to keep the OK legislature from passing some bills…one being a bill to prevent this from happening in OK.
The person competing, must compete according to what is on the birth certificate. This guy, if in OK, would not be allowed to compete as a pretend girl on the girl’s team.
Other states are doing the same.
Jesper says
Where is the outcry from the feminists? All biological female swimmers should stop competing. No point in competing against men. …
eduardo odraude says
Yes, women can protest by ending female sports for the time being. There will be just male sports on the one hand and then sports for men who identify themselves as women.
tgusa says
Femaphobia is running rampant within the left. Get those girls out of there! #Cancelled! The left in America is making it increasingly embarrassing to identify as an American.
eduardo odraude says
Does this transgender person lack all conscience? Isn’t he ashamed at all to win under the circumstances? If you had any doubt about how wrong and insane our society can go, this absolute injustice should end your doubt. In this case, the error is not an existential threat to the society. But the fact that such an injustice can arise shows how grave are the blind spots in our society, and how much danger we are in, because if the society can allow and even encourage this kind of obvious injustice, then the society can also walk easily into its own demise, like lemmings over a cliff.
eduardo odraude says
The society is ruled to a certain extent by mob mentality. There is no other way to explain the fear of too many women in the university who fail to speak up against this incredibly obvious injustice to women.
Personally, I don’t give a damn if some man wants to medically become more feminine and identify as a woman. Not my business. But I do give a damn when transgenderism itself to this outrageously unethical behavior disadvantaging women in sports. I wonder how this transgender guy can have no scruples about competing against women. Can it be that he has bought some nonsense that there is no difference between him and a born woman? Can it be that he really did not know that men’s potential upper body strength is generally far superior to women’s? He’s young, so he might actually be unclear even about such obvious and thoroughly established facts. But now that he has smashed a bunch of female records, he should have qualms if he did not before. Now that he has smashed female records, he should refuse awards and resign from the team and apologize for the mistake in competing with females. He could educate this stupid society in which we live that permits these obviously idiotic and unfair situations.
eduardo odraude says
“transgenderism itself”
should read
“transgenderism lends itself”
Laura says
I am a transgender ‘female’ and I have always accepted that i am NOT a woman and can never ever be a woman. My sports were climbing and caving, but after transition none of my old friends wanted to climb or cave with me. I was able to continue by joining a LGB club and for that I am grateful.
A female friend suggested that I might join her pub darts team. But, there was fierce opposition from other women’s darts team captains who thought that I might have an advantage over biological women darters.
I never got to play and simply accepted their decision with grace and equanimity.
I view the current trend of allowing men who identify as women to smash the very life out of women’s sports with a rising sense of outrage and the utter disbelief that the various governing bodies are allowing this to happen. All trans women are NOT the same.
OLD GUY says
Laura, too bad the rest of the world doesn’t share soon of your common sense approach.
James Lincoln says
Interestingly, former Olympic champion extraordinaire “Caitlyn” Jenner opposes transgender girls competing in girls’ sports at school.
“That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school. It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools”
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/caitlyn-jenner-says-transgender-girls-women-s-sports-unfair-n1266138
Greg schneider says
The girls need to quit the team and let this man-cub compete all by itself then the woke ups would get the message