Filled with leftist sentiment
The Wall Street Journal on trans women competing with women in sports:
Ms. Navratilova’s argument comes at a moment when institutions from high schools to state legislatures are wrestling with the real-world implications of equal access for transgender people. When the issue first arose, the most heated arguments were over single-sex locker rooms, rest rooms and college dorms. But the front lines have now shifted to sports—and girls’ sports in particular.
This is no coincidence. As Abigail Shrier notes in City Journal, “few biological boys are likely to lose top spots in sports competition or the college scholarships that follow because of transgender boys who outperform them.” But in girls’ sports, American moms and dads are increasingly watching their daughters in high school and college competing against biological boys.
And, more to the point, those daughters are experiencing what their parents are watching. Biological boys are shoving girls aside in some sports.
In June, two transgender high-schoolers in Connecticut made national headlines when they dominated the girls’ state track competition for the second year in a row. Such victories underscore Ms. Navratilova’s argument that if biological men are allowed to compete in women’s sports, girls will not be the winners.
Is it evil and transphobic to say that’s not fair? I don’t see it, myself.
This in turn has led to a curious development: Some of the most pointed criticism of allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports isn’t coming from the culture warriors on the right, much as they might be in sympathy. A good part is coming from those like Ms. Navratilova, a longtime champion of gay rights who came out in 1981 and whose Twitter feed is filled with leftist sentiment on everything from Donald Trump and climate change to guns.
raises hand Over here! Mind you, it’s beyond me why it’s “leftist” to think it would be better not to alter the earth to the point that most animals including humans can’t live on it any more, ditto to think it would be better not to sit back and watch as people shoot up schools and concerts and shopping malls, but whatever. My Twitter feed is filled with leftist sentiment on many subjects, one of which is feminism.
Ms. Navratilova’s op-ed is already generating headlines, mostly of the “Martina Navratilova criticized for comments” variety. Of course, she anticipated the furor and name-calling, writing of the “tyranny” of transgender activists who rather than engage in argument simply denounce as “transphobes” anyone who dares disagree. Though she promises it won’t deter her, she worries that “others may be cowed into silence or submission.”
In the end, if the sports world can’t distinguish between girls and boys, the whole reason for women’s sports disappears. Bully for Ms. Navratilova for her willingness to insist on the distinction.
Weirdo anomalous lefties unite and fight, I guess.
Necessity breeds strange battlefield proximity associates I guess…
Such touching naivete on your part, OB. I long ago accepted that it’s every man for himself on this little wet ball of rock in the blackness of space. That’s why I recently sold a good half of my gun collection and bought myself a bazooka (open carry). With that I reckon I can fight my way into occupation of the best piece of real estate in Greenland; or Macquarie Island in the Northern winter. (It will depend upon my mood at the time.)
I’m also training a polar bear cub, name of Amundsen. Shot its mother to get it, and fed it my wife’s Maltese terrier as part of its training schedule.
If leftist hoons like Trump think they can push me around, they’d better think again.
Anything that interferes with Guns, Gold, and God is “leftist” by definition.
Your climate change comment reminded me of someone (can’t remember who, maybe George Carlin?) “What is it that conservatives are trying to conserve?” It is strange agreeing with a WSJ editorial, as they are hopeless when it comes to climate change. I guess a broken watch is correct on occasion, however briefly. This must be one of those times…
And it is possible to get the right answer for the wrong reasons. I’m guessing they’re much more about enforcing the gender binary (women is different, very different!) than any concern about women being hurt, except in the sense of damsels in distress being rescued by the white knight. And the hatred of LGBTQ…
But still, the reality is the reality, even if it takes the WSJ to point it out…
I’m quite grateful to the WSJ for pointing out that leftist women are fighting this. TRAs keep trying to render us invisible; Judith Butler, in that dishonest piece she did recently, ignored us completely and claimed opposition to trans claims comes exclusively from right-wing religious types.
It’s another in the TRA bag of dishonest tricks: appeal to tribalism by casting your opponents as the Other.
Has everyone forgotten the enormous amount of abuse Navratilova had to face when she came out (ffs, I bet most of them are too young)? I tend to think that makes her something of an expert on abuse. Not automatically of course, but it would take more than a few tweets I disagreed with to convince me otherwise.
The ideology just trumps everything – experience, expertise, knowledge, a person’s past record, biology…..
I know this is not news, but this particular case infuriates me more than most because I can imagine how horrible the 80s must have been for Navratilova.