“Reluctant”
Oh come ON Beeb – “reluctant” is the LAST thing he is. If he were reluctant he wouldn’t be doing this sadistic unfair thing.
And it’s not “history” he’s making, either.
The ridiculous story, by Joshua Surtees:
“I’m not here to change the world,” said Laurel Hubbard in 2017, the year she first competed as a female weightlifter.
The year he first competed “as a female” as if that were something people can just do, the same way they can just comb their hair or eat a sandwich.
“I just want to be me and do what I do,” she told a reporter in her native New Zealand, after returning home with two silver medals from the World Championships.
Of course he said that, what else would he say? “I just want to compete against women so that I can be sure of winning”?
Two years later,
hervictory in the +87kg category at the Pacific Games in Samoa provoked accusations of unfairness – due to the factshehad lived as a man for the first three decades ofherlife before transitioning in 2012, coming out as a transgender woman aged 33, then resuminghersports career.
Rubbing the incorrect insulting pronouns in our faces. And yes of course that’s why his theft of two medals provoked accusations of unfairness: it was unfair. We’ve all seen the famous podium photo.
On Monday she will become the first openly transgender athlete to compete in a different gender category to that which they were born at an Olympic Games.
On Monday he will openly compete as a woman in the hope of winning medals he would otherwise have zero chance at.
Now 43, she will become the third oldest lifter in Olympic history. The New Zealand Olympic Committee’s Ashley Abbott called her a “really important role model” who “opens a conversation about inclusivity”.
“If you see someone like you achieving on the world stage, it’s a really wonderful opportunity to see that there is a pathway,” said Abbott.
What if you’re Samoan or Tongan and you see someone like you lose the chance to achieve on the world stage because an entitled rich white guy has stolen your place? That’s an opportunity to see that there was a pathway but entitled rich white guy has stolen it, yeah?
Though changing the world may not be top of her agenda, Hubbard’s selection as the first trans athlete in an individual sport goes a long way towards changing centuries of sporting tradition.
For the worse.
On Friday, the IOC released another statement on her behalf which read: “I see the Olympic Games as a global celebration of our hopes, ideals and values and I would like to thank the IOC for its commitment to making sport inclusive and accessible.”
Bullshit. He’s thanking the IOC for making sport exclusive and inaccessible for women. How fucking dare the BBC ignore this obvious fact.
Abbott said Hubbard was “keeping a low profile” and told reporters on Friday she would be shielded from “anything negative in the social media space”.
“We all need to remember that there’s a person behind all these technical questions,” said Abbott.
A male person, who is cheating women out of their medals and chances to compete. Not all that technical really.
At the same briefing, Richard Budgett – the medical and scientific director of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – said: “Laurel Hubbard is a woman and is competing under the rules of her federation.
“We have to pay tribute to her courage and tenacity in qualifying for the Games.”
We have to no such thing. It takes zero courage to steal opportunities and rewards from women.
“I just want to be me and do what I do” – and doesn’t give one little shit about anyone else.
And he’s not even “being me” – he’s pretending to be not-me.
Also “history-maker”… History is rife with horrific events and people. That’s history too, Beeb peeps. :P
And I know how this article reads to someone that basically accepts the woke narrative, never really thinks about it much, and doesn’t really quite understand what the terms mean. Namely: what’s the big deal; this woman came out as trans a few years ago, and how is this relevant to the Olympics? She doesn’t want a whole fuss made. If she had come out as lesbian, nobody would care. It wouldn’t be a big deal. The only reason people are making a fuss about her being trans is, I guess, that TRAs are right: trans people are the most marginalized minority ever. But she just wants to compete in the Olympics, without all this fuss about her sexual and gendereal identity. OK, I’ve spent five second thinking about that; now let me turn the channel to the weather channel or something.
Also, the lame IOC as reported in the same article. >> “… the Olympic body is currently reviewing its policy, telling the BBC it is working on “a new comprehensive and rights-respecting approach to address the complexity of this issue”.
It’s not all that complex, women’s and girls sports *by definition* exclude men and boys. Try to adhere to that policy for starters. Gavin Hubbard is not a woman by any stretch of the imagination, he is a male transsexual, and only a “transwoman” because he says so. Have a team of MD’s examine him and determine whether he is a woman or not. Also, there are women’s categories for a reason, try respecting their rights first, the divisions were created for them after all.
Incidentally, I just learned today, by chance, that Grace Lavery’s boy-name seems to have been Joseph, and that he published under that name.
Is Hubbard even a transsexual? A bit of hormones added to a straight man hardly counts I think. Can’t imagine a transsexual insisting a lady boy like him really is a woman and trying to compete.
Ah, but “transsexual” is a bad word now, don’cha know, and Hubbard is “transgender”, and that only requires that he has declared himself to be a woman. All the rest is paperwork.
(And personal preference, and passing, and obeying the oppressive rules of the sports governing bodies, but mostly just paperwork.)
The BBC isn’t doing its reputation any favours. It’s providing an obvious example that can be pointed to where they arelying. The subversion of truth and betrayal of public trust are not a good look for a news organization and broadcaster.
I’m just hoping that this whole thing will get more people to pay attention, and see what’s wrong here. Sure, there are those who won’t think about it at all. But on the other hand, I walked into my parents’ living room yesterday to find my stepdad reading out bits of a (different) BBC article about Hubbard in an increasingly appalled tone. To be fair, it seemed to have all the facts that should show clearly how unfair it is to let him compete – effect of male puberty on development, difference in male and female lung capacity, bone density etc, difference between trans woman’s testosterone limits and actual women’s natural testosterone. But an hour later, he was still blurting out random things he had just learned from Google, that he had never thought about before. And all of this was started off by an article gushing about the “first ever openly trans Olympic athletes”.
“I just want to be me and do what I do ….”
Oh yeah? If that were true, then you would continue to “do what you do” in the men’s division, where you were perfectly happy to “be me,” and where you competed all your life until recently.
No he is not. Not that that would make any difference, of course, he’d still be a man. But at least it would show a certain…. commitment that doesn’t come entirely out of a bottle whose lid can be screwed right back on again.
As Magdalen Berns said to Alex Drummond about surgery: “Of course it terrifies you, Alex. They chop your cock off.”
He’d still be a man, but it might cause someone who hadn’t been paying attention to be a little more sympathetic to the notion that Hubbard is a member of an oppressed minority who just want to compete as themselves, rather than a cheat and a bully who thinks nothing of harming the careers of actually female athletes in pursuit his own, self-aggrandizing mission.
But that someone would not be me.
A male transsexual is a man who wants to live as a woman (and vice versa). Old definitions. I don’t assume that it requires surgery, just because the new jargon redefines transsexuality as such. Yes I know there is a whole new trans cult approved glossary of terms, but I was purposely ignoring it. Gavin is not a “transwoman” or even a transsexual, but that’s the best I could do to avoid the gender woo terminology. How is he competing in the women’s division if he hasn’t convinced some people or other of his transsexuality? Because he shaved his beard off, grew his hair long, or wears makeup? Maybe it’s the pink shoes. Nah. This doesn’t make me “transphobic” either, because I neither fear or hate Gavin, nor do I need to in order for me to think what he’s doing is wrong.
Hubbard failed to qualify for the finals. No gold for you!
Aside from it’s terrible history of doping, weightlifting has been one of the most egalitarian sports in the world. A man like John Davis can be world champion with no financial support, training with non-standard equipment in a basement. Poor countries like Samoa and Bulgaria can field major teams with the investment of a set of barbells and a shed.
And now this…
@14 An article about that >> https://sports.yahoo.com/laurel-hubbard-transgender-weightlifter-exits-olympic-competition-early-after-failing-on-all-three-attempts-115507630.html
The damage is already done, the women he displaced during qualifying didn’t get their shot.
Good news, which I didn’t know before, because the Olympics reporting on French TV is mainly concerned with judo, with occasional mention of swimming.
With respect I don’t think it is good news, or bad news. I imagine you already agree that the actual performance of a male in women’s sport is irrelevant to the issue that there are males in women’s sports. Therefore I can only see it as a trap to get into statements about ‘good news’, even if the male involved may not deserve sympathy for reasons. That will then get presented as evidence of intolerance to individuals.
I’m sure that TRAs would love to sidetrack the conversation until such time as a male wins a gold medal in a women’s sport:)