Four truths lied about
The ACLU is promoting this shockingly bad and dishonest article by Chase Strangio and one Gabriel Arkles:
Four Myths About Trans Athletes, Debunked
The dishonesty is apparent already: the issue isn’t “trans athletes,” it’s male trans athletes invading women’s sports. They know that of course, and carefully pretend not to.
Upholding trans athletes’ rights requires rooting out the inaccurate beliefs underlying harmful policies sweeping through state legislatures.
What are “trans athletes’ rights”?
No athletes have a “right” to cheat by playing in categories that are for people smaller or younger or less muscular than they are. That’s it, that’s the issue.
For years state lawmakers have pushed legislation attempting to shut trans people out of public spaces. In 2020, lawmakers zeroed in on sports and introduced 20 bills seeking to ban trans people from participating in athletics.
Seeking to ban male trans people from women’s athletics. Are there any bills that seek to ban all trans people from athletics? I don’t know because I haven’t examined all of them, but the ones that have made it into news stories and think pieces have all been about not letting men – trans or otherwise – invade women’s athletics. Strangio and Arkles are carefully hiding that fact, as the trans dogmatists always do.
Though we are fighting every day in the courts and in legislatures, upholding trans rights will take more than judicial and legislative action. It will require rooting out the inaccurate and harmful beliefs underlying these policies. Below, we debunk four myths about trans athletes using the expertise of doctors, academics, and sports psychologists serving as experts in our litigation in Idaho.
First myth:
MYTH: The participation of trans athletes hurts cis women.
Many who oppose the inclusion of trans athletes erroneously claim that allowing trans athletes to compete will harm cisgender women. This divide and conquer tactic gets it exactly wrong. Excluding women who are trans hurts all women. It invites gender policing that could subject any woman to invasive tests or accusations of being “too masculine” or “too good” at their sport to be a “real” woman.
So instead women should just put up with men taking all the prizes?
Further, this myth reinforces stereotypes that women are weak and in need of protection.
Oh fuck off. Don’t pretend any of this is feminist reasoning. It’s just a fact that men as a class are bigger and stronger than women. That’s one reason the fight for our rights never ends. It’s not a “stereotype” that Lia Thomas has an obvious advantage over the women he is competing against.
The real motive is never about protection — it’s about excluding trans people from yet another public space. The arena of sports is no different.
Note the complete, callous, brutal indifference to women.
On the other hand, including trans athletes will promote values of non-discrimination and inclusion among all student athletes.
Then why discriminate against athletes on steroids? Why discriminate against tigers or gorillas or elephants? Why discriminate against athletes on motorcycles or in tanks?
It’s all bullshit. There are rules and stipulations and qualifications in athletics; there is no blanket value of total non-discrimination and inclooosion. Competitions “discriminate” against all the athletes who didn’t make it to the competitions. That’s how competitions work. It’s all discrimination and exclusion: the winner excludes everyone else.
Dr. Mary Fry adds that youth derive the most benefits from athletics when they are exposed to caring environments where teammates are supported by each other and by coaches. Banning some girls from athletics because they are transgender undermines this cohesion and compromises the wide-ranging benefits that youth get from sports.
But those “girls” are not girls; that’s the whole point. These stupid childish language games are just that”: stupid and childish. The ACLU is making a complete fool of itself.
The other “myths” are just as ludicrous.
MYTH: Trans athletes’ physiological characteristics provide an unfair advantage over cis athletes.
No, male athletes’ physiological characteristics provide an unfair advantage over female athletes. Not a myth, a stone-cold fact.
MYTH: Sex is binary, apparent at birth, and identifiable through singular biological characteristics.
Not a myth, a stone-cold fact.
FACT: Trans girls are girls.
Not a fact; a lie.
So, what’s to stop nondisabled athletes competing in the Special Olympics using the same reasoning as Chase Strangio and Gabriel Arkles use?
Nothing. It would be great, it would be a beautiful lesson in inclooooooosion.
I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but I encountered the idea that sex disparities in athletic performance are due solely to socialization over twenty years ago. From a woman. At a NARAL board meeting.
It’s gotta be related to the difficulty so many have with comprehending “all men are created equal”. In their minds, significant intergroup differences would contradict the claim of equality, so there can’t be significant intergroup differences. As though the author of that phrase was unaware that some men are born with disabilities. For some reason, equal(ity) must mean absolute, universal equivalence or nothing at all.
I agree with everything you said.
This stuck out to me:
From what I’ve seen school sports are not a great fit for what she’s talking about. They get very competitive by the high school level, with lots of practice time needed. Those not naturally gifted end up excluded. Social life is often very limited by practice time. Life-long injuries are very common. It’s competition. It’s not necessarily a caring, supportive environment. Certainly not all the time.
If you were to start from scratch with the goal of a supportive, caring program that helped children and young adults stay physically fit, gain confidence, etc., competitive school sports is not what you’d come up with. School sports sort of roughly overlap with some of those goals, but that’s about it.
I’m not saying school sports are bad or that we should get rid of them, but maybe we’re expecting too much of them. If trans girls/women need support and care, maybe they should find it elsewhere. Maybe most people should. It seems odd to have an activity that’s super-important for the physical and mental well-being of young people, but to have it only available to a small, athletically inclined minority.
Strangio’s method is simple minded. Identify a fact, call it a myth, state the opposite.
Then let’s teach boys to be caring and supportive of their trans teammates. The problem is “caring and supportive” really means letting them win.
Strangio likes to lie. One way you protect certain groups is by excluding those who aren’t members of the group. Exclusion is not inherently bad. Too many Americans misunderstand that not all exclusion is wrong or illegal. The law actually treats sex based discrimination differently than other categories of discrimination because the courts have long recognized that there are real differences between men and women that warrant different treatment in certain circumstances.
Historically, excluding men from women’s spaces has been an almost automatic practice. Strangio is saying we can no longer protect women from men.
The subversion of feminism in that argument “are you saying women are weak???!??!?!??!!” is one of the most enraging things to come out of this nonsense.
Women are telling you, Strangio, that women are on average weaker etc than men. Female athletes are telling you that. Feminists are telling you that.
But in your arrogance you still proclaim that these are anti-feminist statements and sentiments. You proclaim it in the full knowledge that the only people who can possibly benefit from it are men.