Manipulate those headlines
They just can’t ever word it honestly. BBC headline:
Fina stops transgender swimmers from competing in women’s elite events
Male swimmers.
Fina, swimming’s world governing body, has voted to stop transgender athletes from competing in women’s elite races if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty.
They could have worded it so that the male puberty part comes first, but no, it has to be the “transgender” part first.
The decision was made during an extraordinary general congress at the ongoing World Championships in Budapest.
…
The issue in swimming has been catapulted into the spotlight by the experiences of American Lia Thomas.
Not so much the experiences as the photos and video clips. We can all see how massive he is, so we can all see how grotesquely unfair it is. (We can also see how little he seems to be even pretending to think he’s actually female.)
More than 300 college, Team USA and Olympic swimmers signed an open letter in support of Thomas and all transgender and non-binary swimmers, but other athletes and organisations have raised concerns about trans inclusion.
There it is again. Put the rah-rah trans bullshit first and the reality second.
As you note, the headline is inaccurate: the ruling would allow Iszag Henig but not Lia Thomas to compete in women’s events. Because Henig is female and Thomas is not. But both consider themselves transgender.
And the ruling does not depend on “transgender” at all: a male swimmer, who acknowledges that he is male and makes no claim to be female, cannot compete in women’s events, for the very same reason. They can’t ever seem to consider that possibility.
I know that some trans activists are going to claim that puberty in a male who considers himself transgender is “female puberty” because that person is “female” (by fiat or whatever); I think I’ve seen that argument made before, but I expect it to come up again.
@1:
https://terfisaslur.com/erasing-female-biology/photo-14-06-2015-01-55-47/