To inspire women athletes
The National Women’s Law Center used to be actually about women and law. No more.
I would love to know how the fuck they think Thomas can “inspire” women. Inspire women to do what? Quit sport? Stay home? Learn to smile politely while men steal their opportunities and wins and medals?
And why does he deserve “celebration for [his] success”? Why would he deserve celebration for “success” he owes to a massive physical advantage over all his competitors? They might as well call it “success” to tie all the competitors to a bench and swim solo. His only “success” is at getting away with grossly blatant cheating.
I don’t understand how adults can see it any other way, and we know the NWLC is adults because it’s lawyers.
That’s what mystifies most of us here, isn’t it? How have so many apparently intelligent, educated, non-psychotic people become blind to obvious objective reality in practically an eyeblink of time?
I can understand nice average liberals like me being sympathetic and unthinkingly buying in to the ideology as I did at first. Or maybe addition of “T+” to LGB rights leads to a reflexive false equivalence.
But why have so few, even those who “identify as” feminists, had a “hey, wait a minute” moment by now?
It is, it’s just that it’s that little bit more so with the NWLC because women and law are right there in the name.
“I would love to know how the fuck they think Thomas can “inspire” women. Inspire women to do what?”
My best guess is ‘be male’.
Because your mind makes it real. Combined, of course, with the fact that it’s harder to change someone’s mind about something they came to believe for no than something they came to believe for lots of good reasons.
To me, the idea that a life-altering decision such as medical transition and the taking of hormones that reduce an athlete’s ability to compete in mens sports at such a high level should be taken into account before starting a “transition.” Somehow the trans lobby have decided that such athletes have a human right to continue competing. In Laurel Hubbard’s case, age was the factor that dimished his athletic ability, and his choice to compensate by competing “as a woman” was treated as a right by the IOC.
Losing one’s advantage over other men should not be seen as an invitation, let alone a right, to compete as a woman. While adding gender identity as a characteristic was seen as progress for a right by the Biden administration, it violated the spirit of the law if not the letter
Before Title IX there were many sports that women were denied unless they were exceptional enough to try out for the men’s team, and in college I can’t think of any breakout women in men’s sports. My high school had a girl who played shortstop for the baseball team, and another who played offensive tackle for the football team. That is to say, they dressed for the teams. Playing time was another matter.
In college, women at my school were limited to intramural field hockey at a University which had a national power in men’s ice hockey. When they were finally funded due to Title IX, the women’s ice hockey team proved to be a good draw for fans and the money was justified.
We should’t celebrate the erosion of womens’ athletics for the sake of men who see a loophole to extend their careers, and if some trans ID males don’t get their medals they should accept it just as I have accepted that I won’t be winning any medals at the NCAA level either. (Nor at any level other than the Over-60 males in a 10K)