One campaign group said
The Beeb loads the dice yet again:
Transgender athletes should not compete in female competitions in order to “protect women’s sport”, says former British swimmer Sharron Davies.
Her comments come after 18-time tennis Grand Slam singles champion Martina Navratilova said it was “cheating” to allow transgender women to compete in women’s sport because they had unfair physical advantages.
One campaign group said Navratilova’s comments were “transphobic”.
The BBC did not have to report it that way. It did not have to include that sly childish tattletale one campaign group said Navratilova’s comments were “transphobic”. It didn’t have to and it shouldn’t have, because in fact her comments were not “transphobic.” It’s not “phobic” to say that male bodies have physical advantages over female bodies for many sports. The BBC doesn’t have to rush to say “somebody said that was transphobic!!” every single time a woman states some facts about female and male bodies. Many of us say all this bullshit is misogynistic, but I don’t see the Beeb reporting that ever.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Davies, 56, said she had spoken to many other female athletes who “feel the same way”.
“It is not a transphobic thing – I really want to say we have no issue with people who are transgender,” she said.
But it’s too late. The BBC places that after its “somebody said!!” bullshit, so that readers will be primed to think it is and that the disavowal is fake.
Next up, the obligatory summoning of Rachel McKinnon, the Beeb’s new besty.
In December, transgender cyclist Rachel McKinnon told BBC Sport she estimated she has received more than 100,000 hate messages on Twitter since she won her UCI Masters Track World Championship title in October.
Fellow cyclist Jen Wagner-Assali, who finished third, called it “unfair” and called on cycling’s international governing body to change its rules.
On Saturday, McKinnon said Davies was a “transphobe” and was “sharing hate speech”.
“There is no debate to be had over whether trans women athletes have an unfair advantage: it’s clear that they don’t,” she said on Twitter.
Rachel has spoken.
Athlete Ally – a US-based organisation that campaigns for LGBT sportspeople – cut its links with Navratilova in the wake of the 62-year-old’s comments, saying they “perpetuate dangerous myths”.
Interesting that they never mention McKinnon’s age. Interesting that they make a point of telling us how old Davies is and how old Navratilova is but not how old McKinnon is. I’m guessing they want us to think that Davies and Navratilova are getting soft in the head because so ancient?
H/t Acolyte of Sagan
Is that journalistic tic of always mentioning women’s ages, but not men’s, still a thing? Because, if so, oopsie, Beeb. You transphobes just treated McKinnon like a man.
OTOH, trans-identified males tend to retain their male privilege, so maybe the Beeb is being consistent after all.
How old is McKinnon, anyway?
I take it the BBC’s used up its allowance of quotation marks to cast doubt on the things Davies and Navratilova said, and that’s why they couldn’t spare another couple of them for McKinnon’s 100,00 hate messages. I mean, if you’re counting, and you define “there is a difference between male bodies and female bodies” as hate speech, those “hate messages” are going to rack up, but let’s encourage the reader’s to ask themselves where the bar for “hate” has been set (or by whom).