The Times article on Emily Bridges part 2:

It was considered a short-term issue, one that the UCI would soon process, but senior figures in the sport believe the organisation has it within its power to continue excluding Bridges under regulations updated in 2020.

While British Cycling rules demand only that a transgender cyclist falls below a set testosterone threshold for a period of 12 months — indeed Bridges has been registered for the women’s events by the national governing body for the Nations Cup in Glasgow later this month — the UCI rules go further by referencing the need to “preserve the safety, fairness and integrity of the sport, for the benefit of all of its participants and stakeholders”

The Times reports:

The transgender cyclist prevented from participating in a national track event this weekend could be the subject of an indefinite ban under rules introduced by the Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body.

That’s a slightly misleading paragraph if you don’t already know the story. Why would anyone ban a cyclist from an event just because the cyclist is transgender?!! What shocking bigotry!

In other words Matt Lawton, Chief Sports Correspondent for the Times, buried the lede.

It’s not a “transgender cyclist” who was “prevented from participating in a national track event,” it’s a male cyclist who was prevented from participating in a women’s national track event. Omitting the sex from both the cyclist and the … Read the rest

Paula Radcliffe joins in:

Brilliantly put! 👏👏 https://t.co/TPylu8uiC1

— Paula Radcliffe (@paulajradcliffe) April 3, 2022

Absolutely serious. The entire premise for women’s sport is to create a fair competition space where women can win, because it physically isn’t possible against men. Open the door for male physiological advantages & potentially every female competing in sport is affected.

— Paula Radcliffe (@paulajradcliffe) April 3, 2022

… Read the rest

Margaret Atwood won the Hitchens prize. The Atlantic shares her speech, in which she pointed out an important distinction:

I expect Hitch would join me in a distinction I have been making lately: that between belief and truth. It’s a comment on our special times that I’d even feel I have to make this distinction. A belief cannot be either proved or disproved. If you wish to believe that invisible flower spirits are causing your string beans to grow, there is no point in my trying to dissuade you, because these entities are invisible and immaterial. Something proposed as a truth can, however, be put to the test. In recent years, people have confused beliefs with truths. From this

Originally a comment by G on Captured.

The American right’s weaponized anti-trans politics — which genuinely is about generating and capitalizing on fear and hatred, not about protecting children, and even more clearly not about opposition to patriarchy and misogyny — practically guarantees that what passes for the left in the U.S. will embrace trans rights in the most knee-jerk and thought-free manner possible. And, I strongly suspect, there are some strategists on the right who fully realize this, and hope it will hurt the left with an American voting public that is, on average, distinctly uncomfortable with gender non-conformity in all forms.

This is part of an established historical pattern: When thoughtful feminist criticism of a social practice … Read the rest

Janice Turner on the theft of women’s sport:

Inclusion in sport matters but not more than the truth. In recent weeks I’ve read thousands of words justifying why the American trans swimmer Lia Thomas, 22, should compete in the women’s NCAA college games. Thomas was compared with black women or lesbian athletes who were also judged “unwomanly”. It was argued that sex categories in sport are out of step with “evolving science”. So much sophistry. The simple, inescapable fact is that as a man Thomas barely made the top 500 and never qualified for the NCAAs but as a woman came 1st, 5th and 8th.

Female swimmers were not asked for their views.

Silence was also imposed on British

Is everyone drunk?

Family doctors are to be paid for prescribing hormones to transgender patients, in the first scheme of its kind in the UK.

I don’t think family doctors work for free in the UK, so this “being paid” seems to amount to a sweetener for one particular kind of prescription. Kind of like a bribe. Is that really a good idea?

Under the programme, which was launched yesterday, GPs in Sussex will get £178 a year for every adult to whom they prescribe “cross sex hormone therapy”. They will also be able to claim an extra £91 a year for providing an annual health check to a transgender, non-binary or intersex (TNBI) patient.

“Extra” – so the £178 … Read the rest

Georgia Senate passes bill that limits how schools can teach about race.

House Bill 1084, the “Protect Students First Act”, was approved by the Georgia senate. The measure requires local school boards and administrators to ban discrimination on the “basis of race” by limiting how race can be discussed in classrooms.

Under the bill, discussion topics that would be banned include teaching that “one race is inherently superior to another race” or that the US is “fundamentally racist”, reported CNN.

“We can teach US history, the good, the bad and the ugly, without dividing children along racial lines,” said the Georgia senate president pro tem, Butch Miller, of the bill that passed 32-21.

Can we though? Maybe it’s not … Read the rest

The whistleblower is Dr David Bell. The clip is valuable…and in fact humanist, the real kind.

History will judge whether Dr David Bell was a hateful transphobe or trying to alert people to a medical scandal, but he's far from the only health professional raising these concerns (and I have the letters and emails to prove it.) https://t.co/siTOdD6CGC

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 1, 2022

… Read the rest

Peak humanism.

Me: shares video of experienced psychiatrist who turned whistleblower, expressing his deep concern at high numbers of autistic children and children with internalised homophobia presenting at gender clinics.

Them: pic.twitter.com/WsjyLJCOUB

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 2, 2022

“You’re a repulsive bigot,” says guy who calls himself The Humanist Report. “Go fuck yourself, transphobic trash.” Nine words total, for two coarse insults and a coarse command. I’m not seeing the humanism.… Read the rest

Has Biden ever talked this way about women or Black people or workers or immigrants? Biden who chaired the all-male committee that blew off Anita Hill’s testimony about Clarence Thomas? Biden who loves to go all “bipartisan” on unions and feminists and racial justice activists?… Read the rest

Emily (formerly Zack) Bridges has issued A Statement:

“I am an athlete, and I just want to race competitively,” he says, skipping lightly over the fact that he just wants to race competitively against people who are systematically smaller and less muscular than he is.

“No one should have to choose between who they are, and participating in the sport they love.”

But it isn’t who he is, it’s who he isn’t. Who he is is a man, with a massive physical advantage over the women he wants to race against. Yes he should have to choose, because it’s grossly unfair to the women if he doesn’t.

“I’ve been relentlessly harassed and demonised by those who have a specific … Read the rest

Perhaps the concerns are real concerns.

History will judge whether Dr David Bell was a hateful transphobe or trying to alert people to a medical scandal, but he's far from the only health professional raising these concerns (and I have the letters and emails to prove it.) https://t.co/siTOdD6CGC

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 1, 2022

A genuinely gender dysphoric person writes… pic.twitter.com/6nuVH625Pi

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 1, 2022

https://twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1509954059737997316 … Read the rest

How the experts got Russian military prowess so wrong:

The resilience of Ukrainian resistance is embarrassing for a Western think-tank and military community that had confidently predicted that the Russians would conquer Ukraine in a matter of days. For years, Western “experts” prattled on about the Russian military’s expensive, high-tech “modernization.” The Russians, we were told, had the better tanks and aircraft, including cutting-edge SU-34 fighter bombers and T-90 tanks, with some of the finest technical specifications in the world. The Russians had also ostensibly reorganized their army into a more professional, mostly voluntary force. They had rethought their offensive doctrine and created battalion tactical groups, flexible, heavily armored formations that were meant to be key to overwhelming the

The Guardian had a column called How to eat, which is now reaching an end. It sounds entertaining; I’ll have to browse the back catalogue. The idea originated in irritation at the pompous posh brand of food column.

Would there be mileage, we wondered, in sending up such high-handed advice in a clearly tongue-in-cheek, OTT way? But by flipping the subject matter and talking enthusiastically about everyday foods – beans on toast, lasagne, pesto, Magnums, pasties, hummus – in a way that would generate engaged, friendly debate below the line (BTL)? Note: the bottom half of the internet was less toxic then.

Sounds interesting but wait a second – pesto and hummus and lasagne and beans on toast? One … Read the rest

How about no?

Just no. Not “oh dear what shall we do,” not “maybe we need to tweak this a little,” not “we’re in the middle,” just no. No. You can’t. Of course not. Go away.

Not “tougher new rules,” either. Just no.

The president of cycling’s governing body has held emergency talks with other international sports federations about creating tougher new rules for the participation of trans women in elite women’s sport “within months”.

“Rules” for letting men participate in elite women’s sport, thus ruining it. Forget rules; just No.

In a notable intervention, the UCI president, David Lappartient, said cycling’s current rules, which allow trans women to compete against cis women if they reduce their testosterone

He’s a guy.

The 'U's are delighted to announce @Blair90x has been selected for the England Universities Sport Women's Squad!

👏 👏 👏 #COYU 💨💨💨 pic.twitter.com/HYB8QQDgs5

— Hastings United Women (@HastingsUFCW) March 30, 2022

… Read the rest

A small but repulsive item on the list:

As President Donald J. Trump’s tenure came to an end, the chief White House photographer, who had traveled the world with him and spent countless hours inside the White House snapping pictures, notified Mr. Trump’s aides that she intended to publish a book collecting some of her most memorable images.

As all White House photographers since Reagan have done. I actually looked at Pete Souza’s Obama book.

Trump, however, had other ideas, because of course he did.

First, aides to Mr. Trump asked her for a cut of her book advance payment, in exchange for his writing a foreword and helping promote the book, according to former associates of Mr. Trump.

Maybe, ever so slowly, they are starting to catch on, just a little.

The president of cycling’s governing body has held emergency talks with other international sports federations about creating tougher new rules for the participation of trans women in elite women’s sport “within months”.

In a notable intervention, the UCI president, David Lappartient, said cycling’s current rules, which allow trans women to compete against cis women if they reduce their testosterone to below 5 nmol/L for a period of 12 months, were “probably not enough” to ensure fair competition.

“Probably” as in “ya think”?

He also suggested that other sports including athletics and swimming were in a similar boat and that coordinated action might be needed.

“It

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Ask the Expert.

Isn’t it funny how some media outlets, for some stories, are quick to get spokespeople from “both sides” of an issue, but not this particular issue? Having both sides generates buzz, debate and controversy. Doesn’t that help generate viewers, listeners and clicks? I remember when feathered dinosaurs became a thing. Long after the time when the vast majority of paleontologists had come to understand that yes, birds are dinosaurs, many stories about new fossil finds would include a quote or two from one of the few holdouts who did not agree. His papers continuing to argue the point did not cite more recent research or literature, which … Read the rest