Move Over Girls, Trans Women Athletes are Here
That’ll teach her.
Martina Navratilova - widely regarded as the greatest female player in tennis history and a hero of the LGBTQ community since she came out as bisexual in 1981 - just learned what happens to those who stray from the new rules of the transgendered orthodoxy.
Dare to suggest that trans women - biological men who identify as female - are likely bigger, stronger and have more muscle mass than women and you’re in trouble.
You will be scorned.
You will be reviled.
You will be called transphobic and removed from boards that once were honored to have you.
What did Ms. Navratilova say that’s suddenly made her a pariah in the LGBTQ world?
“You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women," wrote Navratilova in this week’s London Sunday Times. "There must be some standards, and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard.
“I promised to keep quiet on the subject until I had properly researched it... well, I’ve now done that and, if anything, my views have strengthened.
“To put the argument at its most basic: a man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organization is concerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies if he so desires.
“It’s insane and it’s cheating.
“I was happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her. It would not be fair”.
Common sense.
Yet the reaction to her opinion piece has been anger from LBGTQ activists.
Nevertheless, Navratilova says she is not backing down. Why should she? Navratilova is simply saying what most fair-minded folks are thinking: Male and female athletes have traditionally competed separately. For a reason.
As it happens, transgendered athletes are in the news this week.
In Connecticut last weekend two transgendered girls took first and second place at the state high school track championships. Parents there are asking the governing body to ban transgendered athletes or at least set hormone standards. The AP reports that Connecticut is one state that allows trans kids to compete without restriction.
Here’s what one top-ranked Connecticut girl had to say about running against transgendered competition.
“We all know the outcome of the race before it even starts; it’s demoralizing,” Selina Soule said. “I fully support and am happy for these athletes for being true to themselves. They should have the right to express themselves in school, but athletics have always had extra rules to keep the competition fair.”
Beyond that, a running phenom in NCAA women’s track is dominating the national competition and setting records one year after competing as a man at the same level. Read this piece in The Daily Caller about CeCe Telfer and other trans women athletes. While you’re at it, note the photo of one Hannah Mouncey from Australia that accompanies the story.
Before he began to transition, Mouncey played on the Australian Men’s handball team. Once the athlete began transitioning, she moved to the women’s Australian rules football. She left that sport after testosterone levels were tightened. She now plays women’s handball.
Just this week, NBC gushed that trans athletes are “breaking barriers in high school, college and pro sports.” As if that’s a good thing. What NBC didn’t point out was that these are always trans women dominating biological women. Not trans men beating men.
Is anyone surprised?
Here’s an anecdote that may or may not be illustrative: In the late 1970s I briefly played on a competitive women’s ice hockey team. I wasn’t great, but some of my teammates were. To hone our skills, several of us joined a co-ed pick-up ice hockey league, playing against older men - in their 30s and 40s - who were just recreational players.
Yet every one of these guys was faster and noticeably stronger than we were. A body check by one of them was nothing like a body check from another woman. It knocked the wind out of you.
On that ice I quickly learned that men and women are built differently. When women compete against women, skills are tested. When women compete against men they are usually at a physical disadvantage.
It’s not easy to stand up to the militants in the trans community as Ms. Navratilova has done. She bravely sounded the alarm on behalf of female athletes.
Fact is, it is possible to believe in the basic dignity of all people, and the right of folks to be addressed by any pronoun that they want, without agreeing that biological boys should be competing against girls.
In an editorial this week, the Wall Street Journal pointed out the obvious:
“Few biological boys are likely to lose top spots in sports competition or the college scholarships that follow because of transgender boys who outperform them.
“But in girls’ sports, American moms and dads are increasingly watching their daughters in high school and college competing against biological boys.”
Where are the feminists on this?
Crickets.
