Thank you for all you do to help protect and support girls who are assaulted by the liars, cowards, bullies, and thieves: boys who falsely claim to be girls.
They are liars because they claim to be something they are not, they are cowards because they refuse to compete against their own sex, they are bullies because they force girls out of competitions in which they belong, and they are thieves because they steal the championships that rightfully belong to girls.
As a man, I say that they are a disgrace to my sex, and I am deeply ashamed of them.
Huge thanks to you and all the other women who made such a very important point at the event. In my opinion, the group made the best choice in leaving peacefully; I completely understand your rationale for doing so, and agree with it. Thanks for ALL you do for women and girls.
The Women’s Sports Policy Working Group is circulating a petition in support of women’s and girl’s sports. I was about to send it around to friends, but spotted that it included this: “We support the Equality Act and ending LGBT discrimination throughout society, including in employment, in public accommodations, and in family law.” My assumption is the Group hasn’t thoroughly vetted the Equality Act, which as we know is problematic as currently written. I have written the Group to ask whether that could be deleted from the petition, which otherwise looked very good to me: https://womenssportspolicy.org/petition/
The Equality Act mandates no discrimination on the basis of "gender identity", which is solely determined by the individual (according to the defintion within the Equality Act itself). If it ever passed, it would mean that any male could enter any women's competition merely by declaring his "gender identity" to be "woman" for the duration of the event. (The Equality Act does not restrict the number of changes of "gender identity", or provide for any kind of external review: whatever you say you are at that moment, you are, as a matter of law.) The Equality Act would completely destroy women's and girl's sports, and make any other efforts to preserve them moot.
Yes, that’s how I read it, too. What I am wondering is why the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group includes support for it in their otherwise very good petition on women’s sports. As I see it, if the Equality Act were to pass in its current form, it would supersede Title IX regs and therefore wipe out any gains the Working Group is hoping to achieve through its petition. I can only think the Group hasn’t thought the implications. If anyone from ICONS sees this and has any insight on this, it would be most welcome.
In it, they explain that they actually DON'T want to pass the Equality Act in its present form, but want to carve out an exception for school athletics. IMO, this is a truly horrible messaging strategy and an even worse legislative strategy, one that is almost certain to fail. ("Trans" activists will strongly oppose any such carve out, and the spineless Democrats will cave.) Certainly I cannot support their petition as written.
I suggest supporting organizations that trulyunderstand what's at stake, such as the Women's Liberation Front and Women's Declaration International USA.
Mark, thanks for uncovering that and for the link. I agree, this is a very bad strategy, very short-sighted. For one, while I for certain do not have the deep grasp of the Equality Act that Kara et al do, I can see that, throughout, “sex” is redefined to include “gender identity,” which of course negates “sex” as a protected category for all purposes. In addition, and this really should send up alarm bells, the findings section contains the following:
“The discredited practice known as “conversion therapy” is a form of discrimination that harms LGBTQ people by undermining individuals’ sense of self worth, increasing suicide ideation and substance abuse, exacerbating family conflict, and contributing to second-class status.”
Among other things, it appears the term is not defined (though I haven’t researched this to be sure). As we know, the gender identity folks are pushing to include exploratory therapy related to pediatric medical interventions within the ambit of “conversion therapy,” thus furthering the fast tracking of inappropriate medicalization, where what is actually needed is therapy.
I do think that, within the sports area, this working group is doing some very helpful work, which I don’t see duplicated elsewhere. That makes it even more unfortunate the group is taking this stance.
I'm glad they are working to protect women's sports and welcome their efforts, but I think their tactics are not optimal. (Saying that you support a proposed law when what you mean is that you support it only if there are significant changes first makes no sense at all to me.) Happily, there are now other voices (eg Riley Gaines) that are not making the same missteps.
“Admiral Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health, who is a lesbian and the first openly transgender woman to achieve the rank the four-star admiral in any of the country’s uniformed services.”
If anyone wants to join me in writing to your congressional delegation, particularly Democratic members, here is text, which you should feel free to use/adapt:
Could [insert name of member of Congress] please let President Biden know that Admiral Levine is NOT a lesbian? How can I vote for a man who states things like this? Why has my party abandoned people who ARE lesbians? We have enough to contend with as it is. These are not just words. They have impact on actual lesbians.
“Admiral Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health, who is a lesbian and the first openly transgender woman to achieve the rank the four-star admiral in any of the country’s uniformed services.”
Beautiful display of support and perseverance by all of you!! Thank you so very much for doing this! This feels like a milestone!
Thank you for all you do to help protect and support girls who are assaulted by the liars, cowards, bullies, and thieves: boys who falsely claim to be girls.
They are liars because they claim to be something they are not, they are cowards because they refuse to compete against their own sex, they are bullies because they force girls out of competitions in which they belong, and they are thieves because they steal the championships that rightfully belong to girls.
As a man, I say that they are a disgrace to my sex, and I am deeply ashamed of them.
As a man, I totally agree with you.
Huge thanks to you and all the other women who made such a very important point at the event. In my opinion, the group made the best choice in leaving peacefully; I completely understand your rationale for doing so, and agree with it. Thanks for ALL you do for women and girls.
Yes, in choosing to leave they were consistent with their stated value of the kids being able to just enjoy being kids playing sports!
Print coverage of the event: https://www.theepochtimes.com/feminists-protest-against-transgender-athletes-policy-in-california_5299151.html
Here is some pretty good coverage of the event. https://www.ntd.com/feminists-protest-against-transgender-athletes-policy-in-california_922361.html?fbclid=IwAR2KbSWtgcHiTfdHS7ujJXXx-10ZkB7JoHXGO3DJ_eoV7UvJ4bh9nReLkC4
So glad you could be with us! Onward.
I was heartened to see that all or almost all of the replies to this story on Twitter were
in favor of the bio female athletes:
https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1662918744132268037?cxt=HHwWisC9pbHy75MuAAAA
What a great story 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
Well played, Kara and co!
Here's a little comic relief on this topic:
https://youtu.be/_sgjc29QCGo
Related: does anyone here know about the below?
The Women’s Sports Policy Working Group is circulating a petition in support of women’s and girl’s sports. I was about to send it around to friends, but spotted that it included this: “We support the Equality Act and ending LGBT discrimination throughout society, including in employment, in public accommodations, and in family law.” My assumption is the Group hasn’t thoroughly vetted the Equality Act, which as we know is problematic as currently written. I have written the Group to ask whether that could be deleted from the petition, which otherwise looked very good to me: https://womenssportspolicy.org/petition/
The Equality Act mandates no discrimination on the basis of "gender identity", which is solely determined by the individual (according to the defintion within the Equality Act itself). If it ever passed, it would mean that any male could enter any women's competition merely by declaring his "gender identity" to be "woman" for the duration of the event. (The Equality Act does not restrict the number of changes of "gender identity", or provide for any kind of external review: whatever you say you are at that moment, you are, as a matter of law.) The Equality Act would completely destroy women's and girl's sports, and make any other efforts to preserve them moot.
Yes, that’s how I read it, too. What I am wondering is why the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group includes support for it in their otherwise very good petition on women’s sports. As I see it, if the Equality Act were to pass in its current form, it would supersede Title IX regs and therefore wipe out any gains the Working Group is hoping to achieve through its petition. I can only think the Group hasn’t thought the implications. If anyone from ICONS sees this and has any insight on this, it would be most welcome.
Well, from their site I found this op-ed that they wrote in the WaPo in 2019: "Pass the Equality Act, but don’t abandon Title IX" https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pass-the-equality-act-but-dont-abandon-title-ix/2019/04/29/2dae7e58-65ed-11e9-a1b6-b29b90efa879_story.html
In it, they explain that they actually DON'T want to pass the Equality Act in its present form, but want to carve out an exception for school athletics. IMO, this is a truly horrible messaging strategy and an even worse legislative strategy, one that is almost certain to fail. ("Trans" activists will strongly oppose any such carve out, and the spineless Democrats will cave.) Certainly I cannot support their petition as written.
I suggest supporting organizations that trulyunderstand what's at stake, such as the Women's Liberation Front and Women's Declaration International USA.
Mark, thanks for uncovering that and for the link. I agree, this is a very bad strategy, very short-sighted. For one, while I for certain do not have the deep grasp of the Equality Act that Kara et al do, I can see that, throughout, “sex” is redefined to include “gender identity,” which of course negates “sex” as a protected category for all purposes. In addition, and this really should send up alarm bells, the findings section contains the following:
“The discredited practice known as “conversion therapy” is a form of discrimination that harms LGBTQ people by undermining individuals’ sense of self worth, increasing suicide ideation and substance abuse, exacerbating family conflict, and contributing to second-class status.”
Among other things, it appears the term is not defined (though I haven’t researched this to be sure). As we know, the gender identity folks are pushing to include exploratory therapy related to pediatric medical interventions within the ambit of “conversion therapy,” thus furthering the fast tracking of inappropriate medicalization, where what is actually needed is therapy.
I do think that, within the sports area, this working group is doing some very helpful work, which I don’t see duplicated elsewhere. That makes it even more unfortunate the group is taking this stance.
I'm glad they are working to protect women's sports and welcome their efforts, but I think their tactics are not optimal. (Saying that you support a proposed law when what you mean is that you support it only if there are significant changes first makes no sense at all to me.) Happily, there are now other voices (eg Riley Gaines) that are not making the same missteps.
In case anyone missed this little gem from the White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/27/readout-of-white-house-roundtable-with-lesbian-leaders-to-celebrate-lesbian-day-of-visibility/
“Admiral Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health, who is a lesbian and the first openly transgender woman to achieve the rank the four-star admiral in any of the country’s uniformed services.”
“who is a lesbian”
If anyone wants to join me in writing to your congressional delegation, particularly Democratic members, here is text, which you should feel free to use/adapt:
Could [insert name of member of Congress] please let President Biden know that Admiral Levine is NOT a lesbian? How can I vote for a man who states things like this? Why has my party abandoned people who ARE lesbians? We have enough to contend with as it is. These are not just words. They have impact on actual lesbians.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/27/readout-of-white-house-roundtable-with-lesbian-leaders-to-celebrate-lesbian-day-of-visibility/
“Admiral Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health, who is a lesbian and the first openly transgender woman to achieve the rank the four-star admiral in any of the country’s uniformed services.”
Great story and reporting. Thank you as always.