Latest news with #AthleteAlly
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maine's trans madness is the latest sign gender ideology is losing its cult-like grip
An incident in the state of Maine is perhaps the clearest sign to date that the cult of gender ideology is at last losing its grip on the United States. A Republican member of the state's House of Representatives, Laurel Libby, was recently censured by her colleagues after she posted on social media an image of a biologically male transgender high school athlete who had won a girls' state championship. Censure is a formal statement of disapproval, whose effect is to remove voting rights in the legislature. Libby was essentially stripped of the ability to fulfil her democratic duties as the result of a narrow vote on party lines by other legislators. Ryan Fecteau, Maine's Democrat House Speaker, has claimed that the censure was about protecting a young person rather than about transgender athletes. 'This is about whether a young person should be ridiculed by a national audience, as a result of the blatant disregard and political expediency of an elected official,' Fecteau said in a statement. 'The representative can bring her censure to an end by apologising, which this student and their family absolutely deserve.' I don't believe him. Libby's post did not attack the athlete in question. She was using the image to illustrate the fundamental unfairness of allowing biological males to participate in women's sport. The athlete won a competition while participating as a woman, but appeared to have come fifth while previously competing as a man. There is obviously huge public interest in this debate and the competition in question was a major state championship. As someone who has long been targeted by gender activists for writing about the issue, the tactics used by these bullies are all too familiar. Whenever anyone speaks 'out of turn' (that is, fails to follow the 'trans women are women' party line to the letter), they are ostracised or harangued in an attempt to force them to capitulate. Just look at what happened to tennis legend Martina Navratilova when she spoke out against biological men competing in female-only competitive sports. Her criticism was both gentle and polite, yet still she was hounded online. For pointing out that allowing biological men, however they identify, to compete in women's sport was 'cheating' as they have unfair physical advantages, Athlete Ally – an organisation Navratilova had co-founded – claimed she was transphobic and sacked her from its advisory board and as an ambassador. In the upside-down world of transgender ideology, biological males – despite their physical (and institutionalised) advantages over women – become the victims, allowing them to claim to be oppressed and marginalised. In an Orwellian twist, trans-identified athletes assert that they are on the back foot, when they are in fact enjoying the benefits of the stranglehold that gender ideology has on so many institutions and individuals. But that ideology's power is waning, as Libby's response to her attempted cancellation has so clearly proven. She has refused to stay silent or apologise. News of the controversy has spread rapidly, and she has earned the opportunity to argue her case. Now president Trump seems to have been alerted to the incident. At a White House event, he threatened Maine governor Janet Mills with removal of federal funding if her state fails to comply with his 'Keeping Men Out Of Women's Sports' executive order. In 2023, the Biden administration proposed rules prohibiting public schools and universities from banning trans-identified boys and men from competing in sporting events with girls and women. This dismissal of biological differences between males and females as irrelevant would have prevented states from keeping female sports exclusively female, thus denying women and girls a level playing field. The US Left is still playing games on the issue. On Monday, Senate Democrats voted unanimously to block a Republican-led bill that would have stopped federally funded schools from allowing transgender biological male athletes to participate in women's sports. I am no fan of Trump, but the Democrats' posturing on this issue has left them looking ridiculous. They may well choose to continue to ignore biological reality. But they will no longer be able to silence those of us who prefer facts and truth. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
New York Times
05-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Donald Trump signs executive order to block transgender athletes from women's sports
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday aimed to prevent transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports by denying federal funds to schools that don't comply. 'With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over,' Trump said from the East Room of the White House. Advertisement The order follows one Trump signed on Jan. 20 — the first day of his second term in the White House — ordering the federal government to define sex as only male or female and to change federal policies and government-issued IDs to reflect that. Trump, along with other conservative politicians, have often hit on transgender athletes competing in women's sports as an election-cycle issue. And numerous states have passed laws banning transgender athletes from girls' sports at the high school and youth levels. Trump, who signed the order on National Girls and Women in Sports Day, also took aim at the International Olympic Committee, saying that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make the White House's stance 'as clear as anybody can make it.' 'We want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics,' Trump said. Los Angeles is expected to host the Summer Games in 2028. Opponents of transgender women competing in women's divisions say that they have an unfair advantage over cisgender women when it comes to athletics, particularly in cases where transgender women go through male puberty before transitioning. Many supporters of trans women in sports say that outright bans amount to discrimination and target a small number of people. In December, NCAA president Charlie Baker said during a congressional hearing in Washington that he believed there were fewer than 10 transgender athletes among the 510,000 competing at schools. At that time, Baker also said he would welcome federal guidance before considering any possible changes to NCAA rules. The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Hudson Taylor, the executive director of Athlete Ally, an organization that champions LGBTQI+ equality in sports, said in a statement to The Athletic that he and the organization were 'deeply concerned about the negative impact this will have on the mental health of trans athletes.' Advertisement 'Trans youth already experience higher rates of violence, suicidal thoughts and insecurity in housing than their cisgender peers,' Taylor said. 'This (executive order), and the broader erasure of the transgender community, will only serve to exacerbate these issues.' At the college level, multiple lawsuits have been filed in recent years regarding transgender women's participation in sports. In March, a group of college athletes filed a lawsuit against the NCAA over the inclusion of Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer, in competition in 2022. During the women's volleyball season last fall, several Mountain West schools forfeited matches against San Jose State, which was alleged to have a transgender athlete on its team. The schools sued the conference and asked the court to rule the player to be ineligible for the conference tournament. A judge denied the request, and San Jose State played in the tournament, advanced through the semifinals by forfeit and lost the championship match to Colorado State. Some lawmakers have criticized the NCAA's rules, which provide an opportunity for transgender athletes to compete if they meet criteria set on a sport-by-sport basis by national and international governing bodies. On Jan. 14, the House of Representatives passed the 'Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,' which would ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports in public schools and amend Title IX to recognize a person's sex based solely on birth biology and genetics. It still must pass the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. This story will be updated.
