Latest news with #transgenderAthletes
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Riley Gaines issues challenge to ex-ESPN host after he slammed 'MAGA stooge' over trans athlete fight
Conservative activist Riley Gaines has challenged former ESPN host Keith Olbermann to a race after he hit out at her for her support of Donald Trump. Gaines tied for fifth place with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male, in 2022 while swimming for the University of Kentucky in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship. The 25-year-old has since been outspoken against transgender athletes competing in women's sport, haling the president for his 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sport' executive order earlier this year. This week, Olbermann, the ex-host of both MSNBC's 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' and ESPN's 'SportsCenter,' took aim at the former collegiate swimmer over her campaigning. Olbermann responded to a Fox News clip of Education Secretary Linda McMahon claiming that Gaines 'would have clearly won' her race if Gaines didn't have to compete against transgender athlete Thomas. '[Riley Gaines] finished 85th in the Olympic Trials,' Olbermann posted on X. 'She finished tied for 5th in the only race including a transgendered athlete. If there had been none she MIGHT have finished tied for 4th, or had 5th place to herself.' Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American, fired back at the sports commentator, noting she 'placed 85th at Olympic trials when I was 15/16.' 'I was one of the youngest there,' Gaines explained. 'And I placed 5th *in the nation* in a sport measured in .01s of a second without going a best. Would you say the 5th best college football player is objectively bad at their sport? 'No. You're just a misogynistic pig & an old, deranged man with a terminal case of TDS who can't hold down a job.' She went on to challenge Olbermann to back up his criticism by taking her on in a race for charity, Gaines told Fox Digital. She said that the event would be a 200-yard freestyle at a location of Olbermann's choice sometime before August 31 with proceeds going to a charity of the winner's choosing. Olbermann appeared to accept the challenge, branding the competition a 'brilliant idea.' 'A 66-year old man with an arthritic left knee and chronic stress fractures in the right foot... Somebody you could finally beat!' he taunted in response to the challenge. The heated online tiff comes after Gaines joined many in expressing outrage over a transgender athlete competing in girls' high school track and field in California. AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley, a biological male, won the women's long jump and triple jump at the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Masters Meet last week. Reese Hogan of Crean Lutheran High School, one of the opponents defeated by Hernandez, took the podium following the official ceremony. AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley is making waves in track and field in contentious fashion The moment took off online, and earned praise from Gaines. In March, Hernandez drew backlash online after winning a triple jump event by three feet. In response to the backlash, Trump blasted California governor Gavin Newsom , who he called 'Newscum,' and called a transgender athlete's sporting domination in the state 'not fair and totally demeaning to women and girls.' 'Please be advised that large scale federal funding will be held back, maybe permanently,' Trump threatened on his Truth Social site. Then, without citing a specific legal basis, Trump wrote that 'I am ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow the transitioned person to compete in the State Finals. This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!' Gaines has been vocal in her opposition to allowing trans athletes to compete in women's sport and has dedicated the past two years to campaigning on the issue. She was invited to Trump's address to Congress in March when the president turned his focus to keeping trans athletes out of women's sports. The subject had been a big driving force in his election last November and Trump elected to highlight the story of Payton McNabb, a former high school volleyball player who was left with brain damage after being spiked in the face by a trans opponent, during his speech. Trump had previously surrounded himself with female athletes and activists, including Gaines, at the White House a month earlier to sign an executive order barring trans participation in women's sports. The order uses Title IX, a law against sex discrimination in taxpayer-funded education programs, to ban transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports activities.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Woke state's insane plan to get round Trump's rules and reward transgender athlete for beating biological girls
California Governor Gavin Newsom has hatched a plan to award multiple winners at the state's high school track-and-field championships this weekend as President Donald Trump 's Department of Justice investigates the state over a potential Title IX violation. California opened the event to more girls after a transgender athlete drew criticism for qualifying for the meet. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) will now permit an extra competitor in three events featuring transgender high school junior AB Hernandez. The rule change is temporary, according to the CIF, and not a direct response to Trump's recent online criticism of California state policy, Governor Newsom and the 16-year-old Hernandez. 'California, under the leadership of Radical Left Democrat Gavin Newscum, continues to ILLEGALLY allow "MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS,"' Trump wrote on his social media platform. 'This week a transitioned Male athlete, at a major event, won "everything," and is now qualified to compete in the 'State Finals' next weekend. 'As a Male, he was a less than average competitor,' Trump continued in an apparent reference to Hernandez. 'As a Female, this transitioned person is practically unbeatable. THIS IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS.' Trump then threatened to withhold federal funding 'permanently' if his executive order forbidding transgender athletes in girls and women's sports isn't followed. The rule change is temporary, according to the CIF, and not a direct response to Trump's recent online criticism of California state policy, Governor Newsom and the 16-year-old Hernandez The President also ordered 'local authorities, if necessary, to not allow the transitioned person to compete in the State Finals.' Wednesday, the CIF said it's extending access for more 'biological female' athletes to participate in this weekend's championships. However, the change only applies to this competition. 'Under this pilot entry process, any biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of their Section's automatic qualifying entries in the CIF State meet, and did not achieve the CIF State at-large mark in the finals at their Section meet, was extended an opportunity to participate in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships,' the CIF statement read. 'The CIF believes this pilot entry process achieves the participation opportunities we seek to afford our student-athletes.' A recent Associated Press poll found that 7 in 10 American adults want transgender female athletes banned from girls and women's sports at the high school, college or professional level.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Kai Trump's stance on transgender athletes revealed in resurfaced post
Kai Trump's views on transgender athletes in women's sports have been revealed by a resurfaced social media post. It comes just days after president Donald Trump, her grandfather, threatened to halt federal funding to California after a transgender athlete dominated a school meet and qualified for the state championships. Aspiring golfer Kai, 18, is preparing to start her college career at the University of Miami later this year. And a post from February 5, which she shared on social media on National Girls and Women in Sports Day, has now come to light. Kai, whose mom Vanessa is dating Tiger Woods, wrote: 'Sports give girls confidence, strength, and leadership skills for life,' she wrote. 'I'm grateful to have strong women who inspire me, and I know how important it is to support the next generation of female athletes.' Donald Trump threatened to halt federal funding to California after a trans athlete won an event Earlier this week, Trump blasted California governor Gavin Newsom, who he called 'Newscum,' and called a transgender athlete's sporting domination in the state 'not fair and totally demeaning to women and girls.' 'Please be advised that large scale federal funding will be held back, maybe permanently,' Trump threatened on his Truth Social site. Then, without citing a specific legal basis, Trump wrote that 'I am ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow the transitioned person to compete in the State Finals. This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!' His post came after transgender athlete AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley won the women's long jump and triple jump at the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Masters Meet. A week ago, Reese Hogan of Crean Lutheran High School, one of the opponents defeated by Hernandez, a biological male, took the podium following the official ceremony. The moment took off online, and earned praise from former college swimmer and conservative political activist Riley Gaines. In March, Hernandez drew backlash online after winning a triple jump event by three feet. Trump fumed about the results of the weekend's meet, and teased an upcoming phone call with Newsom. He wrote: 'California, under the leadership of Radical Left Democrat Gavin Newscum, continues to ILLEGALLY allow 'MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS.' 'This week a transitioned Male athlete, at a major event, won 'everything,' and is now qualified to compete in the 'State Finals' next weekend. As a Male, he was a less than average competitor. As a Female, this transitioned person is practically unbeatable.' Then, he added in all caps, 'this is not fair and totally demeaning to women and girls.' Trump went on to threaten: 'Please be hereby advised that large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to. 'The Governor, himself, said it is 'UNFAIR.' I will speak to him today to find out which way he wants to go??? In the meantime I am ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow the transitioned person to compete in the State Finals. This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!' Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office titled 'defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.'
CNN
17 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
Do transgender women have an athletic advantage? Here's what the science does – and doesn't – say
What are the stakes when a fraction of a second, the length of an extended arm or the weight of a body in motion can mean the difference between victory and defeat? The question – at the center of disagreements over transgender athletes' participation in sports – has echoed from high school running tracks to Olympic arenas as lawmakers and sports bodies face intense pressure to weigh in on a debate over what fair play looks like. Although few trans athletes have reached elite levels of sports competition and even fewer have taken home top prizes, the success of a small group of trans women – particularly NCAA swimmer Lia Thomas – has fueled an increasingly vocal movement to ban trans women and girls from participating on teams consistent with their gender identity. Since 2020, more than half of US states have implemented bans on trans athlete participation. President Donald Trump has brought the effort to the White House, issuing an executive order aimed at eradicating trans women and girls from participation in women's sports and punishing institutions that are inclusive of trans athletes. Earlier this week, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California over the participation of a high school track and field athlete. Opponents argue that adult transgender women – even those who have undergone treatment to lower their testosterone levels – retain unfair physical advantages after puberty that would deprive cisgender women of opportunities to succeed. Trans athletes and advocates, in turn, point to a lack of consistent, conclusive research to support this claim and the wide-reaching bans it's led to. They say trans people deserve the right to compete alongside their peers and reap the proven social, physical and mental benefits of sports. Research on trans people's athletic performance is scarce, and there have been no large-scale scientific studies on the topic or on how hormone therapies may affect their performance in specific sport categories, such as running or wrestling. And although existing research hints at how puberty and hormone therapy may affect a person's physical abilities, some experts say that far more data is needed to make confident conclusions about whether trans people in general hold advantages in their respective sports. Even among cisgender athletes, bodies and physical abilities vary widely, and traits that may be an advantage in one sport – such as grip strength or bone density – may not be an advantage in others. Even so, the fraught environment has driven sports bodies such as the NCAA to reverse its previous trans-inclusive policies and effectively ban trans women from women's sports, while still allowing trans men to play on men's teams. Here is what the research does – and doesn't – tell us about trans athletes. Complicating this debate is a lack of reliable data on how prevalent trans athletes are, whether in recreational youth sports or in cutthroat international competition. This has led advocacy groups on both sides to make wide-ranging and often conflicting estimates. In the most competitive arenas, however, figures indicate that transgender people make up a sliver of participating athletes and rarely take top prizes. Since the International Olympic Committee began permitting trans and nonbinary athletes to participate openly in 2003, fewer than a dozen have qualified. Most have competed on the team consistent with their gender assigned at birth, choosing to forgo hormone replacement therapy in order to qualify for competition, including nonbinary Team USA track and field athletes Nikki Hiltz and Raven Saunders. Only one out trans woman, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, has qualified for the Olympics, and she failed to complete a single lift. In US college and university athletics, top leagues have struggled to quantify trans athletes even as they craft policies banning most trans women from competing in women's categories. NCAA President Charlie Baker testified before the US Senate last year that he was aware of 'less than 10' transgender athletes competing in the league – a number amounting to less than .002% of its athletes. And when the NAIA, a smaller college association, effectively banned trans women from participating in most of its categories last year, a spokesperson told the Washington Post that it does not track whether any trans athletes participate on its teams. More than half of US states also have laws banning school-age trans students from competing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. The Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law, estimates that as many as 122,000 trans youth age 13 to 17 could be participating in high school sports. It is unclear, however, how many play on the team that aligns with their gender identity, as many of them presumably live in states with bans in place. Puberty that is masculinizing can give an athlete substantial physical advantages, experts say. The difference-maker is testosterone, a sex hormone essential to male development. Every body produces testosterone, regardless of sex – even in the womb. For cisgender women, testosterone generally affects bone and muscle health, mood and energy, the menstrual cycle and fertility as well as libido. For cisgender men, it does many of the same things but also helps develop secondary sex characteristics. Some small studies have shown that when boys are exposed to higher levels of the hormone in the womb, it may confer a slight athletic advantage later on, but more research is needed. The real advantages come with puberty, said Dr. Bradley Anawalt, an endocrinologist with the University of Washington who has advised the NCAA. 'For practical purposes, prepubescent boys and girls, before age 10 or 11, they can pretty much compete in the same sports, and there's not big differences in size, power, speed,' Anawalt said. 'But at the time of puberty, when boys have their testosterone concentrations skyrocket in the blood, then you start to get significant differences between boys, girls, men, young women.' In childhood, boys' and girls' bodies and physical abilities are quite similar, experts say. When puberty begins, about age 11, a boy's testes will produce 30 times more testosterone than they did previously. Levels of circulating testosterone will then exceed that of females of any age by 15-fold, research shows. Exposure to high levels of testosterone spurs growth that may create an athletic advantage if a person does not undergo hormone therapies to limit its effects. A masculinizing puberty leads to thicker bones, more height, higher muscle mass, greater muscle strength, larger aerobic capacity and an increase in hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to working muscles, which is important for endurance. 'All of these characteristics lead to very, very substantial advantages in sports, and that is regardless of your gender identity or how you were identified at birth,' said Dr. Joanna Harper, a postdoctoral scientist researching transgender athletes in Oregon who has advised several sports' governing bodies, including the IOC. 'This applies to both transgender and intersex women who may have undergone this testosterone-filled masculinizing puberty.' The advantage that a masculinizing puberty may have on athletic performance depends on the sport, said Dr. Ada Cheung, an endocrinologist who has written extensively about trans athletes and has advised several sports organizations. 'Using upper-body strength as an example, there tends to be a rate of difference. So things like baseball pitching, the difference in speed, there may be a 40% to 50% difference. But if you are looking at something like swimming or rowing, it might be like a 10% difference,' said Cheung, a professional fellow in endocrinology at Melbourne Medical School. 'Understanding physical difference requires some nuance, though.' Cheung said sex differences also cannot account for all the varying abilities in sport. An individual's sex won't determine their success or failure in athletic competition, and trans athletes' abilities vary just like those of cisgender athletes. 'There are many, many differences in humans, regardless of gender, that give people athletic advantages,' she said, such as taller height, a greater wingspan, a higher proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers or more flexibility. An athlete will also have an advantage with more access to training or better nutrition. 'It's hard to put the diversity of human experience into just two boxes,' Cheung said. Gender-affirming hormone therapy is a medical treatment that uses hormones to help people align their physical characteristics with their gender identity. For trans women, it includes estrogen plus a testosterone blocker. Although a masculinizing puberty may confer advantages, an October 2023 review of trans women who seek out such therapy said that many of the advantages are 'reduced, if not erased, over time' if they undergo gender-affirming hormone therapy. Trans women who undergo gender-affirming hormone therapy see a significant decline in their athletic abilities, Harper said. She conducted a 2015 study of eight trans runners and found that they did better than cisgender women before hormone therapy; after, they were about the same. The rate at which different aspects of trans women's bodies change varies. Within just three or four months of starting gender-affirming hormone therapy, trans women's hemoglobin will fall from typical male to typical female values. After two years, a study of nonathletic people showed. there's no significant advantage for physical performance measured by running time in trans women. By four years, there was no advantage in sit-ups, either. Push-up performance also declined in trans woman, but they had a statistical advantage relative to cis women. As far as muscle strength and muscle mass, trans women experience reductions in both after hormone therapy, research shows. But it's a slower process than with something like hemoglobin, Harper said, and it's unclear how much strength they lose even with hormone therapy. More research is needed to pinpoint that answer, she said. 'In absolute sense, trans women will still be stronger than cisgender or typical women, even after a prolonged period of testosterone suppression, even after adjusting for weight, though a trans woman will have more muscle mass for about one to three years after testosterone has been suppressed,' Harper said. Cisgender women may even have a small advantage over trans women in sports in that trans women lose muscle strength, but their larger bones and bigger height stay the same, so their bodies have to work harder to move. Cheung said the general thinking is that after about two years or more of testosterone suppression and estradiol treatments, a transgender woman's physical performance should be 'quite similar' to a cisgender woman's, although more rigorous research is necessary to be completely sure. Studies on members of the military found that trans women's physical performance declined when they went on hormone treatment. In a 2021 study of 46 trans women in the US Air Force, they performed 31% more pushups and 15% more sit-ups in one minute and ran 1½ miles 21% faster than cis women before they started hormone therapy. After two years of hormones, the pushup and sit-up differences disappeared, although the trans women were still 12% faster. A 2022 study of 228 trans women in the US Air Force found that they had had worse performance in push-ups compared with cisgender men, but with little difference in sit-ups or run times, before starting hormone therapy. The trans women performed significantly better than cisgender women after one year of hormone therapy. At two years, trans women and cis women had equivalent run times. At three years, sit-ups were at the same level. Trans women still did better with push-ups even at the four-year end point. However, it isn't clear that the results of those studies would be borne out in civilian athletic competition. Facing immense pressure from activist groups, athletes and politicians, sports associations are trying to craft policies for trans athletes without significant data on how they perform in their specific categories, such as soccer or basketball. 'If you're trying to be 'fair' – however fair is defined – then you need to look at individual athletic activities directly,' Dr. Joshua Safer, executive director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, told CNN last year. 'It would be a matter of taking transgender people who participate in sports and looking at them before and after some of their treatments and really measuring differences, especially in common sports.' Such studies may be especially difficult to carry out, given how few elite trans athletes are in each sport, Safer said. But some researchers have also pointed out that while science plays an important role, the question at the heart of the debate is a cultural one: What does fairness look like – and is the playing field ever truly fair? 'This is that social justice issue where science is just not going to satisfy everybody,' Anawalt told UW Medicine in 2023. 'I worry that scientific facts will be used to bludgeon each other and that we won't come to a consensus because our feelings are so heightened.' He believes that no amount of research will be able to deliver criteria that will satisfy all athletes. 'No matter how much science you throw into this, you're going to still be left with people asking questions, 'Well, what about this? What about that?'' Anawalt told CNN. 'It's just going to come down to us making some decisions about what we think is fair and what's not fair. 'It is an opportunity to ask the question: What really is the importance of sports?'
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
DOJ investigating California for potential Title IX violations over trans athlete policies
The Brief The DOJ is investigating California for potential Title IX violations because of its policies regarding transgender athletes in sports. This weekend, a transgender athlete will compete in the state track and field championship. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from California if the state allows that student to compete. JURUPA VALLEY, Calif. - The U.S. Department of Justice announced a new investigation in California to determine whether the state is violating Title IX by allowing trans athletes to compete in girls' sports. "By allowing a boy to go on the girls' team is a violation of Title IX," said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. What we know On Wednesday, Essayli and the Justice Department launched an investigation over possible Title IX violations in Jurupa Valley, and a trans athlete taking first place in girls track in field events. "Title IX is clear, you cannot discriminate based on sex," said Essayli. The federal offices are also joining an ongoing lawsuit against Riverside Unified School District after a trans athlete displaced a girl for a varsity spot on a high school cross-country team. SUGGESTED: Students, parents react to California's transgender high school sports controversy Currently, California law requires schools to allow transgender athletes to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. t What they're saying "Everyone [in these California cases] is violating [Title IX]," said Essaylli. "The school district is violating it, CIF, and the state law is violating it." Later this week, AB Hernandez, a transgender athlete at Jurupa Valley High School, will compete in several events at the track and field state championship. Hernandez has been the center of the Title IX debate in recent weeks and spoke with "Capital & Main" about the backlash at meets. "I'm still a child and you're an adult," Hernandez told Capital and Main News. "For you to act like a child, shows how you are as a person. There's nothing I can do about peoples' actions, just focus on my own." The backstory In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning trans athletes from competing in girls' sports. Then on Tuesday, he posted a lengthy message to Truth Social referencing the Hernandez case without mentioning a name. In the post, Trump threatened to stop federal funding in California if Hernandez competes this week in the state finals. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Trump threatens to cut California's federal funding over transgender athlete controversy Following Trump's post, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) changed the rules ahead of this week's track and field state championship. On Wednesday CIF told FOX 11, if a trans athlete wins an event at this week's championship they'll receive a gold, as will the first biological female. "That's strange and doesn't solve the problem," said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillion. "The problem is a boy being allowed to compete against girls." According to Dhillion, the new Title IX investigation in California could set a precedent for 21 other states with similar trans athlete laws. "You look at why Title IX was ever needed," said Dhillion. "It was needed so girls could have an equal opportunity to compete. They don't have an equal opportunity to compete when boys are competing against girls." The Source Information in this story is from U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the California Interscholastic Federation, an interview AB Hernandez gave to "Capital & Main," and U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillion.
