I first noticed in 2013 that The Establishment (e.g., the Obama Administration, the New York Times, big NGOs, etc.) were gearing up in a coordinated fashion to make transgenderism their next massive push after the success in the courts of their gay marriage project. I’ve always wondered how these kind of multi-front offensives are planned and pulled off, but the press has shown extremely little interest in such subjects, preferring to give the impression that the reason they are suddenly running all these articles about how it’s shockingly discriminatory that an ex-man cage fighter isn’t allowed to beat up women for money is because that’s what’s in the news. Why do you ask, anyway? Are you a transphobe?
In the New York Times news section, the Times is shocked, shocked that after only eight years of World War T onslaught, conservatives are now starting to get themselves organized around the popular issue of saving girl’s high school sports from boys in skirts.
Why Transgender Girls Are Suddenly the G.O.P.’s New Target
Lawmakers in a growing number of Republican-led states are advancing and passing bills to bar transgender athletes in girls’ sports, a culture clash that seems to have come out of nowhere.
By Jeremy W. Peters
March 29, 2021The last time Republicans in South Dakota made a serious push to bar transgender girls from school sports, in 2019, their bill was known only by its nondescript numerical title, Senate Bill 49. Its two main sponsors were men. And it died without ever getting out of committee, just 10 days after it was introduced.
But when Republicans decided to try again in January, they were far more strategic in their approach. The sponsors this time were two women who modeled their bill after a template provided by a conservative legal organization. They gave the bill a name that suggested noble intent: the “act to promote continued fairness in women’s sports.” Supporters from Minnesota and Idaho traveled to the Capitol in Pierre to testify that a new law was urgently needed to keep anyone with male biological characteristics out of female competitions, even though they acknowledged only a handful of examples of that happening in South Dakota.
“These efforts appear to be far more slick, and far more organized,” said Elizabeth A. Skarin of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, which opposes the bill. “Anytime they give a bill a name in South Dakota,” she added, “you know something’s up.”Then things took an unexpected turn. Gov. Kristi Noem, who is seen as a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, demanded changes to the bill. The response was swift and harsh: Social conservative activists and Republican lawmakers accused Ms. Noem of bowing to pressure from business and athletics organizations, which have been successful at stopping laws in other states that single out transgender people for exclusion and feed ugly stereotypes. On Monday, the legislature rejected her changes, setting up a showdown that could drag out for several days.
South Dakota is just one of a growing number of states where Republicans are diving into a culture war clash that seems to have come out of nowhere. It has been brought about by a coordinated and poll-tested campaign by social conservative organizations like the American Principles Project and Concerned Women for America, which say they are determined to move forward with what may be one of their last footholds in the fight against expanding L.G.B.T.Q. rights.
Three other states have passed bills this month that resemble South Dakota’s. In Mississippi and Arkansas, they are set to become law this summer. And similar bills have been introduced by Republicans in two dozen other states, including North Carolina, where an unpopular “bathroom bill” enacted in 2016 prompted costly boycotts and led conservatives nationwide to pull back on efforts to restrict rights for transgender people.
“You make change in our society by making laws, and luckily we have some great states that have stepped up,” said Beth Stelzer, the founder of a new organization, Save Women’s Sports, that she said opposes “demolishing women’s sports for the sake of feelings.” Ms. Stelzer, an amateur power lifter who was in North Carolina this week for the bill introduction, has also testified in support of new laws in South Dakota, Montana and Arkansas.
But the idea that there is a sudden influx of transgender competitors who are dominating women’s and girls’ sports does not reflect reality — in high school, college or professionally. Sports associations like the N.C.A.A., which has promoted the inclusion of transgender athletes, have policies in place to address concerns about physical differences in male and female biology. The N.C.A.A., requires athletes who are transitioning to female to be on testosterone suppression treatment for a year before they can compete on a women’s team.
Ms. Stelzer, who competes in a weight lifting league that does not allow transgender women to participate, says the point is to get ahead of what she and other activists believe will become a bigger issue. “We’re nipping it in the bud,” she said.
“The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils.”
In high school sports, policies vary widely. Some states pose no barriers to transgender athletes; some have policies similar to those of the N.C.A.A. and others have outright bans or demand that students verify their sex if questioned.
Rarely has an issue that so few people encounter — and one that public opinion analysts have only recently begun to study in depth — become a political and cultural flash point so quickly. The lack of awareness creates an environment in which the real impact of transgender participation in sports can be overshadowed by hyperbole.
But the debate also raises questions — that ethicists, lawmakers and the courts are only beginning to address — about whether the decades-long effort to give women and girls equal opportunities in sports is compatible with efforts to give transgender people equal opportunities in life. A lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut brought by three high school runners who lost in competition against transgender girls will be among the first to test how nondiscrimination laws apply.A mix of factors has helped social conservatives breathe new life into the issue: activists who agreed to give up on unpopular bills regulating public bathrooms; an awareness that women, not men, could be more persuasive and sympathetic advocates; a new Democratic administration that quickly moved to broaden and restore rights for transgender people that the Trump administration had eliminated; and a political and media culture on the right that often reduces the nuanced issue of gender identity to a punchline about political correctness.
Activists who have been fighting the anti-transgender efforts say the focus on school athletics is creating a false and misplaced perception of victimization.
“There’s a sense that there’s a victim of transness,” said Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U., which was successful in temporarily blocking the implementation of a transgender athlete ban in Idaho last year.
“What we have is a speculative fear of something that hasn’t materialized,” Mr. Strangio, who is a transgender man, added. “They’re acting like LeBron James is going to put on a wig and play basketball with fourth graders. And not one LeBron James, 100. In reality, you’re talking about little kids who just want to play rec sports. They just want to get through life.”In fact, studies have shown that the majority of transgender students report feeling unsafe at school.
Didn’t you vaguely allude previously to ex-men dominating the Connecticut girls’ state track final in track? Two ex-boys smoked the actually female field in the 100m and 200m state finals, so the girls who got stuck with third thru fifth have sued.
But the isolated instances that have been filmed or generated headlines — female weight lifting records being broken by a new transgender competitor, for example — make for viral content, bolstered by media personalities with huge followings like Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan.
The issue is much more widely covered in conservative media — and often presented with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
Sacralism, not sarcasm, is the only tolerable attitude toward our Holy Eunuchs. They represent humanity’s highest aspirations: sterility, self-fulfillment, humiliating other people by forcing them to participate in your mental illness, and lots of social media likes.
