It's indoor track and field season in America's cold-weather climates, and in Connecticut, it's another opportunity for boys identifying as girls to dominate the sprints in state competition. Just as they have in past outdoor seasons. With their bigger muscles, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood (appearing in photo) finished 1-2 in the 55-meter sprint, dusting the real girls and reigniting the debate about the claims of unfairness that retired tennis star Martina Navratilova got pilloried for recently.
Navratilova has been soundly bashed for a guest column she wrote in the Feb. 17 issue of The Sunday Times of London complaining about men winning women's sports events. The Nation, Outsports and The New York Daily News ran posts highly sympathetic to transgender athletes and their LGBT supporters. An LGBT group called Athlete Ally released this statement:
"Martina Navratilova’s recent comments on trans athletes are transphobic, based on a false understanding of science and data, and perpetuate dangerous myths that lead to the ongoing targeting of trans people through discriminatory laws, hateful stereotypes and disproportionate violence."
Cyd Zeigler, founder of Outsports, hit a literary forehand smash at Navratilova as well:
"But the notion that trans women in sports are all cheaters who can’t be beaten ignores history and science. Sadly Martina has now found one area where she agrees completely with the very Trump supporters she has spent most of her last three years attacking as misinformed and dangerous.”
The Nation's Dave Zirin blindly agreed. "The reality is that there is no scientific data showing that trans women are more likely to be successful in women’s sports." Okay so maybe those Connecticut boys are the exceptions to established science?
New York Daily News writer David Cray jumped into the transgender debate with a lengthy story largely sympathetic to the LGBT: "Transgender athletes making great gains, yet some resentment still linger." He raves that, "Across the U.S. and in many places abroad, transgender athletes are breaking barriers in high school, college and pro sports and being embraced by teammates and fans. But resentments can still flare when transgender women start winning and dominating their sport." Resentments apparently only flare because of bigotry, not because males have physical advantages over females.
Cray further cites how supporters of increased trans inclusion are heartened by the pace of progress for trans athletes, and a growing number of state high school athletic associations in the U.S. enable them to play on teams based on their gender identity. "The NCAA's policy on transgender participation is generally praised by activists," although some say numerous colleges don't follow the rules rigorously. Additionally, transgender triathlete "Chris Mosier is pleased by the trend among high school athletic associations toward more inclusivity."
The New York Daily News also gives space to trans supporters complaining about their opponents. Helen Carroll, a former college coach and athletic director, now an LGBT-rights activist, said trans women athletes train extra hard to off-set hormone treatment and face undeserved skepticism when they excel:
"As long as trans people are losing and are not the best, everything is OK. As soon as they start winning, that's when the vitriol comes out about how they're really still a man."
Cray accepts the premise that it's "vitriol," not fair-minded opposition. In Connecticut, the dominance of Miller and Yearwood has stirred resentment among some competitors and their families. Imagine that: resentment among the girls watching these two boys take their medals. Call it bad sportsmanship by sore losers.
The organization USA Powerlifting is speaking "heresy" in the politically correct climate trying to excuse away men muscling their way into women's sports. But no legitimacy is given to USA Powerlifting's policy banning trans women from competitions because they merely "contend" that males' have significant advantages in bone density and muscle mass. Cray says the organization "has incurred recent criticism for sticking by its policy of banning trans women from its competitions.''
In the examples of media coverage cited above, gender bending is "science," and the policies of USA Powerlifting are contentions.
