A Week in the War on Women: Monday 14th March - Sunday 20th March GOOD NEWS SUPPLEMENT
Special Swimming Edition!
Plenty to gladden the heart on the gender beat this week; events unfolding at the Forstater tribunal, the legend that is Ben Cooper QC, Ireland’s Transgender Equality Network having to admit culpability over its ‘accounting irregularities’ and this belter from Private Eye…
However, this week’s edition of the GNS focuses entirely on the NCAA Division 1 Women's Swimming & Diving Championships which were held in Atlanta.
No Thank You
A show of strength as Save Women’s Sports protested the inclusion of trans-identified male, Lia Thomas.
In attendance were several current and former NCAA women athletes and many well-known women’s rights campaigners, including Amy Sousa, Coach Linda Blade, Kellie-Jay Keen (aka Posie Parker) and Beth Stelzer, founder of Save Women’s Sports, to name but a few.
There were also a number of male allies in attendance including former Olympic coach, Robert Fawcett.
And evolutionary biologist and journalist, Colin Wright.
Enjoy the moment Kellie-Jay Keen pointed out the bleedin’ obvious.
Speaking of which, her appearance at the NCAA Championships made the papers.
Second Is The New First
Lia Thomas may have stolen the first place in the 500 freestyle but the moral winner was obvious to most and people have been making their feelings known.
During the prelims, Thomas wasn’t cheered as he finished. The crowd saved its praise for the women finishing in 2nd and 3rd place.
As The Washington Times reported, “Thomas won the title but not the crowd. The swimmer drew polite applause on the podium, while Virginia freshman Emma Weyant, the second-place finisher with a time of 4:34.99, was greeted with loud, enthusiastic cheers.”
“Weyant was the crowd favourite. She received the lion’s share of cheers at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center. Her name also trended on social media as critics of rules allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports declared Weyant the ‘real winner’”.
Solidarity and much kudos to Reka Gyorgy, the brave young woman who lost her place in the final to Lia Williams. She wrote to the NCAA to protest his inclusion in the women’s team and express her feelings.
Lia Peaks The World
Thomas’s so-called victory is drawing the attention of the world to the inherent problems of gender identity ideology.
Fox News reported on the outrage expressed on social media over this ‘Slap in the face to women and girls’.
Felipe Delgado, a father whose daughter lost against Lia Thomas, spoke out in The Post Millennial.
“Standing up for the integrity of women’s sports does not make one transphobic. Women’s sports have come so far just to be thrown right back into question, and that’s what needs to be changed.”
The Economist nailed its colours to the mast with an article which details the physical advantages enjoyed by trans-identified males, even after testosterone suppression, and concludes that their inclusion in women’s sports is unfair.
“Thomas was born male. Since humans cannot change their sex (unlike their self-identified gender), she remains that way… This newspaper believes it is almost always unfair to allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports. The advantages bestowed by male puberty are so big that no amount of training or talent can enable female athletes to overcome them.”
There was a great article written by former Olympic medalist, Sharron Davies, in The Daily Mail.
“The only truly fair solution is to create a protected biological female category, and an open, welcoming and inclusive category where trans women and trans men can compete. I do not want to see trans athletes excluded. I never have… I have always wanted fair sport for females — they must have an equal chance of success in sport, where physiology is vital to performance. Bodies do sport, not feelings.”
Sharron Davies also spoke on Sky News, outlining the overwhelming physical advantages trans-identified males retain over women.
And fair play to another former Olympian for defending women’s sports and putting Pink News in its place. We might not agree with him on much else, but he’s certainly right about this.
A 6’4” male swimmer might have peaked the world! Who knew 😂
TBH, I'm a bit fed up with just cartoons from Private Eye. They should be all over this: so much about lobbying; Civil Servants over-stepping; politicians from all parties making absolute fools of themselves. They also, regarding children and puberty blockers, have a chance to make up for their woeful stance on Andrew Wakefield and The MMR nonsense