Banned!

No not books.

No not drag queens.

But us and it is in all thing Chess, yup you saw that right we can’t play chess.

World chess federation bars transgender women from competing in women’s events

AP News

By Jamey Keaten

August 17, 2023

The world’s top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for females until an assessment of gender change is made by its officials.

The decision by Lausanne, Switzerland-based federation FIDE was published on Monday and has drawn criticism from advocacy groups and supporters of transgender rights.

FIDE said it and its member federations increasingly have received recognition requests from players who identify as transgender, and that the participation of transgender women would depend on an analysis of individual cases that could take up to two years.

“Change of gender is a change that has a significant impact on a player’s status and future eligibility to tournaments, therefore it can only be made if there is a relevant proof of the change provided,” the federation said.

Um… it must be because of our superior strength in lifting those chess pieces. Yay, that’s it those chess pieces are Soo… heavy!

“In the event that the gender was changed from a male to a female the player has no right to participate in official FIDE events for women until further FIDE’s decision is made,” it said.

Holders of women’s titles who change their genders to male would see those titles “abolished,” the federation said, while holding out the possibility of a reinstatement “if the person changes the gender back to a woman.”

“If a player has changed the gender from a man into a woman, all the previous titles remain eligible,” the federation said.

Hold it! Hold it! There are men’s and women’s titles in chess? Why? Are women so much smarter then men that they need a separate division between them?

Word of the decision comes as the federation is hosting a World Cup event in Azerbaijan where top players including No. 1-ranked Grand Master Magnus Carlsen of Norway are attending.

The federation has open competitions that allow all players to take part, as well as specialized categories, such as for women, young players and even computers.

I can see a separate category for computers but for women and children… why? But if you have a Grand Master shouldn’t it be against all takers? There are some young players who can beat the socks off of older players.

Forbes wrote,

The FIDE hosts several major chess tournaments each year, including the World Chess Championship, which allows both men and women players to compete. The body also hosts a separate Women’s World Championship, though there is no male equivalent. Alexey Root, who won the U.S. women’s championship in 1989, said the decision is because a “smaller base of females means fewer women than men at the top of the chess rating list.” Most chess organizations have not implemented policies for transgender athletes, though the U.S. Chess Federation said in 2018 it would allow “a person to identity as they choose.”

Hmm... so they are saying it is to get more women champions? Isn't that kind of condescending to women?

The article in the Washington Post said,

But “there’s not that physicality dimension to chess, it’s a game of strategy,” said Richard Pringle, a professor of sociology and education who studies gender and sexuality in the context of sport at Monash University in Australia.

“It suggests that males are somehow strategically better. … It’s not just transphobic, it’s anti-feminist too,” he said of the ban, adding that it was “likely a political decision rather than an issue of fairness.”

Yeah I can see where it being anti-feminist why have separate categories for women?

Pink News said,

The toxic, pseudoscientific ‘debate’ around trans folks jeopardising women’s sports makes even less sense in chess, where the power of the human brain reigns supreme over physicality, and where they now find themselves excluded.

[...]

The policy is part of a familiar anti-trans dogwhistle line of thinking that LGBTQ+ folks have been seeing for years. It is thinly veiled bigotry that seeks to bar trans women from competing in women’s categories. 

These bans argue there’s a disparity in physicality and that trans women have an alleged unfair advantage over cis women. 

[...]

The argument that trans women have a so-called ‘advantage’ in physical sports holds even less water in the realm of chess, where physicality has little to no place in tournaments. Chess is a game of strategy and requires immense intellectual fortitude to think quickly under pressure. 

Unless this is the real reason, it is just a thought… according to an old article on Human Rights Watch website,

Azerbaijan: Anti-Gay Crackdown

Gay Men, Transgender Women Tortured to Extort Money, Intelligence

Police in Azerbaijan have conducted a violent campaign, arresting and torturing men presumed to be gay or bisexual, as well as transgender women, Human Rights Watch said today.

 

Human Rights Watch interviews with released detainees and lawyers confirmed that since mid-September, police in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, have detained dozens of people on dubious charges, beating and using electric shocks on some of them to coerce bribes and information about other gay men. Government officials have not denied the crackdown, and have instead attempted to justify it on spurious morality and public health grounds.

Is it because of appeasement?

Did they rule against us because of political pressure to keep us out of the country? Did government official give them incentives not to include us?

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This afternoon I am at the Governor's hate crime advisory council meeting where we are having a guest speaker, a Holocaust survivor followed by a discussion on the attack of Representative Kahn and concerns of Muslim community. I am looking forward to hearing him and the discussion afterward.