Most of the time you only hear the negative but many time those who support us are not carried by the mainstream news agencies don’t carry the pro-trans article.
Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, and more urge NCAA to stand up for trans inclusion
They and hundreds of others have signed on to a pro-inclusion letter.The AdvocateBy TRUDY RINGAPRIL 24 2024Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, and other sports stars are urging the National Collegiate Athletic Association to allow transgender athletes to compete under their gender identity.The NCAA last revised its policy on trans athletes in 2022. For a decade previously, it allowed trans women who’ve completed a year of testosterone suppression treatment to compete alongside cisgender women. The change in 2022 let the governing body for each sport to set standards on testosterone levels.Now, after another college athletic association barred all trans women from participating in women’s sports, the star athletes and others are calling on the NCAA to stand up for inclusion. More than over 400 current and former NCAA, professional, Olympic, and Paralympic athletes sent an open letter expressing that sentiment to the NCAA Board of Governors, which is having a virtual meeting Thursday. It’s not clear if the trans policy is on the agenda, but “the end of April and beginning of May is typically a key rules-making period for the NCAA,” The Washington Post reports. The NCAA will also hold its annual inclusion forum this week.“To deny transgender athletes the fundamental right to be who they are, to access the sport they love, and to receive the proven mental and physical health benefits of sport goes against the very principles of the NCAA’s Constitution,” says the letter. Its more well-known signers include WNBA coach Cheryl Reeve, soccer champion Megan Rapinoe, trans male swimmer Schuyler Bailar, and WNBA players Bird, Layshia Clarendon, and Brianna Turner.[…]The letter continues, “Within the context of broad legislative attacks on the rights of trans people in the United States, opposition to trans athletes is driven by certain politicians who seek to control our bodies, not by science or data. Although trans exclusionary efforts claim to ‘protect women’s sports,’ in reality, they fail to address any of the real, documented threats to women in sports, namely unequal pay, failure to uphold Title IX, rampant sexual abuse and harassment of women and girl athletes, and a lack of equal resources for men’s and women’s teams (as we saw in March Madness tournaments just three years ago).”
They are so right! “...opposition to trans athletes is driven by certain politicians who seek to control our bodies, not by science or data.”
Most people have no idea about what the research actually says, they just go by “Boy playing on girls teams” and they just parrot the Republican propaganda.
“Despite claims by those suing the NCAA over trans inclusion, studies used to justify the exclusion of transgender athletes are methodologically flawed and misinterpreted to further discrimination,” the missive goes on. “In fact, the most current scientific review of transgender women in elite sport (published in 2022 by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES)) underscores that transgender women do not have an advantage over cis women in sport.”
There is a law suit here in Connecticut about trans people playing in sports, the courts found in favor of the trans athletes, NBC News reported…
The case had been dismissed by a Connecticut judge in 2021, and that decision was affirmed by three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit a year ago.
But on appeal Reuters reported that,
A U.S. appeals court on Friday revived a lawsuit by female former high school track team members challenging a Connecticut policy that allows transgender girls to compete on girls' teams.The full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the four women could pursue claims that the policy deprived them of wins and athletic opportunities by requiring them to compete with two transgender sprinters.
And so it continues, our Human Rights are at the mercy of judges.
"...Prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…"
The Republicans only think that their views are permissible, that all other speech should be repressed!
There’s a reason House Speaker Mike Johnson is wrongly describing Columbia’s protests as violent.MSNBCBy Zeeshan AleemApril 26, 2024House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia University’s campus on Wednesday afternoon and said he would demand that President Joe Biden intervene in pro-Palestinian protests that have taken place on campus for over a week — including by potentially calling in the National Guard to dismantle encampments. His statement echoed calls from his Republican colleagues Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who have already asked for the National Guard to be sent in to clear out the protesters. (Cotton has also, in a now-deleted social media post, suggested that people should violently confront pro-Palestinian protesters on the streets.)These Republicans’ calls for troops to be sent in to repress peaceful student protests are incredibly chilling. They also reflect the GOP’s generally extreme attitudes on the Israel-Hamas war and intolerance of rhetoric remotely critical of Israel. For Johnson, trying to seize control of a wedge issue for Democrats using aggressive law-and-order rhetoric also provides a convenient opportunity for political stagecraft as he faces internal dissent in the House.
Did you get the part where they said “...repress peaceful student protests…?”
The Republicans just don’t care First Amendment Rights only when it is in their favor. They just want to repress people and ideas they don’t like.
Friday I wrote, “Have we learned anything yet?” about Kent State in 1970 the Republicans want a repeat of that to prove to their right-wing base that they are tough on protesters. What is even more worrying is that the base agree with bringing the Guard to bash heads.
