A new activism email addressing a transphobic article [Note: Content Warning - links to reports on, and discussion of, bigotry/hate. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

 

I sent this off to my state and national MPs this morning: 

Dear Members of Parliament,

I wish to point the transphobic aspects of an article arguing against transwomen's inclusion in elite sports. The article can be found at https://theconversation.com/many-sports-are-tightening-their-transgender-policies-can-inclusion-co-exist-with-fairness-physical-safety-and-integrity-231597, and the concerns I have (and have advised to The Conversation), are:

• inadequate consideration of whether the characteristics being examined actually result in actual benefits; 

• the consistent and incorrect conflation of cismale (no female hormones) and transwoman (often years of female hormones) - not to mention those trans people who transition early with puberty blockers and thus do not have the physical characteristics being discussed; 

• the range of ciswomen's physical characteristics - which means many ciswomen elite athletes may be well above the average (there is a photo of US ciswomen basketball athletes standing beside a team of ciswomen basketballers from another nation which well illustrates that), 

• the issue of safety (including from "othering", harassment and assault) of transwomen - which is likely to be worsened by this article (the safety of transwomen should be of equal consideration); and 

• that the "open" category could only be fair if it includes at least three categories and thus is utterly nonsensical.

In addition, this article is likely to have a chilling effect on transwomen participating in sport, as it will encourage transphobes at the non-elite level, and thus increase hostility towards transwomen.

I am appalled that this article slipped through The Conversation's editing processes, and am concerned that it might be given ANY consideration.

A follow up email added the following: 

Dear Members of Parliament, 

Two additional points should be noted as well: 

• Firstly, the utterly ludicrous and clearly transphobic ban by CHESS; and

• Secondly: “Transgender Athletes Could Be At A Physical Disadvantage, New Research Shows”   https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindseyedarvin/2024/04/25/transgender-athletes-could-be-at-a-physical-disadvantage-new-research-shows/      
  

PS - I subsequently found out that the transphobe who wrote the article is a known gender critical - which is a movement that has been identified as genocidal by the Lemkin Institute, which is named after Raphael  Lemkin, who invented the word genocide. Has I known that at the time, I would have included the following links/information (and I may yet forward it to them): 

“Statement on the Genocidal Nature of the Gender Critical Movement’s Ideology and Practice”   https://www.lemkininstitute.com/statements-new-page/statement-on-the-genocidal-nature-of-the-gender-critical-movement%E2%80%99s-ideology-and-practice      

which is from   “Vindication of my opinion that we are in a transgenocide, and a deep backgrounder on the anti-trans movement”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/04/vindication-of-my-opinion-that-we-are.html      

Also see: 

• “A transgenocide [Note: Content Warning] is underway”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/02/a-transgenocide-is-underway.html      

• “[Content Warning] stochastic t_rr_r_sm”   https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2024/03/content-warning-stochastic-trrrsm.html      

• “LGBTQIASB+”   https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2022/02/lgbtiq.html   and      

• “[Content Warning] bigots / bigotry”   https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2021/09/bigots-bigotry.html     
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below. 

Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/