Identifying as a Champion

 

From the June 4th Danbury (CT) News-Times coverage of the Connecticut Girls Track Championships:

“Terry Miller of Bulkeley won the 100 meters in 11.72 seconds, beating the previous State Open record, set in 2004 by Shanea Calhoun of Wilbur Cross, by one-tenth of a second. She also won the 200 in 24.17 seconds, breaking thye (sic) previous State Open record of 24.24, which was set in 1997 by Shayla Wallace of Northwest Catholic. Miller also placed fourth in the 400 (57.61).”

Sounds like a pretty straight forward report, doesn’t it? Except for one thing. Terry Miller is a boy. He has the body of a boy. The entire body of a boy. He says he psychologically identifies as female but he has not undergone either hormone treatments or reassignment surgery.

Miller competed on the boys team during the indoor season this winter. And this is the second year in a row that the girls 100 and 200 meter races have been won by boys.

The Executive Director of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Karissa Niehoff was quoted in The Connecticut Post as saying, “A lot of people have asked, can you run a separate race, can you put an asterisk next to their name, do something that shows there is a standard that is different from that? When you get into that playing out, you have got civil rights issues.

“Then within the same gender, you are taking one population of the gender and you’re separating them and creating another class. That’s what Title IX speaks to. That’s what Office of Civil Rights guidelines speak to. You cannot discriminate based on gender. And in our case in Connecticut, gender is gender identity.”

That is the law in Connecticut. Once a child decides it wants to be something its not the adults are required to play along. Records must be altered to reflect the lie. And the press is willing to spread and protect the lie, too. The Hartford Courant explained their lack of truth thusly:

“First, there are no rules being broken… Second, the big picture issue here is the policy and the standards, not any individual athlete… Third, and this is critical — we are talking about teenagers here, not professional athletes.

Last, there are those who argue we are ignoring the fact that a transgender girl may have an “unfair” advantage. But what is fair or unfair in sports is, to a degree, subjective. Tall people have an advantage on the basketball court. Athletes whose parents can afford to send them to year-round training have a clear-cut advantage in soccer, tennis and other sports. Our notions of what is fair and unfair are often driven by our own frames of reference.”

See? We changed the rules so everything is ok to begin with. And you don’t get to tell us what’s fair or unfair. That’s just your flawed “frame of reference.”

Canadian journalist Jonathan Kay tweeted out, “Another example of how trans women aren’t letting transphobia prevent them from destroying the competition in athletics. In this case, trans women grabbed 1st AND 2nd place, leaving cis ladies to compete for bronze as they contemplated their cis privilege.”

That generated snark from Jim Slotek, the movie critic for The Toronto Sun. “Yeah, all those US Opens Renée Richards won really demoralized Chrissy and Martina,” he subtweeted.

Richards, born Richard Raskin, was the first transgender athlete who demanded to compete with women. But inadvertantly, Slotek’s tweet pointed out the absurdity of his own argument. When Richards competed against Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova he (she) was well past his (her) prime as a tennis player. Richards was 18 and 20 years their senior respectively. Still, in February of 1979 at age 45 Richards was ranked as the world’s 20th best female player. In contrast, by age 45 Evert was no longer competing and Navratilova was no longer ranked.

Tennis has a long history of staging “Battles of the Sexes.” In every one of them either the male was disadvantaged by rules or age difference. In 1998 the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, boasted that they could beat any man outside of the top 200. The German Karsten Braasch, then ranked 203rd volunteered to take them on at the Australian Open. After a round of golf and two beers, Braasch dispatched Serena 6-1 and then Venus 6-2. Then the Williams’ re-figured their challenge to anyone 350 and higher.

For Richards, he came to believe that his post operative success at that age was indicative of the unfairness of it all. In 2015 he told Slate, “Having lived for the past 30 years, I know if I’d had surgery at the age of 22, and then at 24 went on the tour, no genetic woman in the world would have been able to come close to me. And so I’ve reconsidered my opinion.”

For their part, the NCAA and the International Olympic Committee has decided that transgenders can compete after only a year of hormone therapy and no longer require surgery, despite medical findings that it may take up to 15 years for bone density to change. They only have to show a current testosterone level comparable to their biological competition.

Between the lies, the identity politics and the chemicals it has become a twisted tale, a mash-up of Orwell’s 1984 and the Soviet bloc athletic teams. Something tells me we’re about to issue an apology and reparations to a lot of former East Germans.

Published in Sports
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  1. JudithannCampbell Member
    JudithannCampbell
    @

    So now women will be referred to as “genetic women”? I guess men are “genetic men”? Good grief.

    • #1
  2. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    I failed to add that this just didn’t have adverse effects on the girls that directly competed against the boys (and those who were denied spots in those races.) By allowing the boys to compete and win against the girls it also rearranged the team standings. 

    • #2
  3. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    This is sick

    • #3
  4. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    If I had a daughter competing in track and field I’d be totally pissed.  This is insane.

    • #4
  5. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    An eternal optimist, I cling to the hope that this won’t end up a win for the “it’s all about frame of reference” crowd.  If the vast majority of the parents of those defeated or of those whose teams dropped in the standings aren’t thinking “this is crazy,” we’re in pretty bad shape.

    I also wonder how those who think everything should “empower women” feel about the fate of the losing biological women.  Were they “empowered”?

    • #5
  6. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    Maybe there is a free market solution here.  Form the ACAA (American College Athletic Association) that doesn’t subscribe to this nonsense, and let colleges join and compete under their auspices.  In a few years, the NCAA might be totally irrelevant.

    • #6
  7. Travis McKee Inactive
    Travis McKee
    @Typewriterking

    If these are the rules, then it follows that athletic directors and coaches in college are being derelict in their duties if they are not recruiting male-to-female trans athletes for their women’s squads. 

    They are, are they not, tasked with recruiting whoever they need in order to win within the rules, are they not? Then, it seems, they ought to be redshirting men not quite good enough to make the male squads, and let them transition into women.

    College is expensive. Is identifying as a lady and taking hormones for a while worth free college? 

    There are over 300 Division I schools. If we are right, and I think we are, the first athletic program cynical enough to play this to the hilt and load up on male-to-female trans students, that school ought to dominate all the women’s sports. 

    It would be bigger than LSU’s legendary attempts to recruit Arvydas Sabonis from behind the Iron Curtain. 

    • #7
  8. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    If I had a daughter competing in track and field I’d be totally pissed. This is insane.

    But would you sue?  The unfortunate fact is that a lawsuit is the primary way to make noise on an issue today. If this was an issue that cut the “other way,” I guarantee someone would sue.

    • #8
  9. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    Thank you for summarizing this, EJHill.  It is at least as bad as this and may be worse.

    Why is there no shame, no opprobrium directed at the lads who cheat in this fashion?  Why are their coaches not shunned?  Why do their PARENTS permit such a travesty?  If one of my lads (now 33 and 29) had tried to pull a stunt like this I would have kept him home from school.

     

     

     

    • #9
  10. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    EJHill: After a round of golf and two beers, Braasch dispatched Serena 6-1 and then Venus 6-2

    One wonders, how would Braasch have done after a full 6-pack?

    • #10
  11. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Insanity.

    Hoyacon (View Comment):
    If the vast majority of the parents of those defeated or of those whose teams dropped in the standings aren’t thinking “this is crazy,” we’re in pretty bad shape.

    I’m sure they’re thinking it; it’s whether they have the stones to say it.

    • #11
  12. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    If I had a daughter competing in track and field I’d be totally pissed. This is insane.

    But would you sue? The unfortunate fact is that a lawsuit is the primary way to make noise on an issue today. If this was an issue that cut the “other way,” I guarantee someone would sue.

    And in a sane society, the suit would be dismissed with prejudice.  Why do judges agree to hear this BS?

    • #12
  13. Jimmy Carter Member
    Jimmy Carter
    @JimmyCarter

    I find it hilarious.

    There’s at least two lies being played out, and one is exposing the other.

    To anyone on the left: Which is it? Boys and girls are “equal,” or should there be boy sports and girl sports?

    I would like to see trans teens taking all the female scholarships, then You’ll see people raise hell.

    But for now:

    Girl losing race,”that’s not fair!”

    Winner,”there’s always Home Economics.”

    • #13
  14. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Doctor Robert: One wonders, how would Braasch have done after a full 6-pack?

    From Wikipedia: Braasch was described by one journalist as “a man whose training regime centered around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple bottles of ice cold lager”.

    As for “shaming” the transgendered athletes that’s not the answer. The problem is deep and societal. The same people who slam conservatives and people of faith as being “science deniers” will argue until they’re blue in the face that a person with a penis and testicles between their legs are not males, simply by declaring it to be different than what it is. 

    • #14
  15. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    If I had a daughter competing in track and field I’d be totally pissed. This is insane.

    But would you sue? The unfortunate fact is that a lawsuit is the primary way to make noise on an issue today. If this was an issue that cut the “other way,” I guarantee someone would sue.

    And in a sane society, the suit would be dismissed with prejudice. Why do judges agree to hear this BS?

    Because those on one side are committed ideologues with lawyers and money (no guns) and those on the other side are busy earning a living and building a family.  And then one of the family loses a “women’s race” to someone with a penis. Too late.

     

    • #15
  16. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Because those on one side are committed ideologues with lawyers and money (no guns) and those on the other side are busy earning a living and building a family. And then one of the family loses a “women’s race” to someone with a penis. Too late.

     

    Sure.  But judges can say “This is BS,” and dismiss the case.

    • #16
  17. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Because those on one side are committed ideologues with lawyers and money (no guns) and those on the other side are busy earning a living and building a family. And then one of the family loses a “women’s race” to someone with a penis. Too late.

    Sure. But judges can say “This is BS,” and dismiss the case.

    They could and perhaps should, but many of the judges come from the same backgrounds as those lawyers and are often overly impressed by “creative” lawyering on “civil rights” issues.

    Edit: We also don’t know whether any of this has ever come before a judge.  It’s possible that whatever body administers this is simply following administrative directives on what’s necessary/permitted.  I’d be curious to know who is making the interpretations that are noted in the O/P.

    • #17
  18. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    I am SO glad I didn’t become a lawyer.

    • #18
  19. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    I think I ran a 57 second 440 when I was a freshman in high school.  So this guy is just lousy at guy sports.

    • #19
  20. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Doctor Robert: One wonders, how would Braasch have done after a full 6-pack?

    From Wikipedia: Braasch was described by one journalist as “a man whose training regime centered around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple bottles of ice cold lager”.

    As for “shaming” the transgendered athletes that’s not the answer. The problem is deep and societal. The same people who slam conservatives and people of faith as being “science deniers” will argue until they’re blue in the face that a person with a penis and testicles between their legs are not males, simply by declaring it to be different than what it is.

    I am sorry, and trans athlete that goes to compete against women like this knows damn well what he/she is doing. 

    Notice, there is not any movement the other way.

    • #20
  21. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Bryan G. Stephens: Notice, there is not any movement the other way.

    Au contraire, mon ami.

    In Texas they have the opposite problem. There one must compete according to the gender on their birth certificate. They are one of eight states that have championships for girls in wrestling. This year a girl transitioning to a male made mincemeat of the field of girls. Which she should have since she was hopped up on testosterone.

    Either way, it’s the girls that get the shaft.

    • #21
  22. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    I’m waiting for the 240 lb “girl” to show up to put the shot.

    • #22
  23. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Randy Webster: I’m waiting for the 240 lb “girl” to show up to put the shot.

    Or for the Cavaliers to put on dresses and transfer to the WNBA?

    • #23
  24. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Randy Webster: I’m waiting for the 240 lb “girl” to show up to put the shot.

    Or for the Cavaliers to put on dresses and transfer to the WNBA?

    Nah.  Why sign on to a failure?

    • #24
  25. Jimmy Carter Member
    Jimmy Carter
    @JimmyCarter

    EJHill (View Comment):
    Either way, it’s the girls that get the shaft.

    I see what You did there….

    • #25
  26. Matt Bartle Member
    Matt Bartle
    @MattBartle

    I sometimes think that Republicans should run on the platform, “Democrats are insane. They believe insane things. They make people do insane things. Normal people have to stop them by voting for Republicans.”

     

    • #26
  27. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    I know nothing about golf, but isn’t there something like an old-timers tour, so the senior citizens are just competing against each other and not with 30-year-olds?  Can a guy in his 30’s declare that he feels like an old man and play in the seniors tournament?  Or maybe someone who is 20 can declare that he feels like a kid and play in Little League.

    • #27
  28. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    I know nothing about golf, but isn’t there something like an old-timers tour, so the senior citizens are just competing against each other and not with 30-year-olds? Can a guy in his 30’s declare that he feels like an old man and play in the seniors tournament? Or maybe someone who is 20 can declare that he feels like a kid and play in Little League.

    There is a senior’s tour, and for a while it was where the big money was, as a bunch of famous guys got old together.

    • #28
  29. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    There is a PGA Seniors Tour. (They renamed it the Champions Tour because it sounds better.)

    If you went transgender you could hit from the front tees.

    • #29
  30. WI Con Member
    WI Con
    @WICon

    Of course it’s absurd but I’ve got to admit that  I’m rather enjoying the schadenfreude of it all. These types of stories have the potential to reset things back to the norm. It forces these fools to seriously reevaluate their assertion that there are no differences between the sexes. They have been pushing this sex = gender BS for a good decade. Fine, give it to them good and hard – at events like these, in government contracting and corporate ‘set-aside programs’. 

    New rules and they have to live by them too. They’re gonna hate it.

    • #30
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