"those on the side of protecting female sports too often assume that someone else will speak up."
"In contrast, those who disagree are highly organized, highly motivated, and willing to be loud and just plain vicious."
Man oh man, in-person activism is a whole ‘nuther animal. For one thing, it’s the first time in my entire creaking-long life I’ve had to be concerned for my personal safety. Checking my mofo white privilege, but also, I use common sense—I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s on a Sunday afternoon. But going to a pro-Sophie C rally to say yay Sophie! yay women’s sports! I had to think about walking five blocks in downtown Minneapolis carrying a large sign that read Female Sports for Females. And decided against it. For safety reasons.
I ended up biking to Target Center for the Sophie Cunningham rally organized by XX-XY Athletics and Amy Sousa of Known Heretic and Coffee Talk fame. I heard the rally before I saw it. Or rather, I heard one trans activist with a bullhorn and a nonsensical slogan—protect trans women—which he amplified without ceasing for two hours straight. At intervals to let the bullhorn stop smoking, he spit truly grotesque comments at anyone attempting to have a discussion. Another trans activist with a siren added violent ambiance. There were about ten quiet trans-kids-belong folx, and maybe 50 pro-Sophie supporters who believe in gravity and held signs that read:
And similar. Women’s sports for women. For some reason, I thought the two philosophies, reality and make-believe, would each occupy their own turf and holler or hold signs at each other across a 50-yard line. But no. Everyone was milling around, mixing, in a scrum, and if I couldn’t read their sign or shirt or identify allegiance by a coded wardrobe or style tell such as DIY green hair or late-model Chacos, I had a hard time telling which team they were on or whether the sweaty person not making eye contact was simply a Fever-Lynx ticket holder trying to get to Target Center entrance and section 505. So there was uncertainty, tension. If I addressed my fellow scrummer with my chirpiest, How about that Sophie Cunningham, eh? there was every chance my kind neighbor would spangle my face with spittle and singe my eyebrows with Suck my girl dick you absolute cunt. The energy was not exactly block party; more like the game Operation (young people, message me for explanation).
I had a nice chat with these girls
They’re sisters and also share the now-typical Minnesota experience of having competed against a boy, who, facilitated and pandered to by the state, took a spot on a girls’ roster and was welcomed into girls’ locker rooms. Different boys, btw. More than one, just in these girls’ conference.
Yes, there were more sex realists there, more people with yay Sophie, pro-woman signs, and women’s sports for women vibe, and that was inspiring. It felt like momentum. We all know it’s an 80/20 issue, and standing there, among reasonable women and men saying reasonable things, there seemed to be an understanding that this whole thing was so obvious—men are not women, women deserve their own sports and spaces—that of course it would get sorted. Of course politicians and legislators and judges would do the right thing, so there was no need to risk being called a cunt. It’s unpleasant. There’s a complacency in that 80% who know that gravity exists and that men are not women. They assume they don’t have to advocate for something so obviously right and true. It’ll get sorted, surely.
I saw a KSTP cameraman, of course, filming the loudest person there, and made a beeline for him. I said to the TV camera, men are not women. Therefore they are not eligible for women’s sports. Sophie did not say anything about trans people, she talked about girls. This is about girls. Girls should not have to play against biological men. I had practiced that at home, and downtown, I repeated it to anyone with a microphone, including a USA Today reporter. Said and spelled my name. They may not even have had the record button on. I biked home feeling good, as if sanity might have gained ground. That was shortlived.
I heard later on the news that “both sides” had about the same number of supporters. That’s not true. There were more sex realists, but they were quiet, respectful, kind of stunned to be supporting something as obvious as women’s sports for women, and appalled by the frankly vile, vicious, repulsive behavior of the “be kind” crowd. One person calling a woman a cunt, loudly and visually, apparently counts as a lot of people to the media. It’s low, it’s cheap, it’s vulgar, and it gets clicks. Thus, > 1.
This photo encapsulates where we are. The media sees this as two equally valid arguments. An educated woman, supporting women based on reality. She has years, reams, stacks of science behind her statement that women are a unique sex class of humans deserving of rights to their own spaces. She’s pro-woman, not anti-trans. Her statement is reasonable. It’s reality. Loving and recognizing women. Not hating anything or anyone. The kind person on the left has one “argument”—calling women who object to men in their spaces a crude name, while at the same time hollering that men who claim to be women are victims. in need of protection. They call women cunts, but insist they are women. Everyone hates them. Stop hating them. Let trans people live. Cunt. His performance is chaotic. It’s irrational. It’s personally vile, vicious, and hateful. And yet, the media treated these people as representing two equally valid sides, demonstrating our societal “division.” The KSTP reporter asked me why I thought our society was so divided. I was lost for words.
Appendix A: why we are where we are is the kind woman below who blamed an invented trans suicide epidemic on women asking for their rights back. She didn’t seem in the mood to discuss her theory, but she is convinced that women asking for women’s-only sports is causing “trans people,” by which she must mean males, to commit suicide. Nevermind that in Minnesota, “trans” people can compete in the sex category of their choice, and they can use the locker rooms and bathrooms of their choice. Facts do not matter, have never mattered to this woman. But hear me, my gentle friends, as unhinged as this woman is, word for word, her spit-flecked irrational screed has been repeated in the staid and hallowed halls of government and justice, and has shaped the law in every blue state, 23 of them. Listen to her. She’s out of her fucking mind, but legislators heard this insanity and duly voted to make it law.
Any afterglow I may have enjoyed was extinguished when I watched Lynx Head Coach Cheryl Reeves’ press conference on the nightly news. The whole thing could be used as evidence of a fire-able offense for Reeves—a coach of a women’s team who openly says women’s sports for women is “problematic” should not have her job. But the fact is, it is socially acceptable to say such anti-woman, irrational shit. Go to about 2:20 in the video where she tells the bald face lie that biological men are not in women’s locker rooms. And that it’s “problematic” narrative that “transgender women” are predators. So women saying no to men is “problematic” in Cheryl Reeves’ view. This is straight up misogyny and rape culture. Me telling KSTP and USA Today that men are not women did not make it on the news. Cheryl Reeves saying men are not in women’s locker rooms did. The lie made it on the news. The truth did not.
Other more credentialled, more professional people than me, who have been in this dogfight for a long time, are noticing that::
the scientific arguments in favor of allowing transgirls/women into female sports have become progressively weaker while the rhetoric has become progressively stronger. The more the evidence accumulates that sex matters in sport, the more the discussion seems to shift away from evidence and toward moral condemnation of anyone who disagrees.
I still think public opinion is on the side of protecting female sports. The problem is that the those on the side of protecting female sports too often assume that someone else will speak up. In contrast, those who disagree are highly organized, highly motivated, and willing to be loud and just plain vicious.
Yes. Sex realists are dutifully following the rules of debate. Unfortunately, no rules is what transgenderism is about. We’ve brought a knife to a gun fight. Nearly everyone on this planet knows that men are not women and that women deserve their own things, but being right and real and rational and evidence-based does not guarantee that your view will prevail in our world. You can’t assume that that’s enough, or that someone else will set it to rights. Even if you don’t want to risk being called an absolute cunt—trust me, when you’re face to face with the person hurling this hot rock, it’s surprisingly bearable/pathetic. She’s a confused, not very well person—you do need to speak out. And if you’re afraid to say to friends or at work that women’s sports should be for women, ask yourself why that is. If you are afraid to say women’s sports should be for women out loud, do women have rights in this country?
Sarah, thanks for your very graphic description of what it's like to stand in the middle of the madding crowd. I was laughing out loud! They call us cunts because they don't have one, or don't want the one they have. I consider it like being called a doodoo head by a 3 year old. The loudest group gets the attention but they usually are the ones without an arguement, just a high-hitched sound- barrier deafening squeal. It makes for more exciting TV coverage to have a purple haired, 1000 piercing, amped up, spit at the camera, than a calm, intelligent person explain that women deserve safe spaces and fair sports and by the way we don't have penises. For all of us fighting this fight, stay strong, stay diligent and convince one other person to stand with us and speak up.
It would be one thing if the left really believed the nonsense they spout but I am convinced they know better but are just pretending they are making sense. It is awesome to see some very young girls standing up for their rights. Their patents must be so proud!