Three harbingers of hope, a story centering girls, and a coach throws her players under the bus

It’s spring! The light has returned! Hope is in the air! And in the hearts of sex realists!

Sixteen women are suing the NCAA for violating their Title IX rights to access fair sport, privacy, and dignity. Spearheaded by ICONS, this class action lawsuit centers on trans-identified male swimmer Lia Thomas’s participation in the 2022 women’s National Championship, and use of the women’s locker room. The lawsuit seeks to change NCAA rules to limit participation in women’s sports to females only, and seeks damages for pain and suffering, and to reassign awards won by Thomas to rightful female winners. This is a big deal because Thomas was fully within his rights, following NCAA rules. And NCAA, for their part, bullied female athletes into silence and acquiescence, so on the surface, everything was working according to the rules—any man’s feelings are the priority, women must accept that. This is the first time a group of women have taken on the behemoth NCAA. If this comes to trial, likely in May or early June, some interesting things might come to light, such as, how profoundly trans activists have influenced sports and academics on college campuses, the shockingly little regard the NCAA has for women, and whether requiring men who identify as women to remain in men’s sports was ever considered.

Also in the courtroom, Dr. Michael Joyner, a clinician and researcher is suing his employer, Mayo Clinic, over free speech rights. Joyner was disciplined by Mayo Clinic, in part, for comments he made to the New York Times about sex differences that underpin the need for sex-segregated sports. Mayo communications suggested Joyner’s actions were “unprofessional,” and that he should stick to “prescribed messaging.” It’s notable that trans-identified male billionaire Martine Rothblatt sits on the board of directors at Mayo Clinic. Rothblatt has used his fortune to further gender ideology and trans rights. Mayo is in the midst of a $5B expansion. Even a feeble imagination is up to that task.

Readers of the New York Times expressed their surprise/delight that that paper had deemed it was safe enough to take a baby step toward journalism by printing an opinion piece (very safe) by Alex Byrne and Carole Hooven on the dangers of using the misleading phrase “sex assigned at birth.” It’s refreshing to read a sentence like this: “Sex is a fundamental biological feature with significant consequences for our species, so there are costs to encouraging misconceptions about it.” Like a breath of spring.

So, there are signs that tides are turning to reality. But then there’s this out of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Based on this photo, one might easily see no cause for optimism:

The male who identifies as female, 6’3” Rose McNaughton, left, competes (rather successfully) in the shot put, and uses the girls’ locker room, which has caused the girls to feel unsafe and embarrassed. The one glint of sunshine here is that the Connecticut Centinal staff who wrote the article (it’s more of an opinion piece), in a rare display of clarity, presented the fact that the girls’ rights to fair sport, and to privacy and dignity in the locker room were being violated in favor of the boys’ right to participate in alignment with his gender identity. The entire article is focused on the girls, on their rights and feelings, not on the boy. They also pointed out these rights are mutually exclusive—you can’t support both. Almost always, the protected class argument is used to support males in female sports. It’s eye-opening to be reminded that girls are a protected class too. Of course, activists will intone the trans-girl-is-a-girl slogan. That’s where the photo accompanying the article comes into play. Yes, girls come in different shapes and sizes, but the person in this photo stretches the limits of that argument to the breaking point.

I leave you with this tweet about South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley’s tortured answer to how she feels about trans-identified males in women’s sports. Note that long drink of water to buy time. And the wheels turning, not wanting to get fired. In the end, she threw all her players under the bus. Those women deserve better.