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bendirs.co.uk/single-post/20… "I’d spent the previous few months following the issue of trans women competing in women’s sport with increasing irritation, astonishment and frustration..
...Irritation at the anti-scientific, aggressively anti-female dogma of proponents of trans women competing against women; astonishment that the authorities were actively encouraging it; and frustration at the mainstream media’s virtual silence on the issue"
"accusing critics of trans female participation in women’s sport of attacking and hurting the feelings of trans women – or of having no sympathy or empathy for an oppressed group – is a common tactic used by transgender activists to shut down the debate...
...and divert attention from common sense and scientific facts. Only by discussing individual cases can you reveal the wider implications. And guess what? Women have feelings, too."
"The ‘sore loser’ card is often used by proponents of biological males competing against women, and by playing it they betray their misogyny."
"a lot of people seem to think that to compete against women, a biological male must undergo surgery or at least hormone therapy. But in some parts of the world, at least below the elite level, a trans woman only has to identify as a woman to compete against them."
"There is something slightly absurd about scientists beavering away for years trying to prove or disprove something that anyone with functioning eyes and the capacity for rational thought has known since humans became humans...
...In addition, hundreds of years of sporting competition have provided us with records that already prove it. "
"There are, Hilton explains, 6500 differences in gene expression between males and females, and ‘the majority of physiological differences are likely driven by testosterone-fuelled puberty’."
"The IOC decision to allow trans female athletes to compete against biological females after reducing testosterone for 12months was based on data provided by American transgender scientist Joanna Harper, data which Hilton calls ‘almost laughable’and ‘a pile of anecdotal numbers’"
"trans activists rarely agree to debate the issue, on the breathtakingly arrogant grounds that there is no debate to be had. What easier way to spot if someone is not a serious thinker than if they refuse to engage in an argument?"
"Says Hilton: ‘I work in a scientific discipline in which I’d be laughed at if I didn’t debate with facts. But in this case, scientists are saying, ‘Look at my pile of evidence!’ and [proponents of trans female participation in women’s sport] are choosing to completely ignore it"
"'Female sport is a protected category, and usually with a protected category you have a responsibility to justify inclusion...
...But in this case, they are saying that the burden, which we are meeting by the way, is on us to prove that the inclusion of trans females is going to compromise the aims of the category. That’s the opposite of how science is supposed to work.’"
"Their ignorance must be wilful, because the truth, which they characterise as ‘violent words’ a vulnerable group needs to be protected from, is inconvenient to their ideology, the crux of which is that feelings and identity trump biological sex."
"Politicians and governing bodies are effectively using women’s sport as a live experiment. "
"This line of thinking often stems from the reasoning that because Michael Phelps has particularly big hands and basketball players are particularly tall, sport is essentially unfair...
...But it is a desperately lazy argument, which would be quickly exploded if you put a 6ft 2in, 14 stone elite male boxer and a 6ft 2in, 14 stone elite female boxer in a ring together. A tall woman is not a man...
...And unless you draw a line somewhere – and the most logical place is between XX and XY chromosomes – women wouldn’t win much. Which is an outcome most sensible people would have a problem with."
"‘Let their [women’s] playing fields be for the enjoyment of sport rather than the site of mutually destructive culture wars.’ There you have it: according to Maugham, women’s sport is nothing more than a bit of hit and giggle). "
"Asked by the BBC why it is fair that trans women compete with women, Stonewall’s director of sport replied that because female members of his cycling club were stronger than him, it must be. No, really. It is on such scientific rigour that the RFU is basing its policies. "
"sport is played with bodies, not identities;..if males who identify as women are allowed to compete against women, then why not males who don’t identify as women, on the grounds that their biology is the same?"
"‘Transgender lobby groups, which are often supplied with millions of pounds of funding, are very good at convincing policy makers that inclusion is everything,’ says Dr Williams, whose Fair Play For Women is unfunded and made up entirely of unpaid volunteers...
...'Governing bodies know that you can’t make a man into a woman, but they’re more worried about being accused of transphobia than they are about how fair their policies are for women. Women need to at least be included in the conversation.’"
"A society that accepts the silencing of views some people don’t agree with is a dangerous one, as is a refusal to acknowledge the fears, needs and safety of women in order to include trans women in women’s sport...
...And if that sounds discriminatory, then so is refusing to allow adults to compete against children or able-bodied people to compete against disabled people. "
"It cannot be right to trample on the rights of one oppressed group to further the rights of another oppressed group. And what started out as one oppressed group calling for human rights has morphed into a hostile land grab for territory women spent centuries carving out"
"there is a danger that women’s sport in the not so distant future will be reduced to a laughingstock. Literally, people sitting in stadiums and on sofas, guffawing at the sight of female athletes being trounced on the track, blasted off the tennis court...
...and smashed to smithereens in the boxing ring by biological men. Progress of a sort. But how many people will be saying how stunning and brave trans female athletes are then?"
