BREAKING: The NCAA is considering banning all sports championships in Mississippi after Gov. Tate Reeves signed an anti-trans bill into law that targets transgender teen and young adult athletes.
Mississippi narrowly avoided an NCAA ban last year when lawmakers retired the Confederate-themed state flag after the NCAA and other sports orgs threatened a boycott otherwise.
NCAA: "When determining where championships are held, NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination should be selected.”
Before Gov. Tate Reeves signed the latest anti-trans bill into law, I reported that doing so could pose risks to the state's economy and to future college sports championships in the state.
When Gov. Reeves signed the anti-trans “Mississippi Fairness Act" into law, he said it'd “ensure young girls are not forced to compete against biological females.”
Gov. Reeves: “I can’t personally give you any examples (of problems arising with transgender athletes on teams in Mississippi), but that’s the reason the Fairness Act is in place—to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future." mississippifreepress.org/11208/after-an…
"Unbelievable. NCAA wants to take away opportunities from MS athletes because our state believes in biology. At this rate, they'll have to cancel every other state that decides to protect women’s sports." mississippifreepress.org/11208/after-an…
But the NCAA notes that it “embraces the evolving science on this issue" and it acknowledges the role of hormone therapy in gender affirming treatment.
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Mack Beggs, a trans boy, won the Texas girls' wrestling state championship 2 years in a row.
Bc he was assigned female at birth, Texas schools required him to compete with girls—despite the fact that he had male equivalent strength due to hormone therapy. chicagotribune.com/sports/breakin…
Under Mississippi's new law, transgender boys like Mack Beggs (who have equal body strength to their cisgender male counterparts) would have to compete against and play on teams with girls—producing the exact problem Gov. @TateReeves says the law solves. chicagotribune.com/sports/breakin…
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@yaf And it's also not wrong. It's actual history.
Also actual history: @YAF was founded by William F. Buckley.
Buckley defended Jim Crow laws, saying the "white community" is "entitled" to take steps to ensure it "prevails politically" because "it is the advanced race.”
@yaf Literally founded in William F. Buckley's home in 1960—3 years after he wrote his 1957 pro-Jim Crow editorial.
@yaf To be clear, Young Americans Foundation is an offshoot of Young Americans for Freedom. Their lineage is the same. yaf.org/about/history/
NEW: After nationwide backlash for warning against registering "woke" and "uninformed" college students to vote, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson is saying he regrets not wording his remarks better.
“It does all Mississippians a disservice to discount the intelligence of our young people,” @MSVotes said after Secretary of State Michael Watson warned against too many “woke” and “uninformed” college students registering to vote. 3/ mississippifreepress.org/11009/mississi…
Taylor Swift's "The Man" song and music video is such a beautiful middle finger to the sexist establishment.
But I particularly what she says to her male alter-ego at the end: “Pretty good. Could you try to be sexier, maybe more likable this time?” 😏
For those who complain about how many guys she's dated:
"I would be complex
I would be cool
They'd say I played the field before I found someone to commit to
And that would be ok
For me to do
Every conquest I had made would make me more of a boss to you."
For those who never question a man's inflated claims:
"I'd be a fearless leader
I'd be an alpha type
When everyone believes ya
What's that like?
I'm so sick of running as fast I can
Wondering if I'd get there quicker
If I was a man"
NEW: Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi's first woman senator, claims the ERA is "divisive" & threatens women's rights.
The ERA says: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” mississippifreepress.org/11099/sen-cind…
“Democrats need a new reason to defend their radical efforts to destroy innocent lives—& they are hiding that cause under the guise of women’s rights,” Sen. Hyde-Smith wrote.
"Enacting the ERA could actually harm the protections that celebrate the differences between men & women in law–threatening women-only prisons, locker rooms, & Title IX protections for women’s sports, just to name a few," MS's first woman senator says. mississippifreepress.org/11099/sen-cind…
@echndc The biggest issue for MS generally when it comes to politics isn't primarily who is in office. The biggest problem is the people don't have enough power.
5x as many are disenfranchised due to Jim Crow-era felony voters laws as made the difference in the 2019 governor's race.
@echndc And the majority of those disenfranchised for that one reason (not even including all the others) are mostly Black.
Folks need to invest in the people of this state to empower more to choose leaders & ensure that leaders know the people have power & to take the people seriously.
@echndc Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith won the 2018 U.S. Senate election in Mississippi by about 66,000 votes.
There are about 230,000 Mississippians, including 130,000 Black Mississippians, who can't vote bc of past felony convictions due to our Jim Crow-era felony disenfranchisement law.