'Democrats privately admit they need a sharper response to counter Republican attacks on their support for transgender rights, especially when it involves sports.' 1/
axios.com/2025/03/07/sen… 'Some Senate Democrats agreed with Newsom on the sports fairness issue, but they said to be careful that the overall conversation doesn't demonize transgender athletes. They also want to avoid federal overreach.' 2/

'Sarkar reserves some of her snarkiest comments for left-liberals seduced by identity politics.'
'Mired in fratricidal identitarianism, left-liberals have lost the argument to the hard right'.
Speechless.
The brass neck.
theguardian.com/books/2025/feb… But does @AyoCaesar include herself in this?
Ofc not.
'Ash Sarkar blames the rightwing press for this shift. Thanks to tabloid agents provocateurs and their political creatures in Westminster, she says, the lower orders have abandoned class war for the culture wars.'

New...
'World Athletics today launched a new consultation process on its eligibility conditions for the Female Category and the current DSD Regulations and Transgender Regulations.'
Good.
Present regulations permit XY DSD athletes in female sport with T suppression to <2.5nmols/L

https://twitter.com/WorldAthletics/status/1888940878695469384

WA Working Group submitted the following five recommendations to Council in December 2024 which were approved and are now set for consultation:

I keep seeing claims there are only a few males with trans identities in female sport. This is false.
The US-based Women’s Sport Policy Working Group (WSPWG) recorded 578+ victories of males with trans identities in women’s sport in 9 months in 2024. 1/
womenssportspolicy.org/253-male-victo… The citizen journalist website @shewon_org documented & verified that by January 2025 over 750 female athletes in more than 500 competitions have lost more than 1000 medals in 40 different sports to males with transgender identities in women’s sport. 2/
shewon.org

EO:
'Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have ... used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women'.
whitehouse.gov/presidential-a… 'Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.  The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.'

I've submitted my response to @EHRC Consultation on the new Code of Practice & fed back only on Chapter 13 given I have had children home from university for the last 3 weeks. Feedback must be completed by 5pm this afternoon. Please submit if you can: equalityhumanrights.com/equality/equal…

This paper aims to address Canadian Human Rights Law in relation to:
'Policies that Restrict the Participation of Transgender Women in Women's Sport Categories'.
Let's critique. 1/
cjhr.ca/bringing-canad… 1. The title:
This betrays the framing & focus from the get-go.
That is, to include males with transgender identities in female sport categories designed to exclude male advantage. 2/

Becky's had a look at the UN Report on Violence against Women & Girls in Sport.
Based on submissions from around the globe.
She doesn't like it.
She's into women's footy.
You'd think she'd welcome it.
But she's a fan of including transwomen in female sport.
Let's take a look. 1/

https://twitter.com/beckytaylorgill/status/1852014923359850904

Becky doesn't like women collecting data about the numbers of girls and women who have lost positions, places, podiums, prize money to transwomen. So she has a go at the work they are doing to fill the vacuum left by journalists & academics who are missing in action. 2/

Let's critique.
Lots of good stuff but I will unpack this claim:
'blanket prohibitions ... of all female transgender persons, and intrusive practices for women athletes with sex variations, are against current standards of human rights'. 1/
documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/… x.com/UN_SPExperts/s… 1. There are no blanket prohibitions of female transgender persons in international sport.
All trans persons are entitled to compete in their sex categories.
Females with trans IDs (if not supplementing with testosterone, in female sport) males with trans IDs in male sport. 2/

This event will 'highlight the importance of diversity & inclusion in sport for LGBTI persons, in particular the inclusion of trans, gender-diverse, and intersex individuals.'
Fine.
But there is no human right for males to play/compete in female sport. 1/
ilga.org/news/u-lgbti-c… There should ofc be a diversity of female people in female sport: black & brown females, young & old females, rich & poor females, females from the global south as well as the global north, lesbian & straight females, females with disabilities as well as able bodied females. 2/

To be crystal clear.
There is no human right for males to play in female sport.
This is an asymmetric rights claim benefitting males with trans identities & athletes with disorders of male sexual development.
Female people have human rights too. 1/
gate.ngo/knowledge-port… 'Equal inclusion of all in sports continues to be undermined by the rise of movements that oppose the universality of human rights'.
No.
We support universality of human rights.
This must, & does, include recognition of female people with female bodies & their human rights. 2/

Thank you @BBCWomansHour & @SarahOwen_ welcome to this position.
As @UKLabour member & feminist academic who researches sex, gender identity & sport, pls ensure it is crystal clear that EA S195 Sport, means males with trans IDs can be excluded from female sport at all levels. 1/

https://twitter.com/BBCWomansHour/status/1834158562744172652

The reason we are still at the stage of asking 'what is a woman' is that there are 3 answers:
1. An adult human female
2. An adult human female plus some adult human males who have changed legal sex
3. Anyone who identifies as a woman
This is why the EA needs clarification. 2/

This is what 'policing women's bodies' looks like.
Sex is determined at conception. Not by conforming to sex stereotypes.
Female athletes are female regardless of how they look.
Athletes with disorders of male sexual development are male.
Regardless of what their passport says. Those supporting no sex screening for female sport are not arguing against 'policing women's bodies' they are arguing against policing male bodies in order to exclude male bodies from female sport.

Great interview.
'The IOC seems to have been hijacked by activists.'
'We need to be taking a closer look at who's advising them.'
I do that here in my chapter 'Sex, Gender Identity & Sport'. 1/

https://twitter.com/stephbastiaan/status/1820203334101557260

I explain the @iocmedia has 'contracted out responsibility for human rights to unaccountable neoliberal global organisations heavily funded by global capital.' 2/

Despite asking 'can we just be really clear on this' this article is utter nonsense.
'Lin is also not male, as far as anyone knows'.
Well given that Lin probably has a disorder of male sexual development, Lin is very likely to be a biological male. 1/ theguardian.com/sport/article/… So where has Barney Ronay been? Has he read the IBA Statements which confirm that following two 'gender' (sex) tests Lin 'did not meet the required eligibility criteria to compete within the female category of our respective events.' 2/

https://x.com/cathydevine56/status/1819403298451194134?t=eVxIDTbg3K18CacwQeLGDQ&s=19

Congratulations on your new role overseeing sport. As a @UKLabour member & sports academic please uphold girls & women's right to single sex sport. The female category is the inclusion measure for females. Without it, male advantage relegates females to second place. 1/

https://twitter.com/lisanandy/status/1809286342666248330

Our female sports participants & our elite female athletes need reassurance that you will ensure the adoption of Section 195 of the Equality Act permitting single sex sport & activities of a competitive nature. Not to do so is indirect sex discrimination. 2/

'JK Rowling said she would struggle to support the party because of its stance on transgender rights.'
No she didn't.
She said:
'Labour remains dismissive and often offensive of women’s concerns about sex-based rights'.
Womens rights.
Not trans rights.
theguardian.com/books/article/… This telling sleight of hand from 'womens rights' to 'trans rights' is indicative of the hierarchy of rights for @guardian & 'leave you views at the door' @BBCNews.
Couldn't be clearer whose rights matter more 2 these outlets.
Let's not let the truth get in the way of the spin.

Labour's Wes Streeting:
'We will not allow anything in conversion therapy legislation that stops medical professionals delivering the holistic care that Dr Cass rightly says we need.' 1/
Great interview @roseveniceallan
via @YouTube 'Hilary Cass's Review shows...we need more open conversations, especially with young people...presenting to their GP or to medical services... [with] questions...about their identity...they get the holistic care that enables those exploratory open-minded conversations'. 2/

Labour Party Manifesto Highlights: sex and gender.
'We will work to implement the expert recommendations of the Cass Review to ensure that young people presenting to the NHS with gender dysphoria are receiving appropriate and high-quality care'.
Excellent. 1/ 'Labour is proud of our Equality Act and the rights and protections it affords women; we will continue to support the implementation of its single-sex exceptions.'
Excellent. 2/

The IOC 'Portrayal Guidelines' released ahead of the Paris Olympics are breathtakingly sexist, & complete propaganda.
According to @iocmedia:
'TERMS TO AVOID: “born male”, “born female”, “biologically male”,
“biologically female”, “genetically male”, “genetically female”'. 1/ As we all know, the IOC is primarily banning the language needed to accurately & factually describe males who identify as transgender. These athletes are born male, are biologically & genetically male & are permitted by the IOC to compete in female categories. 2/

How some male climbers want female climbing too.
'Fiore (male who identifies as trans) says it was important to separate the issue at hand—a policy that harms trans people—from transphobic hand-wringing around “fairness” in sports.'
FFS. Where to begin? 1/
@USAClimbing

https://twitter.com/s_youngblood_g/status/1773060603797557267

I get it. Males who want to climb in female categories need us to ignore the gross unfairness.
But if males always get what they want, at the expense of females, we call that patriarchy. Sex discrimination.
I've done a fair bit of climbing. This is personal. 2/