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Cathy Devine Profile picture
Cathy Devine
@cathydevine56
Independent Researcher: Sport Policy & Feminist Philosophy. Ex. Senior Lecturer, Uni. of Cumbria. Ex. Sec. British Phil. of Sport Assn. Labour Party.
🌍🐽🦖 Profile picture 2 subscribed
Mar 28 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
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 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/
Feb 14 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Oh dear @jonathanliew (I'm blocked) strikes again in a frankly dishonest & bonkers @guardian piece.
Once again, the right can only make capital out of females wanting female categories at @parkrun when the liberal/left reveal themselves as totally unreconstructed sexists. 1/ Image Let's see. According to JL, even though I'm a left wing feminist academic whose expertise is women & sport, I'm:
1. A rightwinger
2. Restricting the access of trans people to sport
3. Illogical & absurd
4. The radical trans-exclusionary police 2/
Nov 29, 2023 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Let's explore.
National Curriculum for PE Aims: 
1 develop competence to excel in broad range of physical activities 
2 physically active for sustained periods of time 
3 engage in competitive sports & activities
4 lead healthy active lives
This must work for girls. 1/ Key Stage 2 (age 7-11) includes
competitive games, modified where appropriate [for example, badminton basketball cricket football hockey netball rounders and tennis] and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending
Girls start dropping out of sport from age 8. 2/
Nov 7, 2023 • 30 tweets • 6 min read
Interesting piece.
Despite BBC constraints @Emmabarnett does a good job.
Let's critique.
To be clear. The reason Semenya is 'one of the most decorated athletes of her generation' is that CS has a disorder of male sexual development & is biologically male but legally female. 1/ So CS has taken male advantage into female categories designed to exclude it. This is why CS is also 'one of the most scrutinised'. The whole purpose of the female category is to provide equal competitive opportunities for female athletes by excluding male advantage. 2/
Nov 1, 2023 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Here we go again.
'Semenya has differences of sexual development (DSD), which means that she has internal testes and produces testosterone at typically male levels.'
Almost but not quite.
Semenya has a disorder of male sexual development. 1/ thetimes.co.uk/article/fa6b0e… 'In 2019 the IAAF argued at the Court of Arbitration for Sport that Semenya was a biological male, with XY chromosomes rather than the usual female XX. In short, she benefited from male biological development.'
This is the reality. Semenya is biologically ♂️ & legally ♀️. 2/
Nov 1, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
So on his last day as UN SOGI Independent Expert @victor_madrigal & others attempt to force States to force sports to allow males who identify as trans to play in female sport.
Your regular reminder: permitting males to compete in female sport categories is not a human right. 1/ For more on the policy capture of @ioc by self-appointed so-called international human rights organisations & human rights experts who over-reach their brief to lobby for removing the human rights of female athletes to equal opportunities see my chapter 2/
Sep 11, 2023 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
Fully support.
The @iocmedia must uphold 'internationally recognised human rights'.
Including the fundamental rights of females to equality with males. Explicitly enshrined in all UN HR treaties.
The 2021 Framework permitting males to compete in female sport must be withdrawn 1/ The 2021 IOC Framework whilst purporting to centre inclusion, human rights, fairness, robust evidence & athlete consultation outlines there should be ‘no presumption of advantage’ in female categories for males with transgender identities ‘until evidence determines otherwise’. 2/
Jul 7, 2023 • 24 tweets • 4 min read
Where to start.
Dear Joanna Mellis
1. Female athletes advocating for equal competitive opportunities for females are not 'anti-trans activists'.
2. The common perpetrators of sexual assault, abuse & harassment in sport are males.
3. Transwomen are male.1/
theguardian.com/sport/2023/jul… 4. Yes, white males 'hold nearly all the levers of power in sport.'
5. With 'near-unfettered access to use and abuse athletes of all genders (if you must)' yes.
6. But females are disproportionately the victims and virtually all perpetrators are male.
7. Transwomen are male. 2/
Jun 24, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Oh dear. Full quote:
'One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic destiny defines the figure that the human female acquires in society; ...1/ '...it is civilization as a whole that develops this product, intermediate between female and eunuch, which one calls feminine.' 2/
Jun 18, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Sigh. No. This is not it.
If gender identity overwrites sex in law & policy females lose their legal right to non-discrimination & equal opportunities on the basis of sex. As compared with males (however they identify). Sometimes sex matters so single sex provision is lawful. 1/ Top tip: 'femicide, sexual assault, plummeting rape convictions, stalking, unequal pay, the erosion of reproductive rights' only or disproportionately affect females. If we have no word to describe, or law to protect, these people, we cannot tackle these issues. 2/
Jun 16, 2023 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Excellent statement by Senator Claire Chandler:
The @theAIS 'has continued the disgraceful tradition of Australian sporting bodies in refusing women and girls guaranteed single-sex competition' 1/
senatorchandler.com.au/response_to_ai… 'by preferencing what they call ‘inclusion’, but which actually denies a level playing field for women and girls'. 2/
Jun 16, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
'The AIS also highlighted that an outright ban of transgender athletes from a sport - similar to policies introduced by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) or World Athletics - could be in breach of Australia’s anti-discrimination laws.'
No. WA & WA do not ban TW. 1/ Nobody argues that transgender athletes should be banned from sport. Not World Aquatics or World Athletics. Just that males (including TW) should compete in male categories. Not in female categories which are designed to exclude male performance advantage. 2/
Jun 15, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
'The AIS also highlighted that an outright ban of transgender athletes from a sport - similar to policies introduced by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) or World Athletics - could be in breach of Australia’s anti-discrimination laws.'
Imo this is wrong. 1/ smh.com.au/sport/strict-t… Because 'sex' and 'gender identity' are separately and distinctly protected in the Sex Discrimination Act. The sport exception clearly states it is not unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sex or gender identity re participation in any competitive sporting activity...2/
May 7, 2023 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
'Most researchers and experts agree there is little scientific understanding about the performance of transgender athletes in elite settings.'
No. This is wrong. Most scientists agree with a presumption of advantage. 1/ theage.com.au/sport/cycling/… Although most scientists agree with a presumption of advantage, given the science to date, some argue that despite this, female categories should switch out fair competition for so-called 'meaningful' competition. 2/
bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/8/1/e0…
May 4, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
'please explain to me why we hear virtually no one crafting legislation to make sure a female transitioning to male doesn’t threaten the boys on the varsity team'
Oh dear. Someone doesn't understand sexual dimorphism & male performance advantage.
Btw I'm on the political left. 1/ All the science there is is referenced at the end of this article which concludes:
'identifying as a transwoman with or without the use of GAHT does not eliminate the male physiological athletic advantages' 2/
sportpolicycenter.com/news/2023/4/17…
May 4, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Thank you @UCI_cycling.
'The UCI also hears the voices of female athletes and their concerns about an equal playing field for competitors, and will take into account all elements, including the evolution of scientific knowledge.'
👏👏👏
uci.org/article/the-uc…
Apr 14, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Very disappointed in my union. Misinformation abounds ofc.
No, this would not be "Changing the understanding of 'sex' to refer solely to 'biological sex' "
Sex always meant biological sex until activists attempted to undermine this by steath. 1/ ucu.org.uk/article/12871/… No this would not 'eradicate the ability of trans people to gain full legal recognition for their gender identity'.
Gender identity is not a protected characteristic and so cannot be eradicated. Gender reassignment is the legally protected characteristic. This will not change. 2/
Apr 13, 2023 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Oh dear. @LGBTLabour at it again. Don't forget this is a lobbying group.
First claim:
Clarification that sex means biological sex is an 'attempt to rewrite the New Labour government’s 2010 Equality Act.'
No. This is what sex was always supposed to mean. 1/ 'This is a blatant attempt to remove trans rights from the previous Labour government’s 2010 Equality Act.'
No. Trans rights are protected under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. 2/
Apr 11, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Megan Rapinoe & Sue Bird are among a minority of female athletes who think male advantage should be permitted in female categories designed to exclude it. Despite owing their sports careers and celebrity status to female categories. outkick.com/megan-rapinoe-…
Mar 21, 2023 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
In Royal College of Psychiatrists & other UK medical institutions:
There is a schism between...influential proponents of gender ideology...ascendant across the NHS, & those who view it as unscientific & an impediment to safe-guarding & freedom of speech.'
thecritic.co.uk/in-defence-of-… Webinar by Dr Hartland, EDI Deputy Ed Director at Bristol Medical School:
'In...slides, pronouns are pivotal. They are the visual symbol of allegiance to the new orthodoxy.'
'One slide asserts...failure to use examples such as ze/hir correctly constitutes an “act of aggression”.'
Mar 21, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
'Lawyer and Italian athletics champion Mariuccia Fausta Quilleri is representing 24 female athletes who have signed a petition calling for male-born transgender athletes to be admitted to women's competitions exclusively out of competition.'
👏👏👏 1/ The athletes first of all contest the lack of scientific basis - as well as the lack of legal validity - of the IOC guidelines, as has been proven by numerous studies, among which the most comprehensive is perhaps that of Dr Emma Hilton and Dr Tommy Lundberg. 2/