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Cathy Devine Profile picture
Cathy Devine
@cathydevine56
Independent Research & Consultancy: Sport Policy. Feminist Philosophy. Ex. Senior Lecturer, Uni. of Cumbria. Ex. Sec. British Phil. of Sport Assn. Labour Party.
🌍🐽🦖 Profile picture 2 subscribed
Jul 6 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
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/ 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/
Jun 22 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
'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.
Jun 19 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
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/
Jun 13 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
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/
Jun 7 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
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/
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…