This @ECB_cricket response to the widespread calls for a boycott of the upcoming match between En gland and Afghanistan is interesting. I'll be a bit charitable, and then a bit analytical 🧵
bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/… ... Whilst it's easy to see this as a rebuff to those calling for a boycott, I'm not sure it's as simple as that. The ECB say:

"A coordinated, ICC-wide approach would be significantly more impactful than unilateral actions by individual members."

And this is *true.* ...

It's been clear for a while that there is a shift in the argument from the other side, away from the claim that T suppression makes it fair for TW/TiM to compete in the female category. ... ... I think the T suppression argument (which was never much good) has collapsed. Now the advocates of males in female sport have gone in two directions. ...

There's a new edition of the Sociology of Sport Journal (@SSJ_Journal) and it's making me twitch and grind my teeth. I still can't get over the intellectual dishonesty and sloppiness of some contributions to the debate over sport eligibility. Here's an example from a ... ... sometime interlocuter here @MichaelSabres14.

Michael Burke wants to argue against Gender Critical Feminists so much that he seems to have forgotten some basic standards of intellectual discourse. I'll unpick this step by step.
Here's the paper ($) ...
journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/…

OK, so I'll indulge in a Friday thread here, on a couple of papers that have come out in a new journal, and Open Access, because I think they show something important ... ... there are three contributions: first a paper from Hamilton, Pitsiladis, second a critical letter from @TLexercise. @ChrisKirk_ASP @BrowngaGreg @MaryOConnorMD and Noel Pollock, and third, a response from H,P, et al. ...

On the claim about Banda, Khelif, Semnya et al, there are perhaps two philosophical issues that it would be useful to disentangle. Here's a thread in which I try to do this. ... ... The first question is 'what is sex?' But, rather than address that head on, lets take a much simpler and narrower question: 'what is the appropriate criterion of sex in sport?' ...

It's good that @BBCSport have given this some coverage: kudos to Jean and the many people who made this happen. I'm struck by the following slippage from @FA 🔽. Here come a few comments:

https://twitter.com/JeanHatchet/status/1858521317642781051

... The T suppression model doesn't work for lots of reasons, - and I don't buy it at all - but one is exemplified in this sentence: what is an 'appropriate' length of time to 'minimise' any advantage? You'll see that there are *two* variables here: ...

An interesting feature of the Coe/IOC reporting is this counterposition A few comments follow ... ... It's true that many of the TRAs in sports academia and amongst international NGOs cloak their demands in human rights talk. Amongst these are organisations like @Sport_Rights and the increasingly notorious @EthicsInSPORT. See, for example this ludicrous statement that ...

New paper out from Sadamasu, et al.
Its a broadly empirical paper, showing that transmen tend not to change category after transition (continue still compete with females) and stay at the same level of competition...
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… ... whereas transwomen change category to compete in the female category and tend to go up a level in competition.
Before you file this away under, 'Well, knock me down with a feather: whodathunk it?' I think it's important to get this empirical work out there, and I know that the ...

Preliminary (but long) thread on the charge in the Williams et al @AdamRutherford letter that mandatory sex screening is a "Coercive Offer"
In our reply we make the quick point that, if this was true, other enforcement of eligibility rules would also be coercive offers. ... and this is true, and was enough to say, given word limits.
But this argument - that there's no morally relevant difference between our proposal and others that are readily accepted - isn't enough.
The whole posing of the question in this way is misguided and strains the ...

Suppose something (that is false) was true. Suppose that the opposition to Blair Hamilton playing for Sutton United or to Valentina Petrillo competing in the female category at the #Paralympics2024 was based on simple prejudice, like overt racism. What would follow? ... ...to my mind it would follow that the FA should suspend Sutton United, and exclude all the female players who objected from all competition. ...

Personal Announcement (thread)

I have agreed to settle a long-running legal dispute with my employer @OpenUniversity and a colleague. Here is the agreed statement: ... I can't comment on the settlement but I can say that I very much welcome it.

Unlike other disputes involving GC academics, I have not needed to crowdfund this process, because I have been supported and legally funded by my union @ucu doing what a union ought to do...

My comments on CAIS cases, and my endorsement of @michaelpforan's comments have been misunderstood. I hope this isn't wilfull. Here's a shot at explanation of my view - which is 'CAIS cases are genuinely tricky'. ... ... I think that in most cases the sport argument is fairly straightforward, but this is an area in which there is a genuine intellectual and ethical difficulty. It should not need to be said, but I'm profoundly committed to the integrity of women's sport, and MF is, too...

The logic of 'strict liability' in dope tests is this: If you have a banned substance in your body, then you may have an unfair advantage. That possibility of advantage is *still there* if a competitor spiked your drink, or you inadvertently took a contaminated supplement... ... the fact that you have done nothing wrong, were unlucky, or were, at the maximum, negligent, does not alter the fact of advantage. An Anti-Doping Rule Violation has been committed, simply by the presence of a banned substance in your sample...

'Legal' or 'passport' sex cannot be the basis of eligibility rules in sport for two *very* obvious reasons ... ... 1) Legal sex does not map across to male physiological advantage. It's male physiological advantage rooted in biological sex that determines the fairness and safety of eligibility rules for sex categories in sport...

This threatening and distracting post is, itself, unethical (in my view). Here's why I think this:

https://twitter.com/DZFOOTBALLDZ/status/1818592113954562251

... The @DZFOOTBALLDZ account agrees, in another post, that the athlete in question has a condition like Caster Semenya. That condition is a male, 46XY DSD: 5alpha Reductase Deficiency. We have known that this is the condition, since the World Athletics regulations ...

So the ever reliable @seaningle asked the key question at the @iocmedia prezzer just now, about the two male boxers in the female competition. Here are some comments on the answer from Mark Adams, for the IOC... ... Adams said that the two boxers in question were designated as female on their passports.

But this - 'passport sex' - is not the right criterion for assessing male advantage (and male risk) in sport. As CAS correctly determined in 2019:

So this is Blimey (3), a more considered thread about sex based rights, the Labour party, and Brighton and Hove, and the meeting last night.
First, the mechanics: The motion on sex-based rights was passed through my branch a couple of weeks ago. It was quite a short motion... ... and it is for women's conference, which takes place the day before annual conference (or so I understand). Now that it has passed, it will probably be 'composited' with other motions on sex-based rights for the conference.
It's an odd feature of Labour party rules...

There is very little case for a 'sport by sport' approach. The basic question is: "Are sex categories justified in this sport?"

Get the right answer to that, and the rest follows.
If (and only if) sex categories are justified, they should be fair.
Simple.
... ... The reasons to go for a sport by sport approach are political and pragmatic, not principled. It shifts responsibility for a controversial decision to governing bodies. I'd prefer the principle of fair sport for women in sex-affected sport to be mandatory and general. ...

I'm grateful to @stephenwhittle for replying to my post, and I hope Prof Whittle won't mind me QTing for space.

Prof Whittle's response is helpful because it shows either the sleight of hand, or, more charitably, the depth of misunderstanding here...

https://twitter.com/stephenwhittle/status/1776219037212520844

... Because, notice, I *don't mention* trans people in my tweet. Check out the tweet and the reply, and the slippage is obvious.
Now, I *do* allude to a GC movement and to 'our opponents' so it is fairly obvious what Prof Whittle is doing: taking the 'opponents' to be ...

Some different types of *inclusion* in sport: between *inclusion* in sport (thread)
Keep in mind the image of a dot and a circle. Is the person inside or outside the circle? If the person is inside, they are included. If outside, they are excluded. 1) Inclusion into a particular sports practice - is there a way for the individual to play that sport?
Can X play football or not?
X will be excluded if there is no one within 100 miles, and they have no football.

There *is* an assault on academic freedom today, and it *is* serious. It's manifested in multiple ways. One way is the issue over UKRI, censuring academics because of their tweets. Another is the attempt to stop a book launch at Edinburgh...

https://twitter.com/runthinkwrite/status/1722609673134858731

...a third was an attempt to get me and @JoPhoenix disciplined for signing a letter to the Sunday Times. There are threats to exclude Israeli scholars from the academic community
Of these four different threats, - and there are many more - the last three *come from* the UCU ...