BC GOVERNMENT
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There are a number of reasons bills like these are wrongheaded. One is that it tries to implement the same kind of one-size-fits-all solution that opponents of trans inclusion claim to oppose.

But let’s get nuanced for a minute...

 Do trans women and girls have an advantage in sports over other women and girls?

I’m here to provide a very unsatisfying answer: It depends.
What sport are we talking about?

How old are people competing in it?

What sort of hormone treatment has the person in question had and for how long?

Those are all factors that play into the fairness question.
Trying to implement broad policies in the name of ensuring fairness can actually have the opposite of the intended effect.

Take the case of Mack Beggs.

A few years back, Beggs was a high school student in Texas. He was a wrestler, and wanted to do it at the college level.
Beggs is a trans man, meaning his birth certificate said female on it. Like many trans guys, he takes testosterone as part of his medical transition.

He wanted to wrestle. Specifically, he wanted a spot on his school’s boys team.

He wasn’t allowed.
The rules that had been made at the state level said that because his birth certificate said female, he could only compete against girls.

Now, here’s where you might go “wait, wait, isn’t it unfair for someone taking testosterone to wrestle girls?” and the answer is yeah, it is.
So, he was faced with some tough choices, none of them good:

1. Don’t wrestle at all

2. Wrestle against girls, keep taking testosterone, have an advantage

3. Wrestle against girls, stop taking testosterone even though it’s something he, his family, his doctor see as necessary
Again, though, all he wanted to do was to wrestle against boys, which would have been the most level possible playing field and wouldn’t require him to top taking hormones.

But he couldn’t. Because of a blanket rule meant to ensure “fairness.”
High school students shouldn’t have to pick between medically necessary care or the ability to take part in activities at school, whether that’s sports or marching band or AV club.
So, anyway, left with limited options that were all bad, Beggs wrestled in the girls division.

He dominated. Obviously. He won the state championship twice in a division he never wanted to compete in in the first place.
People said “Hey! That’s unfair!”

And yes, it was. But it wasn’t his fault. It was an anti-trans rule meant to ensure “fairness” that caused the unfairness.

Here’s a story about him from this year. He’s in college now:

https://t.co/sAdkUN6SgC
But those bills aren’t aimed at trans guys like Beggs. The thought behind them as they get written and implemented is a concern that trans girls (whose birth certificates say male) will dominate sports/have an unfair advantage.
But as I said earlier, the question of “fairness” and level playing fields and all that is way more nuanced than many are willing to consider. https://t.co/qYnWNgtQDp
If a trans girl never underwent her body’s natural testosterone-fueled puberty, then it’s ridiculous to say she has an advantage over other girls in any sport.
But if you’re talking about someone who did go through puberty, went through a giant growth spurt to be 6’5” or something by junior year in high school and decided she wanted to play basketball her senior year, then yeah, that’s pretty clearly unfair.
“You must play sports based on what it said on your birth certificate” isn’t good policy, nor is a complete and total free for all.

It’s a topic that often gets looked at with zero nuance. Bills like Gabbard’s in the House or Loeffler’s in the Senate look to codify zero nuance.
The NCAA and International Olympic Committee have both tried to find policies that look at this with more nuance, and they seem to be working, generally. It’s not to say they’re perfect, and if suddenly sports was overrun with trans women just racking up goals medals at...
... the Olympics, the IOC would be right to think “Okay, we need to recalibrate things a bit.” But that hasn’t happened. To the best of my knowledge, there haven’t been any trans women who’ve even made their country’s Olympic teams let alone won medals.
The “trans women will bring an end to women’s sports entirely because they will dominate!” thing has been argued for decades.

Look, here’s a 1976 letter to the editor sent to NYT: “women’s sports will be taken over by a giant race of surgically created women.”

44 years ago!
On the topic of “why don’t they create an ‘other’ category?” questions, I’ve found this helpful. https://t.co/8DnMT9QSDD
It’s a complex issue that doesn’t have a clear-cut one-size-fits-all answer, which is why Gabbard’s bill to strip federal funding for schools that accommodate trans student athletes is just messed up.

But, as I’ve said before: this isn’t actually about sports.
Gabbard knows her bill isn’t becoming law. She’s only in Congress for 3 more weeks. This is culturally conservative virtue signaling. Same with her sponsorship of the “born alive” bill and her mangled understanding of Section 230 reform.
Her bill won’t get a vote in the House, and the current session ends next month, making anything that doesn’t get a vote, make it through the senate, and get signed before then pretty much just a way to put on a show.
I’ve written a lot on the topic of trans people, athletes, media coverage, and I’d like to think that I approach the topic with necessary nuance while providing what personal insight I can.

Something I wrote for Vice in 2014: https://t.co/VsFjdDRtwn
And I’ve written about how the arguments that get made about trans athletes get used in media to attack intersex athletes https://t.co/wMPTGPbk1A
Every time... without fail... I get these replies... even after that long-ass thread.

More from Parker Molloy

Parker Molloy
Parker Molloy
@ParkerMolloy
This is a good piece by @AaronBlake. I've been scratching my head over claims that there was something in this trove of emails that implicated Fauci in something bad because pretty much everything matched up with what was being said publicly at whatever time the emails were from.


One thing that's occurred to me over the past few years is that there's a sense that the mere *existence* of emails is seen as evidence of wrongdoing, which is obviously nonsense.

It played out that way when it came to the DNC and Podesta emails in 2016, the Hunter Biden e-mails in 2020, these e-mails in 2021. It wasn't that there was much that was damning in, say, the DNC emails that helped sink Clinton's candidacy, but just their existence ...

... gave off a sense of corruption/scandal/etc., that weighed more heavily on people's perception of them as the result of them taking the form of a leak/data dump.

And it's kind of similar with the Fauci e-mails (which weren't leaked, but were FOIAed).

Anyway, again, @AaronBlake's post is a good and methodical breakdown of some of the bizarre claims being thrown about. If there's anything we didn't already know contained in those e-mails, I haven't seen it.
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Parker Molloy
Parker Molloy
@ParkerMolloy
If you're curious what Trump's defense will look like, all you have to do is turn on Fox News. My latest at @mmfa

The tl;dr is that for years right-wing media have been excusing Trump's violent rhetoric by going, "Yes, but THE DEMOCRATS..." and then bending themselves into knots to pretend that Dems were calling for violence when they very, very clearly weren't.

And in fact, this predates Trump.

In 2008, Obama was talking about not backing down in the face of an ugly campaign. He said "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."

https://t.co/i5YaQJsKop


That quote was from the movie The Untouchables. And there's no way anybody reading that quote in good faith could conclude that he was talking about actual guns and knives. But it became a big talking point on the

In 2018, Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder was speaking to a group of Georgia Democrats about GOP voter suppression. He riffed on Michelle Obama's "When they go low, we go high" line from the 2016 DNC.
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Parker Molloy
Parker Molloy
@ParkerMolloy
Rudy Giuliani did everything wrong before, during, and after 9/11. Just an awful person. People ask “what happened” to him, but the ghoul he is today is the ghoul he was 20 years ago. https://t.co/M18uZXd8OM


An absolute monster who only cared about his own fame.


One of the worst people on the planet, then and now


And then, after all of that, he tried to use the attack as an excuse to cancel the mayoral election and remain in power.
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Parker Molloy
Parker Molloy
@ParkerMolloy
My latest piece at @mmfa:

Fox News keeps trying to justify GOP efforts to object to the Electoral College vote by pointing to the number of people who think the election was stolen (after spending 2 months telling their audiences that it was

This is Fox, basically:

Another comparison to the role Fox is playing here via one of my favorite Onion articles:

Or maybe a human centipede, but with the front connected back to the end for a loop of shit-eating. Yeah, that's it. That's the role Fox is playing here.

But seriously, check out the *more than 2 months* of Fox-enabled conspiracy theories (a partial list):
NEWS
Parker Molloy
Parker Molloy
@ParkerMolloy
I told you they’d bring this up


I was wondering why that tweet had so many stupid replies. And now I see


Seriously, this was “the night before.” If you’re at the march where they’re changing “Jews will not replace us” and “Blood and soil,” you’re not a “very fine person.” Full stop.


There are 3 important moments in that transcript.

1.) When someone asked Trump about a statement *he had already made* about there being blame on “both sides,” he said the “fine people” line.


2. Trump does clarify! “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally “

Okay!

Then adds that there were “many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”
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#Justin A day before the @MyMDC_T EOC, the party Treasurer General says he is unable to fund travel costs for delegates to congress because the money was allegedly stolen. We share contents of the letter from #ChiefNdlovu


“My office has been inundated with calls from concerned EOC delegates who by now should have received their Provincial transport allocation.
It has come to my attention that some of our members may not be able to travel to the EOC due to lack of funding.”


Equally I have received allegations that the Treasury is refusing to make payments for EOC, nothing could be further from the truth. I would like to take this opportunity as your Deputy Treasurer to inform you that as treasury we are not able to pay due to the fact that...


that funds were withdrawn from the party account on the 18th December 2020, we are still pursuing and trying to get some Standing Committee members who were involved in the unapproved transfer to return the money to the Party.
I was left a bit shocked to learn that the SG expects


Treasury to release money when he is the one who transferred all the money out of the account without my explicit approval. Perhaps the SG must inform members where the money is. I certainly do not have any knowledge of who he sent the money to or what has happened to those funds
GOVERNMENT
Larry Schweikart
Larry Schweikart
@LarrySchweikart
1) Where we are: This is much, much bigger than a fraudulent election (it was) or rampant gubment tyrannical China Virus abuse (it is).

2) What we are facing has been building for a good 30 years.

3) I date it back to the GOP failure to defeat Clinton in the gubment shutdown.

4) If you went to public school, that would be the 1995 budget battle.

5) The brand new GOP Congress, with plenty of public support, failed to rein in a Clinton bloated budget.

6) It wasn't the numbers. Compared to today's deficits & debts, this was pocket change. Rather, this was the first time since the Cold War, which was a legit excuse for constant deficit spending, that Congress failed to do its MAIN constitutional duty--oversee spending.

7) No, this isn't a thread about deficits or debt. At present, I don't think those pose the biggest challenge to us, or even probably one of the top five.

8) Rather, this is about a deadly disease that hit DC & the patient refused to take any medicine for it.

9) The disease was the failure to address the major problems of the day, whether it was deficits, Islamic terrorism, the banking crisis, or trade.

10) Vote fraud & this frankenstein of an election is only the latest SYMPTOM of this much larger disease.
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Stephen Wolfe
Stephen Wolfe
@PerfInjust
Thread:
I'm thinking about Tim Keller's influence.

There is the curious fact that Keller is well-regarded among the culture elite (or at least has not suffered the sort of vilification one might expect given his influence). How can we explain this?

Looking at Prodigal God and other writings, you see that his approach to urban ministry is deeply political in a way that appeals to Democrat-heavy cities. It involves two moves:

1) equalizing sins: elevating the sin of hypocrisy, "moralism," and "religion" (the sins of "conservatives") and equating these with the sins tolerated among liberal (e.g., homosexuality)
&
2) emphasizing "self-righteousness" as a sort of chief sin (the sin of "red states").

Keller effectively downplays the sins that liberals tolerate while elevating the sins of their political enemies, the red state conservatives.

But the greatest appeal to liberals is that critiquing the "self-righteous" vilifies political action, particularly the action of social conservatives (e.g., anti-gay marriage). And the equalization of sins eases concerns over changes in social policy (e.g., gay marriage).
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George Peretz QC
George Peretz QC
@GeorgePeretzQC
This article by Jim Spellar for @LabourList misses the point about why Labour needs to think seriously about constitutional reform - and have a programme for it ready for government.


The state of our constitution is a bit like the state of the neglected electric wiring in an old house. If you are moving into the house, sorting it out is a bit tedious. Couldn’t you spend the time and money on a new sound system?

But if you ignore the wiring, you’ll find that you can’t safely install the new sound system. And your house may well catch fire.

Any programme for social democratic government requires a state with capacity, and a state that has clear mechanisms of accountability, for all the big and all the small decisions that in takes, in which people have confidence.

That is not a description of the modern UK state.
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xťřåbíğģğ *Same On Gab...
@xtrabiggg
A thread on... where we are as Americans.

Since I was a kid, I've been a 'news junkie'. Read both local newspapers every day, all the newsmagazines, and watched every local & national newscast. I even wrote & voiced a national financial news broadcast for several years.

1/


Even after I left broadcasting, I continued to consume all the news within reach. Religiously watching all the Sunday shows, writing letters to the editor, and plowing into Social Media- when it first started! I even watched all the late-nite comics for their witty snark.

2/


Now, for the first time in my life, I don't. I keep up with events, and still read voraciously, but I just can't watch or read the majority of the corporate news. Because most of it ISN'T news anymore, but a sad self-parody akin to the 1976 Movie 'Network'.

3/


Paddy Chayefsky wrote a scathing satire of a news network so consumed with ratings that it eschewed journalistic ethics in favor of sensationalism and pushing narrow corporate and political interests. That sadly, is no longer parody.

4/


The line between 'hard news' and opinion was erased at most outlets long ago. We no longer talk of 'objectivity' or hearing both sides'. People refer to most (formerly) 'hard news' outlets by their ideological slant, and the agenda they push.

5/
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Poonathanam Namboothiri was a great devotee of Guruvayurappan. One day Poonthanam was going to Guruvayur Kshetram. It was night time and eventhough Namboothiri was tired he continued to walk


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gave his ring to Mangattachan as a token of thanks and continued his journey. He reached Guruvayur early morning for Nirmalya Darshan. Temple poojari came near him and told that Guruvayurappan came in his dreams and asked to hand over the ring to poonthanam.


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