BC GOVERNMENT
Saved by @Alex1Powell

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.

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"Communist Blogger" is my favorite Neutral Milk Hotel song


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In 2018, she agreed with someone who said that 9/11 was an inside job and argued that the school shooting in Parkland, FL was a false flag.

And then there's another time she said that the Parkland shooting was fake

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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."

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why is everything so weird


This is almost fitting because I used to make fake "In Memoriam" videos for whenever a Trump official left the administration back in 2017 set to this song until they all got pulled because of copyright complaints. haha


Beat it


Now playing: Tiny Dancer

This is actually just the Trump campaign playlist he's used at rallies since his 2016 campaign, if you can believe it
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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.

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Parker Molloy
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@ParkerMolloy
Anyone who is legally eligible to cast a ballot in an election should be allowed to do so in whatever way is most convenient for them. If that's in-person on election day, great; by mail, great; in-person in the weeks leading up to an election, great.

That is the only acceptable way for a democratic republic to function. Voting should be easy and it should be encouraged. There should be:

- Automatic voter registration.
- No excuses needed to vote absentee.

This is not controversial.

It's telling how people defend more restrictive voting methods. Look at this ridiculous quote from Pete Hegseth about how everyone being able to easily cast a ballot somehow stripping people of the "recourse" of the ballot box.
https://t.co/4AcTPT2HfD


They know there's not widespread fraud. It's not about "fraud." It never was.

They just want to put as many obstacles in the way as humanly possible, to make it more difficult for people to vote.

"We could've voted in person. I can go to Walmart. I can go to a store, I can go to a restaurant, I can go to sports games in some places. You tell me we couldn't have voted? I just don't buy it."

No one stopped you from voting in person, Pete!
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I've been seeing a lot of discussion around the dosage gaps recommended by government for the Astra/Oxford & Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. My thoughts on the potential benefits & risks of such an approach, and the need for much greater transparency around these decisions. Thread.


The UK govt announced recently that both the Oxford & BioNTech vaccines would be now administered with a gap of between 4-12 weeks (so prioritise administration of first dose, given limited resources).

What is the basis of this?

The basis that's been discussed seems to be that
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@amuse
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CAPITOL RIOT QUESTIONS FOR SPEAKER PELOSI: There is no group in America more interested in the safety and security of the Capitol than members of Congress. To that end, members have asked @SpeakerPelosi to answer these basic questions:

1/ What was your role in authorizing or denying National Guard support before and after Jan. 6?

2/ Reps. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and James Comer R-Ky., on Feb. 15 asked you five pointed questions about your role in Jan. 6 and your preservation and compliance with document requests. Will you answer them?

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4/ After the shooting of Republican House Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., were any changes made to security?
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