The Kentucky legislature was finally fired up to enact laws to prevent a terrible crime. No, it wasn’t to finally do something about that blight, Answers in Genesis, that is robbing them blind and promoting ignorance — both houses in Kentucky are dominated by Republicans, and that stuff is their stock in trade. What they decided to do was pass a law absolutely prohibiting trans kids from participating in sports. The trans menace must be stopped in its tracks!
In this case, it’s one (1) trans girl in the entirety of the state. Here she is. Her name is Fischer Wells.
I wonder how it feels to have your nefarious plan to play field hockey with your friends foiled by the entire weight of the Kentucky Republican party being brought to bear on you? The governor tried to veto the law, but over a hundred Republicans got together to override the veto. More than a hundred bullies made sure to shut down one trans 13 year old.
They’ve already put up some high hurdles against trans kids, and this is just the final bit of bullying.
Although it’s unclear if other Kentucky trans students are also competing in school sports, even qualifying to play for a school team is extremely difficult due to burdensome requirements imposed by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA). The KHSAA guidelines mandate that trans athletes must undergo gender-confirmation surgery prior to participating on sports teams that align with their gender, which bars the vast majority of youth from competition.
Kick those trans kids while they’re down, Republicans! You must be so proud.
You know, six months ago I got called a bunch of nasty names and was subjected to some pretty nasty comments here for saying that the trans strategy of bullying, name calling and self-righteous indignation wasn’t working, and you were going to have to focus on winning over hearts and minds. I pointed out that the gay movement spent 40 years doing exactly that, and that calling people TERFs, cancelling them, and shouting them down is not a winning strategy.
Well, you all were having none of it. And of course these bills are passing. Not just Kentucky, but Texas, Alabama, Florida — they’re pretty much sweeping the South, with the Midwest likely to follow next.
So, for the second time, your strategy is not working. Every time you vilify someone for being a TERF, another one of these bills gets introduced. You are just going to have to do the hard work of sweet persuasion, even if it takes some time, and even if it feels oh-so-good to be self righteously indignant instead. And you can start by explaining why someone who has been through male puberty, with the incredible physical advantages that come from it, should be allowed to compete against people who have not had the advantage of male puberty. There may well be an answer to that question, but so far as I can tell, nobody is bothering to explain it. It’s just all screaming and shouting.
And I say that as someone who starts off a supporter of trans equality, but who also recognizes that reasonable minds may differ on specific applications.
@kathleenzielinski: Is your assertion that trans people caused these bills through their tactics? If so, how do you explain the Florida anti-gay legislation and its inevitable imitators? If the gay movement is doing it right why is this happening?
And do you really think the motivation for Kentucky targeting a bill at one child has anything to do with the fact that no one has explained things to the legislators properly?
@ 1
Awwwwww, poor baby!
Tell me, what other marginalized groups throughout human history have received dignity and rights after they asked their oppressors nicely? Oh! If only those trans kids had asked the Bible-humping, inbred, rednecks and the uptight TERFs “mother-may-I have freedom?”
Take your tone-trolling and victim-blaming and go fuck yourself to death.
I
kathleenzielinski @1:
Your understanding of causality, and of rightwing nutjobs, need a lot of work.
Wow, @kathleenzielinski, siding with the bullies to feel like you’ve won something? That’s both low and sad, even for you.
Tell us honestly, do you REALLY believe none of those bills would have been passed if no one had called out any of your TERF (or maybe just TE) bullshit? Do you REALLY think our capitulation would ever have made unfair treatment of trans people stop? Were people like you opposed to such laws before people started calling you out?
Also her understanding of history.
I’ve had about enough of kathleenzielinski. Buh-bye, don’t come back.
You are just going to have to do the hard work of sweet persuasion, even if it takes some time…
Yeah, right, because NO ONE has EVER lifted a finger to lobby for transpeople’s rights or persuade anyone that trans people were people and not a dire threat to…what was it y’all thought they were a dire threat to again…?
@6: Aw c’mon, PZ, aren’t you at least going to wait for her to blame trans activists for Russia’s war against Ukraine? I think we should at least wait and see how closely her anti-LGBT victim-bashing dovetails with Russian-Orthodox anti-LGBT victim-bashing…
And you can start by explaining why someone who has been through male puberty, with the incredible physical advantages that come from it, should be allowed to compete against people who have not had the advantage of male puberty.
Have YOU been through male puberty? I have, and believe me, you are grossly overstating the “incredible physical advantages that come from it.” News flash: they don’t happen to all boys to an equal degree. I was about to say “get some education,” but you don’t even need to finish high school to see that not all cis boys grow the same muscle-mass; so maybe I’ll just say “get your head out of your ass.”
A TERF was banned. And nothing of value was lost.
You know, six months ago I got called a bunch of nasty names and was subjected to some pretty nasty comments here…
You also got your actual arguments debunked and refuted, pretty conclusively, on this and even more so on other FTBlogs. But I guess you don’t want to remind us of that bit, do you?
@10: No one missed her last time she vanished, but by golly we’re all gonna miss her now, just you wait, yessireebob! :-/
It’s also weird that Zielinski charges in here in righteous anger that those trans folk are all using the wrong tactics and offending everyone and undermining equality…on a story about a trans girl who just wanted to play field hockey. All the bullying and name-calling was coming from the other side.
About the “incredible physical advantages that come from” male puberty: Acne? Stinky hair in strange places? Embarrassing erections? Emotional fragility? Awkwardness? Sure, some kids get bigger muscles and become transiently popular athletes, but it turns out that being good at throwing a ball or tackling people is a life skill that very few people can make a living from.
I thought they considered surgery on teens to be child abuse? Now they’re mandating it?
RE #1:
aw gee whiz if we were just quiet and patient with the people who have violent hatred of us they might not have done the thing they wanted to do anyway. wish i’d have thought of that.
seriously, this victim-blaming goalpost-shifting gaslighting nonsense is so tiresome and i’m sick of hearing it from people who “started off as supporters for trans equality” but were turned off by our anger when we’re condescended to. don’t lie to us like that. it’s shameful.
@13: This TE really doesn’t seem to understand that the “incredible physical advantages” of male puberty don’t just grow spontaneously — they come from actual physical exercise over time, both formal training and vigorous play-activities. Sure, lots of boys grow muscular, but that’s not an advantage unless you actually learn how to use those muscles, and regularly practice whatever activity you’re trying to get good at. Football players don’t just walk into a coach’s office fully trained and ready to play — that’s why they need coaches to MAKE them ready. File that under “D” for “duh.”
Raging Bee @17: They also don’t understand that height and muscle mass aren’t an advantage when it comes to every sport, either.
@kathleenzielinski 1
“You know, six months ago I got called a bunch of nasty names and was subjected to some pretty nasty comments here for saying that the [trans strategy] of bullying, name calling and self-righteous indignation wasn’t working, and you were going to have to focus on winning over hearts and minds.”
Your problem is in the brackets. Some people might do those things, but that is a general problem. People try to pin those with bad behavior on feminists, other races…
This is why I stick to harsh criticism, it makes people like you who will blame a group for the behavior of an individual easier to see. You make decisions about groups based on individuals bigot.
People like @1 just want us to shut up so they don’t have to hear our cries while they genocide us.
@brony — Her problem is that trans people have the audacity to exist.
The mildly deranged penguin observes @1’s claim makes perfect sense — on a flat Earth. There, basic physics is simple; logic is dictated by Magic Sky Faeries; mathematics proves 1 + 2 = 5, except when it needs to be 17.42 (and π is 3); books not burnt at 451℉ are also illegal; and all people must be the same (white, male (except for the barefoot pregnant slaves), speak ‘Merkin, and worship a fox). Compassion and understanding are reserved for those before-mentioned Magic Sky Faeries, who have none, unless you tithe enough, frequently, including making your children available to the priests. Stoning is recommended for anyone who doubts any of these self-evident trvths.
She helped start the fucking team folks!
There was no team for girls, so she started one, and they passed a law banning her.
(Also, yay for the final contribution from kathleen-why-did-you-make-me-punch-you-now-look-what-you’ve-done-you-got-blood-all-over-the-carpet-zielinski.)
Apparently in Texas, so many CPS agents have quit in response to the Texas government defining gender affirmation care of any kind as child abuse that the agency is now unable to investigate legitimate cases of suspected child abuse.
Sorry, I know it’s bad form to respond to a banned commenter – but at the same time I don’t want this bullshit to go unaddressed…
@ 1
First this ignores that trans people don’t have a platform. How do you propose they win “hearts and minds” while being severely underrepresented in media and society? Where they do have a platform, they have been patiently explaining their case to transphobes for years. Here’s a fucking 10 part series by a trans woman rebutting the transphobia of a certain notorious TERF. Have you ever read it?
Here’s a piece by a former FTB blogger rebutting just about every modern TERF argument written ten years ago.
But also this whitewashing of “the gay movement” is insultingly ahistorical.
Lesbians stormed the BBC.
continued….
Anita Bryant got a pie in the face.
Lesbians abseiled into the Houses of Parliament.
Stonewall WAS A FUCKING RIOT. That lasted for days.
Could you imagine the histrionics kathleen would be indulging in if trans people did anything remotely like this?
continued…
“Nobody” has addressed this claim?
Not the ACLU.
Not the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Not anyone who actually bothers to look at the data.
Apparently they’re just “screaming” and “shouting”.
Fucking educate yourself. No one is interested in screaming and shouting at you – they’re just trying to get you to notice that an innocent minority is being persecuted and your ignorance and hostility to said minority is not exactly helping.
microraptor @24: Is that a bug or a feature?
Silentbob @25: I love the “women are very polite” bit. Like that Magdalen person never heard of Anita Bryant, Lauren Bohbert or MTG? How cute and naive…
While I agree that male puberty gives some an “incredible physical advantage”, the idea that laws like these are a solution in search of a non-existent problem is wholly persuasive to me. Let them play.
Ridana @14
It’s just a poison pill they put in there. They, the Rethuglican authoritarians, have, and are still, introducing legislation to bar teens from obtaining “puberty blockers.” The follow-up bill, once they’ve done that, is going to be to exclude teens from obtaining gender-confirming surgery. I’m not sure what comes next, but the writing on the wall paints a grotesque prose.
@WMDkitty 21
Yes.
Didn’t this get vetoed by the governor?
nm, I see it did not in the end.