Friday, March 24, 2023


World Athletics votes to EXCLUDE transgender athletes who have transitioned from male to female after puberty

Transgender women have been banned from competing in the female category at international athletics events.

The decision was made by World Athletics today in order to 'prioritise fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion'.

Seb Coe, the governing body's president, also confirmed athletes from Russia and Belarus would continue to be excluded from competition, including the Olympics, due to the war of Ukraine.

That puts World Athletics in direct conflict with the International Olympic Committee, who are exploring a pathway for Russian and Belarusians to compete at Paris 2024 as 'neutrals'.

On the new transgender participation rules, Lord Coe said at a press conference in Monaco: 'The World Athletics council has taken the decisive action to protect the female category in our sport.

'The council has agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female world ranking competitions from March 31 this year.

'The decision that the council made is a primarily principle-based decision and that is the overarching need to protect the female category. This is what our sport is here to do.'

Under previous rules, transgender women could compete in the female category as long as their testosterone levels were below five nanomoles per litre over a one-year period.

In January, World Athletics announced they wanted to tighten their policy but said their 'preferred option' was only to reduce testosterone levels to 2.5 nmol/L and increase the transition period to two years.

That led to a huge backlash from female athletes and women's rights campaigners who wanted a blanket ban on transgender athletes competing against other women.

And yesterday, they were granted their wish following a vote of World Athletics council members, with the governing body admitting there was 'little support' for their original stance during a consultation period.

Coe said: 'The majority of those consulted stated that transgender athletes should not be competing in the female category. Many believe there is insufficient evidence that transwomen do not retain advantage over biological women.

'Where the science is insufficient to justify maintaining testosterone suppression for transgender athletes, the council agreed it must be guided by our overarching principle, which is to protect the female category.'

Asked if he expected a legal challenge, Coe said: 'It's possible. If that is the case, then we will do what we have done in the past which is vigorously defend our position. We will always do what we think is in the best interest of our sport.'

The decision by World Athletics follows that of swimming's world governing body, FINA, who announced a ban on transgender athletes from competing in elite women's races last summer.

The rules for trans women in other sports:

Cycling

Provided they have reduced their testosterone to a specific amount, transgender women can compete against other women.

Swimming

Transgender women are banned from elite female races if they have been through any male puberty. FINA, the governing body, is creating an ‘open’ category for transgender swimmers.

Rugby

Since 2020, trans women have been prevented from playing at the elite, international level of women’s rugby. World Rugby was the first international sports body to impose such a ban

Sharron Davies, the former British Olympic swimmer and leading campaigner on the issue, tweeted: 'Thank you @sebcoe & @WorldAthletics for standing up for female athletes across the world who are worthy of fair sport.'

She added: 'Protecting the female category must include young girls, masters females & schools too. They all deserve their right to fair sport. This cannot just be about elite. School girls, Club athletes & masters racers (as well protecting the pathway) is no less worthy of fair competition.

'Sport is for all. But it must be safe, fair & then inclusive. Not the other way round. Let's have respectful debate & find places for everyone.'

Coe added that a working group would be set up to do further research into transgender eligibility guidelines and insisted that 'we're not saying 'no' forever'.

He also announced stricter rules on athletes with differences in sex development (DSD).

Under previous regulations, DSD athletes only faced restrictions in events ranging from 400 metres to a mile, which prevented double 800 metres Olympic champion Caster Semenya from competing.

However, DSD athletes in all other events must also now reduce their testosterone levels to 2.5 nmol/L for at least six months, meaning Christine Mboma, the Olympic 200m silver medallist, is ineligible to compete at this summer's World Championships in Budapest.

It comes after years of rows of the position of transwomen in sports, with high profile cases including Lia Thomas's attempts to compete in women's National College Athletics' Association races.

Caitlyn Jenner, who performed in the Olympics as a man under the name Bruce, before transitioning later in life, criticised Thomas's desire to race against female swimmers, saying 'we have to keep it fair for women'.

She added it was 'just not fair' on other competitors given she has already gone through puberty as a male, and her Olympic quest 'the trans community look selfish'.

In the same press conference, Coe revealed that Russia's seven-year doping ban has now been lifted – but that their athletes, and those from Belarus, would still be excluded because of the invasion of Ukraine.

That is despite IOC president Thomas Bach insisting that Russians and Belarusians should be allowed to compete at next summer's Olympics in Paris.

Coe, who is also an IOC member, added: 'The IOC is not in any doubt about where I sit on that issue.

'The death and destruction we have seen in Ukraine over the past year, including the deaths of some 185 athletes, have only hardened my resolve on this matter.

'The integrity of our major international competitions has already been substantially damaged by the actions of the Russian and Belarusian governments, through the hardship inflicted on Ukrainian athletes and the destruction of Ukraine's sports systems.

'Russian and Belarusian athletes, many of whom have military affiliations, should not be beneficiaries of these actions.'

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Left-wing Young Turks commentator infuriates woke mob by blasting trans-friendly terms such as 'birthing person' and 'person who menstruates'

One of the hosts of The Young Turks faced intense outrage from a woke mob - which included some of her own loyal fans - after she criticized a series of 'trans-friendly' vocabulary.

Left wing commentator Ana Kasparian tweeted that she finds certain trans-inclusive ways of addressing 'women' - such as person with a uterus and birthing person - as degrading.

But Kasparian then found herself heavily criticized by the woke online mob - pinning her as being transphobic and trans-exclusionary for her mere opinions.

Earlier this week, the social commentator wrote: 'I'm a woman. Please don't ever refer to me as a person with a uterus, birthing person, or person who menstruates. How do people not realize how degrading this is?

'You can support the transgender community without doing this s**t.'

Her comments did not go over well with Twitter users on both the right and the left with one person saying: 'Ana, that might be one of the most TERF things you could say.'

A TERF is an acronym meaning 'trans-exclusionary radical feminist,' a term that most notably entered the public eye after Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling made anti-transgender statements.

Kasparian's tweet, posted just before 2.30pm on March 22, has been viewed on the social media app more than 20 million times.

One transgender journalist and MSNBC contributor called out Kasparian and told her to 'get a grip' on her tweets.

'Those words are meant for AFAB [assigned female at birth] people as a category, not individual people. Get a grip,' Katelyn Burns wrote.

One person who identifies themselves as a psychiatrist for transgender youth also called out the tweet.

'Who called you that? I've only ever heard that used when referring to a population, not an individual person,' wrote Jack Turban.

'Obviously, those terms are meant to be precise to include all people who meet one of those characteristics, when needing to discuss a relevant topic,' Turban tweeted.

Mike Figueredo, who goes by the 'The Humanist Report' on Twitter, said in a tweet that he believes Kasparian is playing into anti-trans rhetoric.

'I respect you a lot, but this notion that the mere existence of trans-inclusive terms (rarely used in casual convos) somehow degrades women comes right out of the right's anti-trans 'war on women' playbook,' Figueredo tweeted.

'There's a reason why they're praising you for this,' he continued.

Among those 'praising' Kasparian was former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who tweeted her support for the host's statements.

'A broken clock...' Lake wrote in response to The Young Turks' host's tweet.

Kasparian did not appear to want Lake's endorsement, however, responding: 'I think you're an embarrassment to this country and full blown lunatic.'

British rapper Zuby joined in, stating: 'Your side is going to roast you now. I hope you're ready for the tolerance.'

Kasparian also responded to that tweet, saying: 'They have the right to speak their piece, as do I.'

'A sensible, mainstream take... that is going to absolutely trigger the s**t out of Very Online progressives,' journalist Brad Polumbo responded in a tweet.

'Your comment section has turned into a lunatic asylum. Some people just can't accept your remarks,' Ian Miles Cheong said.

The backlash comes just weeks after Kasparian sat down with right-wing podcast host Ben Shapiro to talk about some of the biggest issues in the country.

At one point, Kasparian called out left-wing policies in Los Angeles in regards to the homeless crisis in the city. 'The approach that we have implemented is clearly not working; more people are dying,' Kasparian said.

'I get so much flack for saying this: I want an actual solution,' the host continued.

'It is insanely cruel to watch people die on our streets and then give yourself a pat on the back because you think you did something compassionate. That is not compassionate,' Kasparian continued.

After the sit-down where the pair discussed a myriad of topics, Kasparian received backlash for 'platforming' Shapiro, who he base vehemently disagrees with.

She fought back saying that Shapiro's audience didn't appear to have a problem with her talking to him and the issue seemed one sided.

'Ben has a bigger following than me. I can assure you he’s platforming me and his audience isn’t crying about it,' Kasparian said.

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White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo is accused of being pro-segregation after saying 'people of color need to get away from white people'

'People of color need to get away from White people and have some community with each other,' DiAngelo said during a March 1 webinar, 'Racial Justice: The Next Frontier.'

DiAngelo then went on to suggest that people who do not concede to antiracist teachings do not belong in modern workforces.

'In 2023, we have to see the ability to engage in these conversations with some nuance and some skill as a basic qualification and if you can't do that, you're just simply not qualified in today's workplace,' DiAngelo said.

The racially charged comments enraged conservatives on Twitter.

'Robin DiAngelo sounding like an old-line segregationist,' anti-CRT expert Chris Rufo tweeted in response to the clip.

Conservative podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey said DiAngelo's comments sounded like racial comments made by Dilbert creator, Scott Adams, that caused several newspapers to pull his long-running cartoon.

'When Robin DiAngelo says it, it's inspirational and she gets paid $20k. When Scott Adams says it, it's racist and he loses his job,' she tweeted.

Darrell B. Harrison, director of digital platforms at Grace to You Ministries, argued that DiAngelo's comments revealed her own racist attitudes.

'For people like Robin DiAngelo, it's always other white people who black people need to 'get away from,' but never her. DiAngelo is a woke Bull Connor, only instead of dogs and fire hoses, she uses the divisive and factious tenets of critical race theory to keep blacks in their place,' he tweeted.

The left-wing activist was on a panel with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consultants Mary-Frances Winters and Mareisha N. Reese discussing the future of DEI when she made the comments.

Her most recent book title, 'The Facilitator's Guide for White Affinity Groups: Strategies for Leading White People in an Anti-Racist Practice,' also suggests she believes Whites should stay within their own racial social circles.

DiAngelo has published a number of academic articles on race, privilege, and education and written several books.

In 2011, she co-wrote with Ozlem Sensoy, 'Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Critical Social Justice Education.'

The book won the American Educational Research Association's Critics' Choice Book Award in 2012 and the Society of Professors of Education Book Award in 2018.

DiAngelo later that year published a paper titled 'White Fragility' in The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, thereby coining the term.

She defined the concept of white fragility as 'a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves'.

Since 2016, DiAngelo has regularly led workshops on the topic. In 2017, the term 'white fragility' was shortlisted by the Oxford Dictionary for Word of the Year.

An in June 2020, during the George Floyd protests, White Fragility reached number one on the New York Times list.

DiAngelo makes an estimated $728,000 a year from speaking engagements and workshops and is charging an average of $14,000 per speech to talk about 'utlra-woke' concepts.

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National Archives Sued for Shielding Documents Declassified by Trump

The National Archives and Records Administration is illegally withholding documents that were declassified by then-President Donald Trump, according to a new lawsuit.

The archives, or NARA, has repeatedly refused to provide the documents Trump declassified just before leaving office on Jan. 19, 2021.

The documents relate to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, a counterintelligence probe that examined purported links between Trump and Russian actors.

John Solomon, a journalist, and Kash Patel, a former Trump administration official, asked NARA for the documents in 2022 after being named Trump’s representatives to NARA.

Gary Stern, a NARA official, said the declassified records had been sent to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) per a memorandum from then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who directed on Jan. 20, 2021, the DOJ to review the materials and release them with redactions.

“I have asked DOJ to complete its review as quickly as possible, so that we can all have a fully releasable set of records,” Stern said in a message on Aug. 17, 2022.

NARA did find a box with about 2,700 pages but couldn’t ascertain the box’s classification status and is thus treating it as top-secret, Stern said in another email.

NARA is violating the Presidential Records Act, which states that presidential records of a former president “shall be available to such former President or the former President’s designated representative,” the new suit states.

The government defendants “have wrongfully taken or are wrongfully in possession of and/or detaining the subject records,” it states.

Solomon filed the suit in federal court in Washington.

He is asking the court to order the DOJ to immediately return the records to NARA and to order NARA to turn the records over once received.

“President Trump declassified these records so the American public could see for itself the abuses and failures of the FBI during the Russia collusion case. But at every step of the process, the public has been thwarted,” Solomon said in a statement. “These declassified records are clear records of the Trump presidency, have clear historical value, and have been wrongly kept from the Archives and its employer, the American people, by the DOJ for more than two years.”

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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