Breaking news - Emily won't compete

Good grief The Guardian sounded positively TERFy there, saying that actually the research has already been done & if male persons (of whatever identity) are allowed to participate in female sport they will have - even with reduced testosterone levels - a ridiculous advantage due to permanent changes caused by puberty.

I’m all for more study though - ALL the sunlight, every single last ray of it, to reach into the very darkest corner. But that can happen with TW removed from women’s sports.

The astonishment at there not being a ready-made well-resourced space available for [please select from list of all things ever] is one of the most effective signals TWANW; and it’s only further amplified by the solution never being to work to create their own spaces* but to i. demand women give up the spaces they have created, often from their own limited resources & ii. to keep insisting that they are a population of paradoxes which must never be questioned because they are the most vulnerable & fragile & the rest of society must act to protect them (but only as instructed, only a dreadful bigot would do something evidence-based).

• which would [have] be[en] insanely easy [in the UK/Ireland/Canada/most of Australia/much of America] for about the last 10 or so years as money & other resources would have been thrown at groups who wished to do so

Oops, I meant Sajid Javid.

Yes I wonder if some statement is on the way. It should be. There's a lot they need to be clear on and to fix.

Sport is the clearest case where women are not a sub-class of men. Not non-men. You can't just drop your testosterone levels and hey presto you're a female.

Imagine if all our work to nurture talent and increase our medals in the Olympics was wiped out by males in female sports categories. This matters.

And if sex matters in sport then it damn well matters in health. It matters that women were given appalling maternity care, which they got because of their sex. Because men don't, can't, never will give birth.

Good Emily is biologically a bloke so has an unfair advantage

Let's get rid of men's sports competition. We can have female events and open events. Sorted.

It's very heartening that there was the stirrings of a boycott from female cyclists.

They must know the vast majority of the public are behind them re female sports.

Thomas was backed by an open letter from 300 swimmers, including rival Erica Sullivan - but her inclusion also faced opposition from another competitor, Hungary's Reka Gyorgy, as well as Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

The BBC know how to spin a story don't they?
300 for inclusion 2 against.

From the Guardian
However on Thursday evening the UCI ruled that Bridges was not in compliance with its regulations as she is still registered as a male cyclist - and cannot compete as a woman until her current UCI ID expires.

So a technicality that BC would surely have been fully aware of, yet they were supporting EB to compete anyway?

Absolute bastards.

Where is their care and compassion for women? We are totally sidelined.

Sadly also rather typical that under that Guardian article all the related content is news of male cyclists. Goes back to Pogacar’s Strade Bianche win but not one mention of any women’s news or successes such as Elisa Balsamo’s 3 recent wins, and Lotte Kopecky’s brilliant Strade Bianche win. In fact there isn’t one Guardian article on women’s cycling since 22nd October last year.

It’s like women’s sport doesn’t exist.

The article about swimming is also good news. It appears that Thomas has done much to demonstrate the unfairness and that the proposed guidelines for swimming will bring a halt to much of this.
The brilliant Nancy Hogshead-Maker Nancy Hogshead-Makar, the American triple Olympic champion of 1984 who founded the Champion Women advocacy group, launched a petition calling for biological sex to determine elite sports categorisation. According to The Times, among the 6,000 signatories are 300 athletes whose names, including Davies, read like a Who’s Who of swimming history.
Nancy, who was involved in drawing up the new swimming rules has told the Times: I think that showing ‘no advantage’ is impossible so there’s the high bar: no boy grown through puberty to man can possibly be allowed into a women’s sport like swimming on race day

This particular decision is good as it protects females. I'm interested to see what's next, as seems to be implied by Sajad Javid:

twitter.com/unherd/status/1509221580097957898

Full interview online tomorrow.

Good news but still just a delay.

Good news. More sunlight too

That's all I can think of and tbh my reaction would be get over it if that were the case.

Thank you Ova

[quote OatSprout]It’s not exactly crystal clear why though is it. Is it inferring that EB’s testosterone levels haven’t been lowered for long enough? Or is it something new? Spectacularly unhelpful from the BBC as usual on trans issues.

The Times has it but behind a paywall www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-cyclist-emily-bridges-barred-from-competition-by-uci-h2nv06f6w[/quote]
Also share token for the article

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/88e0a5e0-b026-11ec-8b8c-0207c0fd6104?shareToken=483d82a8fc6c34bba1514658f3bedcd3

Good.

Ahhh I’m thankful for that!

[quote OatSprout]It’s not exactly crystal clear why though is it. Is it inferring that EB’s testosterone levels haven’t been lowered for long enough? Or is it something new? Spectacularly unhelpful from the BBC as usual on trans issues.

The Times has it but behind a paywall www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-cyclist-emily-bridges-barred-from-competition-by-uci-h2nv06f6w[/quote]
Article despite the headline being about Bridges is almost entirely about Lia Thomas. I think they don't know much beyond the initial British Cycling statement.

There is a lot of stuff in the article about new proposed rules from Fina - the swimming governing body (UK or US I'm not sure?)

Fina, the swimming governing body, is set to vote on a new policy in June and a source close to those devising the rules told The Times that under the proposed regulations Thomas — who won the 500 yards event at the NCAA championship — “would not have been able to compete with women . . . and the female category will be protected from athletes who have male advantages from male puberty and development”.

Brent Nowicki, the former counsel for the World Anti-Doping Agency and now the executive director of Fina, told The Times that Fina wanted to set “an industry standard” for all sports. Senior sources emphasised that the intention is not to exclude a swimmer such as Lia Thomas from the sport but to “make sure that elite athletes with male advantage do not get to compete in the female category”

The proposed policy will insist that trans-women undergo at least 36 months of testosterone reduction therapy, rather than a year, which is the present precedent. Testosterone levels will also be only one measure of physical advantage, with the rules designed to ensure “prior physical development of the athlete as a male, as mitigated by any medical intervention, does not impact fair play in the female category”. Elite status is likely to start from the age of 12, about the time of puberty.

One of the positives is that this has encouraged a number of past and current elite sportswomen to speak out. Hopefully there's now a critical mass of public outrage to ensure that they are well supported if the usual suspects or even captured governing bodies try to attack them.

Sean ingle has written it up fir the guardian. He has included how EB has continued ti compete in mens races. Apparently there was talk of a boycott

www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/mar/30/trans-cyclist-emily-bridges-banned-from-racing-at-british-meeting-after-uci-ruling

Really pleased. Im a BC member and will leave if this madness continues

Good. Though as pp have said they still don't seem to get it.

No men belong in women's sport. Ever.