Get back in your box women, you're a right wing animal if you think men should be kept out of sport. "Why have rightwingers made even parkrun a battleground for trans people?"

I shouldn't worry about it. When the left has abandoned inclusion, multi culturalism, disabled access, equality for women, equality for homosexuals, child safeguarding, religious tolerance and equality in general, they are only identifying as left.

The material reality is that there's nothing politically leftist about them.

Women's rights, women's equality and child safeguarding is now 'right wing'

And 'trans rights' = misogyny, destruction of women's rights, women's equality, child rights and safeguarding - is now the proud province of the left wing. Apparently.

Ok. Got it. Will vote accordingly thanks. These tribalist people are out of their little tiny minds.

So, it’s awful that ParkRun have scrapped the records, while at the same time, the records don’t matter because it’s just for fun. 🤷‍♀️

"The cause was quickly taken up by the press and their useful idiots on social media. Things were angrily written. Insults were slung. Noise begat noise."

and his contribution has been to bang on about culture warriors, dismiss feminist opposition as right wing, he is hardly the grown up in the room. He could taken up the words of any number of distinguished female athletes and written and intelligently saying why he objected but instead we get puerile sexist garbage

Liew is certainly not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He is a sports writer and this sometimes involves the politics of sport but he is clearly way out of his depth here thus the dependence on cheap jibes.

MILTOBE · Today 11:17

How can he not see it's the same here?

I'm sure that he actually does see it, but simply doesn't care, because he wants to push his ideological point and polish his TROSH halo.

Everyone knows that but women's sport literally exists so that women get a fair chance. The logical conclusion to his world view is that it should not exist.

Of course. It's the same reason we have separate categories for under-15s, or disabled people. Or different weight categories in boxing.

These points have been made time and time again. Yet people like Liew either don't understand or won't understand.

The reason he calls us right wing is because he knows we would find that a huge insult. I'm not sure why not wanting my daughter to come second to a TW in a women's race makes me right wing. No one wants the TW to not run in a race, just not in our race.

Imagine the PE teacher running against his younger pupils and shouting, "I won! I won!" Everyone's eyes would be rolling to the back of their heads. "Well that's not fair, is it?" is what everyone would say.

How can he not see it's the same here?

Far further left than the bloody Guarniad btw

Although the saving grace here is that The Guardian are actively encouraging replies to an article that has been penned by the most gormless and tactless male TRA at their paper. Even OJ tends to avoid the sports arguments as he knows it is a weak spot.

I will wait for the replies before judging them on this one.

spat my tea out at this this morning - not going to give it more traffic but in the penultimate paragraph he says something along the lines of "the message is this is not your space transwomen, and you're not welcome in it regardless of how you identify" as though that's some sort of gotcha. That's exactly what we're saying. And we mean it. Now fuck off you misogynistic little prick.

JL seems to have ignored the existence of the (sport-inspired) saying ‘a level playing field’.

" I have a lot of time for Navratilova, a tireless campaigner against social and political injustices far beyond her own sport and her own circumstances. But on this one, she’s sadly misguided. You know what? Sport isn’t fair. "

Everyone knows that but women's sport literally exists so that women get a fair chance. The logical conclusion to his world view is that it should not exist.

He clearly does not believe in equal opportunities for men and women.

Why is he even on the Guardian?

I'm truly sorry that Sophie W wasn't able to exert the leadership of which she's clearly capable when she was with WEP.

As for right-wing, as Colin Wight expresses it:

WitchyWitcherson · Today 10:55

That's an excellent letter, I must say.

If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table.

Love it!

I've complained. I wonder if it's worth a complaint to IPSO too? On their code: "The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual's race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability."

Here's my letter of complaint in case of use to anyone. Fucking awful piece of trash article.

"Dear Editor,
I find the article published in your Sports section this morning :"Why have rightwingers made even parkrun a battleground for trans people?" incredibly problematic and offensive.

As a VERY MUCH LEFT WING feminist woman, the idea that fighting for the equal rights of women in sport is in any way remotely 'right wing', or a 'battleground for trans people', is misguided at best.

The "battle" isn't about trans people, it's about women - women have a right to same sex sport.

The article is full of hyperbolic misinformation - where it starts by claiming the fight is about "stopping 16-year-old girls from competing in sports" - WRONG; 16 year old biological females have nothing to do with the Parkrun debate, that this is about "erasing trans women from sport" - WRONG; there's nothing stopping transwomen from competing in male categories and many advocate for the creation of a third category), the article again insults concerned women calling them "genital inspectors" - WRONG; not only is this more offensive name-calling of women who have concerns, but fails to acknowledge that people who have completed male puberty do not need their genitals inspected - they are stronger, bigger, have a different gait, different facial features etc. AND THIS IS WHAT GIVES THEM THE ADVANTAGE - testosterone or not.

The article is FULL of sympathy for trans women, but fails to see that this "tiny minority" competing in women's sport has a devastating impact on THE VAST MAJORITY of women competing against them.

My issues with the piece are confounded by the fact that it was written by a man; I see this as no less offensive than a white person writing an article minimising or belittling the struggle of ethnic minorities. The article is absolutely dripping with misogyny.

The Guardian must reassess their stance on this topic and pull its head out of the sand. This is not a right-wing, left-wing issue. The Guardian is appeasing its men's rights activist and trans rights activist readers at the cost of alienating left-wing women.

Regards,"

To be fair he probably means it in the same way we do when we talk about women being excluded from sport: that although technically they still can they are likely to be discouraged. I can clearly see that a trans person might avoid park run if they have to run under the appropriate sex category. That’s why an open category in which sex is not declared is needed.

@RoyalCorgi
There's an old american lawyer saying that lawtube like to quote. I think it sort of answers your question.
If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table.

When there's no good arguments, you have to rely on just spouting crap.

Stupid misogynist. Can’t possibly get his head around the fact that women might not be happy losing their records to Bob who is now Crystal, so those women must be right wing bigots. How can they have printed that? If you’re ever in doubt about how much they hate you just read that. Utter vomit inducing woman hate.

This is what I always want to ask. He must know that people aren't trying to restrict the access of trans people to sport. So is he deliberately dishonest, or just very very stupid?

Such a daft article. No one is interested in banning people who identify as trans from sports, they just need to compete with people of their own sex. Interesting that he's totally fine with women being kept out of sports though 🙄

Even in the guardian, the comments aren't open.