To think Laurel Hubbard should not be competing against other women

[Belle82]

I know I am going to get ripped apart for this.

I have no problem with the transgender community, that is your life/body and I am not one to judge anyone else, do what makes you happy.

There is something fundamentally wrong about a person who is biologically a man competing against a woman in sport as significant as weightlifting.
I am not taking anything away from women weightlifters, however when competing in that sport, a person who was born a man will always have an unfair advantage over a woman.

I am all for equal rights but it seems political correctness has now put us in a position that we will only consider the equal rights of those in the transgender community. What happens to the equal rights of all the other women who have worked extremely hard to get to the olympics who should be competing against biological women.

There needs to be clearer cut criteria on entrance requirements to every sport, to give every person the equal rights they deserve.

My heart goes out to all the other women competing who I’m sure must be somewhat disheartened about their chances of success now they are competing against a biological man.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/29/ioc-praises-weightlifter-laurel-hubbard-ahead-of-transgender-athletes-olympic-debut

@AtticusHoysAnus

The women weightlifters should send a message and step down.

She's already won so utterly pointless even completing.
It's outrageous this has happened.

So by the organisers reckoning it would be acceptable for a trans woman heavyweight boxer to enter a women's event.

Someone could get killed, is that what it's going to take?

Transgender boxer Fox Fallon already cracked a woman's skull and boasted about it.

@Zandathepanda

Well done to the GB mixed relay team! Look at the difference in size of the men and women. The first leg has men and women directly competing with each other as the teams decide who to go first. Unfortunately there is no way the women can catch the men. Brilliant illustration of why sport should be sex based at the Olympics.

agree. In the previous relay, the one that's just running where they pass the baton rather than triathalon relay, most of the teams had m-f-f-m runners, apart from one who tried m-f-m-f. Even though that last woman started well in front of all the other males, they were so fast they all, even the slowest, took over her within the 400m. People make the point that sex is only one distinguishing feature, that it will never be completely fair unless people only compete against people of their own exact height etc, but races like that show that there wasn't huge gaps between the different female runners because some were taller/slimmer/of a different race, but solely because of sex. No matter how much of a head start they had or how fit they were, men just have those huge physical advantages that pp's have highlighted.

@Viviennemary

This has already been discussed at length. And almost everyone agreed this person shouldn't be competing in the female only events.

Yes and it's still happening. So let's discuss it at length some more shall we and expose it as much as we can.

If we fill this thread up we can start a part two.

I will keep talking about this to anyone and everyone. The more people who know, the better.

I wish all the female athletes would strike until the males are forced out of their categories! I know they won't want to sacrifice their shot at Olympic medals and I understand that. They shouldn't have to. But it would END this shit for good.

I couldn't even sign the fucking change petition because change are apparently a bunch of misogynists and took it down.

Bloody hell that's terrible.
Probably being naive here but can't that kind of comment be sanctioned by the governing body of a sport?

So by the organisers reckoning it would be acceptable for a trans woman heavyweight boxer to enter a women's event

In MMA I think it was a woman ended up fighting a biological male . Tamikka Brent ( the woman) ended up with a fractured orbital bone.

This is apparently OK in the name of inclusion .

World Rugby although have stated that males should not play against females at elite level as its too dangerous , its still left up to the individual clubs at amateur /local.level. those women are acceptable collateral damage

@speakout

I too support this thread being in AIBU. Look at the poll. This is not just a subject for a small group of women with particular ideals- this affects all women.

Agreed.

@tttigress

Personally I think it's great she is competing.

Why?
Because when she wins, it will show the insanity of the situation to the whole world, and people might start thinking about doing something to change it!

I hope you're right. Other men have already taken women's medals and no one seems to care. I know the olympics are huge but all the 'official' commentary is gaslighting bullshit about the poor oppressed useless fat bloke transwoman.

Please write to your MPs so this could gain momentum.
A British athlete is in the running for one of the too places. And Laurel Hubbard can snatch this form her.

www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1108392/big-read-laurel-hubbard

@Viviennemary

This has already been discussed at length. And almost everyone agreed this person shouldn't be competing in the female only events.

What's your point? Do we need to stop talking about it now then?

I compete to quite a reasonable level and I would be ashamed to win or even compete in the way that LH is.

To a large extent, this is the only real thing preventing women's sports being totally overrun.

Sport is a social activity, and shame will prevent most males from entering female sports. Most would rather participate in fair competition at a lower level than have everyone watching them visibly cheat at a high level. And for most, there wouldn't be much hope of financial gain either way - most sport is amateur - so there's not that much financial incentive. (Possible exception being athletic scholarships in the US?)

So you're now selecting for a very particular sort of shameless individual - Rachel McKinnon is one of the most extreme examples. These male competitors are going to be outliers. At worst, you may be selecting for males who like seeing females being coerced into going along with them. And don't tell me that's not a thing.

I just signed in on my browser, purely so I could vote YANBU. (Usually on app).

This is shining a massive spot-light, but it's a fucking travesty that it's at the expense of women athletes.

Do we have the dates/times when Hubbard will be competing so we can be awake to contribute to the twitter protest? Anything else we can do to protest?

Any woman with a daughter should be concerned that this is the world she will have to live in going forward.

I agree with so many comments here. It really is frightening for women that we are being silenced. It is heartening to see this in AIBU so we can see the voting and not shoved into a place not many will see.

Michael Johnson is presenting the BBCs Olympic coverage. When he found out his team mates had taken drugs he returned his 4 x 400m Olympic gold medal. This was before the IoC asked because he said it was unfairly won and thus he didn't deserve it. The IoC later stripped the team of the medal.

One of the most inspiring and wonderful things about the Olympics is when we see what we call 'the Olympic Spirit'. That is times when people do incredibly sporting gestures or have personal achievements in the face of adversity. I think of Derek Redmond in 1992 who tore his hamstring in a semi and completed the race with help from his father (and was disqualified). Irs a moment that represents the Olympics.

The Olympics were set up on the notion of being above politics and promoting fairness. That, of course, isn't always the case and there are a lot of examples where this has been trampled all over.

But the Olympic oath still is: “We promise to take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules and in the spirit of fair play, inclusion and equality. Together we stand in solidarity and commit ourselves to sport without doping, without cheating, without any form of discrimination."

Quite how LH can take the oath with a straight face, even if its technically within the rules is quite frankly beyond me.

Everyone can see the physical differences in height, weight, shape etc that no woman can compete with.

I have to say it was refreshing watching the women's 800m semis today. Especially since GB got an unprecedented 3 athlete through to the final.

Its no surprise that men made the decision about women's sport and trans athletes which seems to go against the vast majority of women's sense of fairness about their own sports. Maybe the IoC should educate themselves about how women feel about fairness...

@beastlyslumber

I wish all the female athletes would strike until the males are forced out of their categories! I know they won't want to sacrifice their shot at Olympic medals and I understand that. They shouldn't have to. But it would END this shit for good.

I couldn't even sign the fucking change petition because change are apparently a bunch of misogynists and took it down.

The IOC and sporting bodies generally don't give a toss about women's sports they are only focused on the men's sports so if women competitors walked out they wouldn't care.

I believe Samoa withdrew their woman weightlifters from the Tokyo Olympics said to be due to Covid but judging by the comments of officials in Samoa it was more to do with Hubbard competing. When you read the life story of the Samoan women weightlifters in the same category as Hubbard it is heart-breaking what they've had to overcome to get where they are and to have all that ambition and dedication destroyed because of a mediocre man is reprehensible. It is beyond shameful that the IOC and New Zealand are prepared to condone this.

@Horehound

I feel like laurel might purposefully not do well so that the trans community can be like "See! It's totally fair!"

And then it'll pave the way to be commonplace and accepted and then all the fake women will go on and win everything.

But that's just playing out in my mind

It's playing out in my mind too, Horehound.

@sleepyhead

LH is so terribly oppressed (the MOST oppressed), so stunning and brave, that the world bends over backwards and excludes a woman of colour who's had to fight all her life, in order for LH to have her lady-feels affirmed.

That LH can show her face in this situation tells me all I need to know about LH's character.

Shame on LH. Shame.

Oh this. Fucking this.

What does it tell you about the character of a person who can only succeed by cheating. What does it say about modern woke society that thinks this is somehow acceptable and anyone who says otherwise should be cancelled.

It's fucking surreal.

I too really enjoyed the 800 m today.

It was great to watch a race knowing that all the athletes were actually women, and therefore competing on a level playing field.

I feel very sad that I have become skeptical and have to stop myself from wondering whether the women competing in other distances are in fact women .

"Hubbard will take part in the women’s 87kgweightliftingon Monday 2 August at the Tokyo International Forum and will be up against Team GB’s Emily Campbell, amongst others"

And also might actually get beaten by a couple of 19 year old young women at the peak of their physical fitness and in the prime of youth. In which case the TRAs could also yes it to say, see, perfectly fair, being a male for the first 38 years of your life, going through male puberty and having testosterone coursing through your veins and muscles for 40 odd years isn't unfair. in which case, let's be sure to remind them that LH is a middle aged, overweight, mediocre even at peak, man competing againf women 25 years younger. Eventually I would be able to lift heavier weight than a biological male, but they'd be well into their 70/80s before I could do it.

I feel like laurel might purposefully not do well so that the trans community can be like "See! It's totally fair!"

Without a doubt. I'm going to predict bronze. On this occasion.

19:50 Tokyo time on 2nd August
olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/weightlifting/result-women-s--plus-87kg-fnl-a00100-.htm

Sadly there is nothing at all new about women being told to sit down and shut up when a male person wants something. It's sometimes cloaked a bit but it's always the same thing.

We already had a... man on the thread earlier who thought that by deflecting the point so he could still blame us for being wrong, then calling us mad, spiteful, self pitying and angry, he was somehow demonstrating a zinger of an argument that totally blindsided us because of its originality, the likes of which women have never seen before.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.