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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Connecticut high school athletes file Title IX complaint over mixed sex competition

38 replies

GrinitchSpinach · 19/06/2019 01:56

The brave Selina Soule and two other female high school athletes are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing religious liberty-focused organization. I wish someone on the left would take these cases, but as the ACLU etc have explicitly supported the end of single-sex sports, these girls don't really have anywhere else to turn.

Press release here:

“Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field. Forcing female athletes to compete against boys is grossly unfair and destroys their athletic opportunities,” said ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb. “Title IX was designed to eliminate discrimination against women in education and athletics, and women fought long and hard to earn the equal athletic opportunities that Title IX provides. Allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women under this law. We shouldn’t force these young women to be spectators in their own sports.”

The complaint asks the Office for Civil Rights to investigate the violations of Title IX and require CIAC to revise its flawed policy. The complaint further asks OCR to require the conference to acknowledge every girl who would have been identified as a champion or who would have qualified for participation in a higher level competition but for the participation of a male in her event.

www.adflegal.org/detailspages/press-release-details/female-athletes-challenge-connecticut-policy-that-abolishes-girls-only-sports?_ga=2.252534601.1710949560.1560904360-1859844914.1560904360

Selina and attorney interviewed by Tucker Carlson of Fox here:

Previous threads about Selina speaking out:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3562710-Are-you-a-parent-of-a-girl-whos-doing-well-in-sport-You-need-to-listen-to-Selina-Soule?pg=1

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3519465-Student-who-lost-track-championship-to-transgender-athletes-speaks-out

Previous AIBU thread about one of the competitions at issue:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3271449-In-Connecticut-two-teenage-boys-who-identify-as-girls-have-come-1st-and-2nd-in-the-girls-100m-sprint?msgid=78542060#78542060

OP posts:
AlwaysTawnyOwl · 19/06/2019 02:16

Completely behind her.

Goosefoot · 19/06/2019 02:23

Good for them.

When liberals wonder why people are moved by conservatism, I really wonder that they can't see it.

FannyCann · 19/06/2019 06:45

Really hope they win. It is cheering to see a push back beginning. See the parents in Canada suing the school for upsetting their daughter by confusing her about what sex she is (another thread). What is a woman hammered out in the courts. So long as they win.....

FannyCann · 19/06/2019 06:48

Girls are “not real.” Human rights complaint.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3615695-Girls-are-not-real-Human-rights-complaint

DuchessSybilVimes · 19/06/2019 06:51

Good on her. Can't believe we are having to turn to the religious right for support for women's equality.

teawamutu · 19/06/2019 07:08

Brave girl.

FermatsTheorem · 19/06/2019 07:26

Good luck to them. I hope they win. As you say, this is the sort of case the ACLU should take on, but they've embraced the delusion too.

SophoclesTheFox · 19/06/2019 07:34

Good on them. Wishing them strength to withstand the inevitable barrage of abuse they’ll get for seeking to defend their rights.

KatvonHostileExtremist · 19/06/2019 07:36

Brave woman for speaking out.

OvaHere · 19/06/2019 08:01

I wish them luck. As others have said this should be something the ACLU take on but we all know girls are now considered less human than everyone else therefore expendable.

MenstruatorExtraordinaire · 19/06/2019 08:29

Good luck to them. Will be watching with interest.

Our political parties here seem to be too frightened to admit that there is a biological reality to being male or female.

Let's see if America can lead the way in assisting girls and women fight back.

Joisanofthedales · 19/06/2019 10:40

Very brave girls. Brava Flowers

joggerbottom · 19/06/2019 13:10

Very, very brave of them. Good luck girls! Thanks

jay55 · 19/06/2019 13:48

Wishing them all the best. I hope this action doesn't cause them any harm, I worry about the violence we have seen against women who speak out.

IdaDown · 19/06/2019 14:00

The section re 10 track titles (in the state) previously being held by 10 separate female athletes, over the last 20 years, now being broken and held by 1 single trans male athlete underlines why trans men in women’s sport is wrong.

GrinitchSpinach · 19/06/2019 14:58

The section re 10 track titles (in the state) previously being held by 10 separate female athletes, over the last 20 years, now being broken and held by 1 single trans male athlete underlines why trans men in women’s sport is wrong.

I agree, IdaDown.

I hope this action doesn't cause them any harm

Unfortunately Selina reports that she is already facing retaliation by coaches for speaking out. The other complainants are remaining anonymous because they fear similar retaliation (or worse).

From the complaint:

On an ongoing basis, Selina fears retaliation. As she has explained, “Everyone is afraid of retaliation from the media, from the kids around their school, from other athletes, coaches, schools, administrators . . . They don’t want to drag attention to themselves, and they don’t want to be seen as a target for potential bullying and threats.”

52. Another female Connecticut high school athlete who was too afraid of retaliation to let her name be used expressed the same fear: “There’s really nothing else you can do except get super frustrated and roll your eyes, because it’s really hard to even come out and talk in public just because . . . just immediately you’ll just be shut down.”

53. Unfortunately, Selina perceives that since her parents complained of sex discrimination to school officials, Selina has experienced actual retaliation, as her track coach has forced her to perform workouts that are not generally applied for short-distance sprinters, and has forbidden her from competing in any high school track and field event unless she completes them. The coach has never imposed that kind of condition on Selina before. Worse, a coach told Selina and her father that if a college recruiter asked him about Selina, “he would not be able to give a good report about her.”

Full text (PDF) here:
www.adfmedia.org/files/SouleComplaintOCR.pdf

OP posts:
AlwaysComingHome · 19/06/2019 15:05

Title IX was intended to divide funding equally between male and female athletes, not between males who compete in male sports and males who compete in female sports.

BickerinBrattle · 19/06/2019 15:28

That’s right. Title IX requires dollar-for-dollar equivalency between the amounts spent on girls and on boys. The university I attended wanted to start an American football team but didn’t because it’s such an expensive sport to manage, and they’d have had to spend an equally large sum on women’s sports. They were okay with allocating the funding for men but balked at coughing up the same for women. Needless to say, women were blamed for the thwarted dreams of would-be football champions.

IANAL, but I don’t see how the dollar amounts spent on the two male athletes don’t unbalance that equivalency UNLESS the court rules that they are female under the law. Title IX clearly uses the word “sex”; there’s no reference to gender at all.

ShootsFruitAndLeaves · 19/06/2019 17:54
FermatsTheorem · 19/06/2019 18:59

That video is heartbreaking, Shoots.

Ereshkigal · 19/06/2019 19:07

Selina Thanks so brave.

SarahTancredi · 19/06/2019 19:21

What a brave young woman selina is. This should not be happening. At all.Angry

GrinitchSpinach · 23/06/2019 19:24

Right on cue, ACLU of Connecticut and Planned Parenthood tweet in support of the male athletes.

"No one is hurt." The girls who are deprived of medals, opportunities to advance, scholarships = "no one" in the opinion of these organizations. The misogyny could hardly be starker.

Connecticut high school athletes file Title IX complaint over mixed sex competition
Connecticut high school athletes file Title IX complaint over mixed sex competition
OP posts:
TowelNumber42 · 23/06/2019 20:33

Yes, if Andraya didn't get a place in the race she's hurt in awful awful ways. Totally intolerable. It excludes her from sport. If Selina doesn't get a place in the race then that's OK, her pain is irrelevant.

Same old same old. Make the people with the penises happy then see if there's space for anyone else. Straightforward patriarchy.

FermatsTheorem · 23/06/2019 20:42

"No one is hurt." The girls who are deprived of medals, opportunities to advance, scholarships = "no one" in the opinion of these organizations. The misogyny could hardly be starker.

Yes, Grinitch. How can these people not see it?