"Betsy DeVos Attacks Trans Athletes Again": New Statesman

[Malahaha]

My opinion of this woman has made a U-turn. As is so often the case. I used to think she was ridiculous. Now, she's a voice for truth.

Quote from the article:
So much for “live free or die.” In a jarring attack on trans student-athletes, the Department of Education’s Betsy DeVos has forced Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire to rescind its trans-inclusive policies for its athletic programs. DeVos claims that Franklin Pierce’s guidelines violate Title IX, which is meant to protect women in spaces that receive public funding. In the eyes of the Trump administration, trans women are not regarded as women at all.

www.thenation.com/article/society/trans-devos-title-ix/

ohalrightthen - ”Allies like this do you no favours at all”

You have distanced yourself from those of us concerned about the negative impact on women and girls when males are included in Women’s Sport:

• first by saying this does “you no favours”, ie. rather than “us”
• then by stating that you have not even bothered to think about this issue.

Do you even consider yourself an “ally” to those of us who are concerned about this?

Delphinium20 - the bulk of your criticism rests on this woman’s family background and what her brother has done. If you take away the guilt by association there is the unsupported comment about rape legislation, about which FWRlurker has argued a different opinion.

Do you have any thoughts at all on the need to protect women’s sports? Do you consider yourself an “ally”?

I have never heard of this American politician before. Maybe I would think her a horrible person if I found out more about her. However, the OP merely expresses her surprise and pleasure that she speaks the truth in the cause of protecting women and girls.

I find it hard to give much credence to the views of people who come on to the thread with, apparently, the sole purpose of undermining, demoralising and insulting the OP and the rest of “us”.

We are women who care about women’s rights and protecting women’s sports. I don’t know who you two are but you have explicitly set yourself apart from, and “othered”, us.

I have seen too many good women fighting this cause being harangued as “far right” and “bigots” without any just cause. Your “warnings” are high-handed and seem intended to have a chilling effect. That’s not “tone policing”. It’s telling you that your bullying is ineffective and counterproductive to whatever your own cause is.

This seems like a good decision and I support it.

I don't know much about Betsy de Vos in general but I just had a bit of a google and found some of her ideas I'd support and some I wouldn't.

Not sure why we are supposed to hate her but certainly saw a lot of vitriol towards her online without any clear reason expressed. That tends to make me suspicious tbh. I don't see why de Vos's input on this has to be rejected just because some people hate her or because she has other ideas or policies they hate. Unless she's a literal fascist, I don't see the problem. This seems like a great decision for female athletes at Franklin Pierce university.

I don’t care if this woman is a reincarnation of Attila the Hun - as long as she is defending women’s single sex sports, and righting injustices for women athletes, I welcome her involvement and her success!
If we only accepted help from people with whom we agreed 100% on every possible issue, we would be fighting this war completely alone.
Cliche but true - my enemy’s enemy is my friend.

I am sure Betsy believes the sun is hot, kittens are cute, Usain Bolt is good at sprinting as well as males have no place in women's sport.

I can agree with her on those topics.

I expect there are many topics on which she and I would vehemently disagree.

I try not to divide the world up into goodies and baddies so I don't have to worry about whether to move her from one category to the other.

@MoleSmokes

Betsy DeVos is not a politician. She is the appointed Education Secretary under President Trump. Her rape policy protects rapists:

I didn't think I had to substantiate something that can easily be found in several news sites. But here you go:
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/betsy-devos-releases-final-changes-campus-sexual-assault-policies-n1094491

In no way did I insult the OP by sharing information on the thread about Betsy DeVos.

As to who I am? Who are you? Who are any of us? This entire site is anonymous. Do you want to share information to help feminism? I do.

Or, do you want to just get defensive when women disagree? I don't.

Betsy DeVos is as you say a person with very dubious political beliefs but it doesn't make her wrong about female sport.
Male bodied people have no place in female sport.

She's not wrong about female sport. She's right about that and I argued earlier that I'd find things to agree with her on, but I don't want to ally with her as that would be suicide for women's rights in my country IMO.

I think what a lot of MN fail to realize is that in America, as wrong as it is, you pick sides to win. On the federal level, it's winner takes all. Any time a policy is put forth from the other side, you have to wonder why. The right needs voters right now, particularly in battle ground states and there's this narrative that Trump could win if he wins over white women voters in the suburbs. Fairness for women in sports is something they potentially care about, so his Education Secretary champions a policy that would resonate with this group. This is ugly politics and I don't like it, but I'm realistic. I'd rather work to convince Kamala Harris that protecting female sports is important...she is also protecting women's reproductive freedoms, climate protections, civil rights for POC, migrant children and so much more that I agree with. If she's elected VP, she will have sway over who is appointed Education Secretary.

I see the best strategy in the US is to work to persuade the left leaders why a GC policy will resonate w/ voters.

Can't say I disagree with you. Another Trump term doesn't hear thinking about. So best of luck trying to convince the left that women matter.

One of the best orgs now on this issue in the US is savewomenssports.com/

They are non-partisan, so it doesn't matter what political party you belong to, they are focused just on the issue of fairness in sports for women and girls. Excellent resource IMHO. We will have more success pointing to these leaders to champion the cause than saying, "Hey, Betsy DeVos says we should do this."

I'm a bit confused about the 'protecting the rapist' thing. This is from the US Dept of Education and is obviously very positive in favour of BdV. But in the list of regulations she imposed, it all looks okay to me? I get the impression that some news sources are saying "rapists" when they mean "people accused of rape" who do of course have to have protection. But it's quite possible I'm missing something. www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-takes-historic-action-strengthen-title-ix-protections-all-students

If one of her regulations has the effect of strengthening protections for rapists, that's not good. But I don't think it has to mean that she can't make decisions that are also good for women or that she needs to be cancelled altogether.

I see the best strategy in the US is to work to persuade the left leaders why a GC policy will resonate w/ voters.

Trouble is, they can't be convinced on that without it bringing the whole BLM/woke movement down too, and none of them are brave enough for stand in opposition to BLM. Also, as soon as anyone on the left goes GC/anti-woke, they are immediately 'expelled' from the left and tarnished as 'far right'. But if the leaders had the nerve to do it, it would change everything.

Trouble is, they can't be convinced on that without it bringing the whole BLM/woke movement down too, and none of them are brave enough for stand in opposition to BLM. Also, as soon as anyone on the left goes GC/anti-woke, they are immediately 'expelled' from the left and tarnished as 'far right'.

That is true in parts of the left, but the left is a big tent and I don't think being woke represents the majority. E.g. Lots of people are lower case 'black lives matter' because they know Black Americans have suffered a great deal from racist police, but disagree on BLM strategy.

Frankly, I think fairness in sports is one issue most Americans would agree on. I wish Serena Williams would take it on, but we all know what happened to Martina Navartilova.

If we only accepted help from people with whom we agreed 100% on every possible issue, we would be fighting this war completely alone.

I agree. The left and liberals should be supporting women, but they’re not. As soon as the TRAs shouted at them, they ran away.