Laurel Hubbard to go to Tokyo

[Biscuitsanddoombar]

Not a surprise and hopefully it’ll open some eyes about the utter ridiculousness of allowing someone who is male to compete against women in weightlifting

www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/may/05/trans-weightlifter-laurel-hubbard-set-to-make-history-at-tokyo-olympics

The fact that they asked Harper about whether they were comfortable with the OIC policy....

OF COURSE Harper is 'comfortable' with it. It was Harper and that rather dodgy study of them and their friend's running times that was instrumental in the decision. Harper was on the panel!!!

I've always doubted sport would be the issue over prisons or medicating children - but on reflection, it's more clear cut, isn't it?

It’s clearly unfair, it’s highly visible, it’s an affront to the sporting ethos of fair play, and it’ll bring the sunlight to the millions of people that have been unaware of what has been going on over the last few years.

Posie's going to be quite busy on Sunday. Doing all that walking and banner-waving single-handed.

I can’t believe that to qualify for women’s sport an athlete can retain their male genitalia. So they could in fact, minus the hormones, revert to being a male if they so chose.

I think the person in the street thinks that a trans person has undergone a sex change - ie they have passed the point of no return which includes the lopping off of external indicators. A “female” competitor with full male tackle? That is just insanity.

Very unfair.

If a biological female athlete had a testosterone level of near 10 she would be banned for doping.

I would a public stand from the women on this event. If non participation is not an option, and it were me, I'd do this -

Biological women who win silver and bronze step down off the platform and stand in front of the respective gold/silver/bronze spots.

Silver hand her medal to bronze and stand medal less confront of the gold podium. Bronze hand her medal to whoever came 4th and then stand in front of the silver podium.

It was India Willoughby discussing it on GMB, not India Knight!

"Post surgery"?
LH hasn't had surgery. That is quite obvious in the photographs.

@WotgunShedding

It was India Willoughby discussing it on GMB, not India Knight!

Ah, now that's even more interesting. IW realising there's been a massive overreach, perhaps?

Hasn't India always said transwomen shouldn't participate in women's sports? There are a few topics that India has been denounced for by some of the trans community for having a different opinion and I'm sure this is one of them. I don't think this is a shift in opinion.

@WotgunShedding

sophocles no circle to be squared - it’s already “fair and square”.

“Fair and square”?!

Absolutely shameless and dishonest “sometimes a very mediocre athlete with a male body gets beaten by an extremely talented, exceptional elite woman who has trained her arse off, therefore, there is no issue with male bodies in women’s sports”.

This shows a fundamental lack of understanding of why we have women’s sports, which is that we want athletes to compete together, displaying their prowess (natural and enhanced by training) in the specific discipline that they compete in. Winning at sport is a product of selection for the factors that make a difference in each sport, and the absolute first selection cut that happens, in order for women’s sport to exist, is that we exclude males. That includes unhappy males in weakened bodies.

I think the athletes should absolutely stage a protest. I want them to go full Tommie Smith & John Carlos at the ‘68 Olympics (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute).

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

If a biological female athlete had a testosterone level of near 10 she would be banned for doping.

Hadnt thought of that - good point @BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

In addition to the very good Ross Tucker article, the Times also reports on the British Olympic Committee timorously asking for more research into the issue:
Share token:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/72d9ec7c-d262-11eb-bd02-4c692e62e3fd?shareToken=2f744517cb92ac299c4ff1a4e4bc14f2

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

If a biological female athlete had a testosterone level of near 10 she would be banned for doping.

This is why trans men aren't allowed to compete with women and are expected to compete against men

The testoerone levels nonsense is the absolute definition of heads I win, tails you lose for anyone born in a female body.

Who wins with the IOC rules in this dreadful state?

People with male bodies who transition.
People with male bodies and DSDs
Men who face no changes at all to their sporting category.

Who loses?
Women whose sporting categories now contain male bodies.
People with female bodies and DSDs
People with female bodies who transition.

It’s…almost as if you can reliably split the impacted population into… binary categories 😱

I’m hopeful this will be the TRA biggest own goal.

I have had several people message me about it like “how is this happening? It’s clearly unfair” and I’ve been able to say “yes it is! It’s not just LH though, did you know about x y z?”

Listened to the link from FPFW this morning on that Radio Kent interview. How Dr Nicola kept her cool against that infuriating bloke I'll never know.

But...but...testosterone!! Like a broken record. I'm surprised he didn't follow it up with a "why can't you just be kind?" tbh. Completely oblivious, clearly done no research and it's just those mean women being mean 😒

I did love the own goal of him saying "I'm no expert", and Dr Nicola's "I am an expert"

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ygyKOgvaWwI

I don’t know if this has been posted already. Is this from Kirsty Gallacher’s show? I’m only watching clips on YouTube. Two women discussing this! I was shocked!

Sorry Nana Akua is the co host, not a guest. I thought she was fantastic.

I'm glad now that the Olympics were postponed - it would have been much easier to brush this under the carpet a year ago.

[quote YellowFish12]@flyingbuttress43 depressing but not surprising

Re testosterone - if TWAW why don’t they have the same testosterone limit as natal women? Is that not another massive cognitive dissidence that sex matters when it’s favourable but doesn’t matter when it’s not?

Can natal women become trans men and and take higher levels of testosterone, and then if they find (a shirt time) later actually they identify as a woman can they be a trans woman and have allowed high levels of testosterone for competition? Or do they get woman rules applied?[/quote]
Not that I’d want someone to risk their health taking testosterone, but it would be interesting to see how Sports Federations would handle a female - to transman - to transwoman situation. It would also run the risk of being abused, like the East German doping scandal.

Did you read where the New Zealand PM has supported this? IE their FEMALE PM has supported a TW taking the place of a woman?????

When the history books are written I want all of these craven women who walked over other less fortunate women to be named and shamed. And remembered forever as being anti-women.

Yes It is reported that Jacinda Ardern has come out in support of Hubbard representing NZ at the Olympics. However I wouldn't say it was enthusiastic support, she said "all parties here have simply followed the rules."

I have long been an admirer of the NZ PM but this is absolutely batshit.

I have no problem at all with a trans weighlifter but for them to compete with women is utterly insane and obviously unfair.

It is entirely possible that, if this goes ahead, the wider public will see with their own eyes how very unfair it is and this will lead to a backlash that will hurt and harm trans people.

Even if it doesn't happen immediately it will happen in time because before long, unless it is stopped, all medals, gold, silver and bronze will be awarded to TW and women won't have an icecube in hell's chance of getting anywhere near a medal.

I don't believe that the "kindness" and "equality" mantras will shield TW from the inevitable hostility and ridicule that will result from this and the longer it goes on and the more ridiculous it becomes the worse it will be.

If some evil mastermind wanted to cause divisions in society and incite hatred towards trans people this seems a surefire way to go about it.