“The only way I can describe this is that it’s like grief. It’s like something has been ripped away.”

[inkjet]

Tw react to only women being allowed in women’s rugby.

www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2022/08/24/trans-women-rugby-cleaned-5ft-4in-girls-how-can-dangerous/

As Helen Staniland comments underneath “This article will have helped thousands more people see the issue. Very glad ages and photos were included.”

I've just registered for free and can read the article.

I wonder if they're just being smart about it.

The comment section is just a reflection of what we say on here. Deluded, or cheating.

We all know that the best argument we can make is to let transactivists speak. I guess the Telegraph are doing just that. It's certainly not the evoking the slightest bit of sympathy if the comments are anything to go by.

Not many 54 year old blokes can play on either. Unless they have the advantage of playing versus women.

Heartening to read the comments by men. Doesn't seem that long since rugby was the last bastion of male chauvinism. Now there are gay players. And racism is not tolerated by either supporters or players.

But the TRAs will no doubt try to paint the RFU as reactionary bigots all the same.

The Telegraph comments on this issue are always 99.9% in favour of sanity and the importance of biological sex.

This.

Grieving for a world where women didn’t get fired for saying that sex exists.

Grieving for a world where children weren’t taught sexist stereotypes at school and told to get genital surgery and take drugs for life if they don’t match those stereotypes.

Grieving for a world where self-loathing was not celebrated, and delusion wasn’t unquestioningly “supported”.

Grieving for sanity.

where I’m reminded by institutions that I’m not ‘woman’ enough,” says Curtiss. “It’s really hard to quantify exactly what that means

🤔is it now?

NOBODY says TW are "not woman enough". There isn't a scale of womanhood, despite how much they try ti drag people with DSDs into it.

Well said!

Yep, this comment sums it up

There’s something particularly creepy about wanting to play with women half your age. As if Fitzgerald Is ‘one of the girls’.

women his age are menopausal, not lithe & young.

Photo caption: "Julie Curtiss (with the ball) came out as trans in 2016"

'“I personally don’t think that the people who are running around and trying to influence various sports bodies have women’s sport at heart,” insists Curtiss. “I don’t think any of them are particularly interested in women’s sport, ultimately. I think their main thing is to try to systematically go through each of the sectors of society where we want to exist and kick us out.”'

My main thing, personally, is women and girls' safety and right to a fair competition.

I don’t get why the men aren’t embarrassed to be so obviously bigger and stronger. Like if I went to sports day and raced against the kids and then got really excited when I won. It would be so cringe. How can they not see this?

Thank God

Exactly!

The phrase 'act with the confidence of a mediocre white man' keeps coming in to my mind for some reason.

“I don’t have an advantage” says 54 and 52 year old males playing against young women.

Can they not hear the contradiction? The only reason tw can keep up is because tw have been through make puberty and their been through female puberty.

So many good comments - on here and under the article. And yes to the press giving a platform to self absorbed, self pitying individuals determined on trashing women's rights, privacy and safety. Because all time they whinge, they expose their excessive levels of narcissism and the world goes

Yes, as always, the accusations are admissions

I love this article because it hoists this transwoman by her own petard. It's absolutely clear from the photos and ages what the problem is but the Genderists can't call it transphobic.

It does (hoist her etc), but I don't know if that was the intention. The article seems very sympathetic. It could quite easily have been published in the Guardian.

Anyway, as everyone has pointed out, the comments aren't having any truck with it, so that's all good.

Any way of sharing? I can't read it.

That was a terrible interview. Why on Earth did the interviewer not ask the obvious question which is;

”You’ve spoken very passionately about why you believe that the science is wrong, and that you, as a male, do not have an unfair advantage, so why do you not play in a male team?”

For those who can't read The Telegraph, the trick is to open the article and allow it to load up to the point where the article is visible, but stop it (press the cross on the address bar) before it has time to hide most of the article under the offer to subscribe. It's a delicate art, and I ususally temporarily turn off my WiFi once I've got the article too, to make sure it doesn't reload the hidden version...

I've said this on other occasions but if, for some reason, somebody asked me how to lower the T reading in a blood test, I'd advise:

• fasting or very low calorie intake for a couple of days
• short abstention from physical training.

If someone asked about a slightly low RBC count, I might wonder if they had over-hydrated before the test. I'm underwhelmed by individual physiological markers.

Helpful table here:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2263/table/ch1.T1/

I think a number of us would share Curtiss' outrage for secrecy (Hello Denton and Press for Change) although for different reasons.

“I find it extremely unlikely that the RFU wasn’t already having these deliberations. If they were having them, why did they choose not to engage? They seem to have done this entire thing secret-squirrel.”
…
She is particularly critical of the “thorough review of scientific evidence” that the RFU carried out as part of its “precautionary approach” to prioritise safety, and questions why it is not rugby-specific. She tried in vain to engage with the RFU ahead of the vote, urging the governing body to oversee clinical studies on trans female players over the upcoming season. But her proposal was met by a wall of silence which, she insists, is telling of a wider issue at play.
“I personally don’t think that the people who are running around and trying to influence various sports bodies have women’s sport at heart,” insists Curtiss. “I don’t think any of them are particularly interested in women’s sport, ultimately. I think their main thing is to try to systematically go through each of the sectors of society where we want to exist and kick us out.”

I couldn't agree more that, left to their own devices (Hello, British Cycling), there are several sectors of society and sports bodies that find the existence of women inconvenient and want to "kick us out".

Let me get my...

’How many 54 year old women can still play full contact team sports with opponents, in some cases, who are 30 years younger than them?’

That ^