It's possible the SMH (Aus) has finally realised the way the wind is blowing

[ItsTheVibeInnit]

They've even enabled and published comments saying it's unfair. This is a major turnaround in approach for SMH

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cycling/cycling-s-lia-thomas-moment-transgender-rider-wins-women-s-tour-of-the-gila-next-stop-olympics-20230502-p5d4ty.html

Thanks for sharing, quite surprised by it! Even this: Thomas won a US women’s collegiate title in swimming last year, in the 200-yard freestyle, having been ranked 554th in the country in the equivalent male category.
Clearly showing his advantage by switching. Interesting development.

That was an interesting read. Is it surprising though from SMH? If it was The Age then yes I would be surprised. Knowing some of the SMH ex-journos, I wasn’t surprised to see this. Mind you the smh culture could have changed dramatically in the past 5 years and I would not know.

Bring it on though. The comments were heartening to read. Even those supporting Killips transition noted they were opposed to this inclusion.

I do wonder whether this will now spur the international body to take the World Athletics route now. Who the fuck sold them the idea that 2.5 nmol was going to be the solution?

The comments section was heartening - people can see how crushingly unfair this is. Eventually, women’s sport will be meaningless and trans folk will dominate. Women and girls will self exclude because what’s the point in busting a gut when a male person can just sweep in and snatch your deserved trophy from right under your nose.

It could even lead to non-trans pretenders playing the system. Winning women’s events can be a nice little earner for a mediocre male athlete who’s short of cash. He can always detransition later, with a wallet full of cash and a shelf full of trophies that should have gone to women. Unbelievable.

Biological male sportspeople, please stay in your lane, regardless of your gender identity. Compete with your sex class or start a gender neutral category. You are destroying women’s sport. Your victories are nothing to be proud of.

I realise that lowered testosterone levels alone are a ridiculous way to say a man has as little strength or stamina as a woman.

But I wonder, as an aside, if by any chance testosterone can be produced spontaneously by the male body during extreme exercise ( like adrenaline can be produced instantly under certain conditions)? If so, even if a male has sown it to be lowered before a race, maybe he could get higher levels during it.

It's great to see awareness rising worldwide of all of these issues.

@Helleofabore a while ago I tried to post what I thought was a very reasonable comment in relation to a Lia Thomas article - certainly less abrupt than some of the ones under this current article - and it never made it past moderation. I suspect there was some very targeted moderating going on, as the comments that were published seemed to only reflect one (not GC) perspective. And on other articles on related topics, comments weren't enabled.

At the time I speculated that this might have something to do with a court ruling about (I think, I'm not an expert) an individual being responsible for others' posts on SM if the individual owned the site, and therefore possibly a fear that publishing anything other than pro-trans comments could be risky for SMH. I could have been totally wrong about that. But this article definitely seems to me as though there is a more open minded approach for both the journalism and the moderation than was being displayed not that long ago.

One thing no one has ever clearly delineated is how they intend to police a male lowering his testosterone. Bridges reported testosterone levels dropping in a week. So a male could train with normal male testosterone levels right up to competition. Regular blood tests required? With a week’s notice, an athlete can take testosterone-suppressing medication, wait for it to drop, even have it checked repeatedly and submit the result below 2.5.

The only way ridiculous testosterone policies work is if there’s going to be random testing done with 6am doorbell rings from drug testing authorities, which is never going to happen.

Otherwise it relies on honesty…

If it was a bias of the moderators, hopefully that has now finished and you can be free to comment again.

I have not looked at what the usual people have said about this. I must admit that I am only interested in seeing what Fitzsimmons (?) says to see if someone has pointed out what a knob he is. I hope some of the women cyclists have the freedom to respond.

About bloody time. The Australian media's uncritical parroting of TRA ideology has been truly depressing: old fashioned misogyny (women don't matter) meets new dude bro misogyny (some women matter, but only the ones with dicks).

The first writer/journalist who comes out as gender critical in Australia will either be shunned, permanently and irrevocably, or it will be the making of them.

But it's a huge gamble and I'm sure they all know it. It's a small industry, and there are some very loud gatekeepers who are 100% TRAs (and ageist, and misogynists....)

Bernard Lane is an Aussie journalist worth a follow on Twitter https://twitter.com/Bernard_Lane
He has a substack about youth gender transition, I don't think he has an MSM job any more

He is good, doesn't look like he's with the Australian anymore.

Just saw Cameron Wilson, who claims to be a journalist, saying that "a woman is anyone who claims to be a woman!' on Twitter which is really embarrassing.

Doesn't occur to these misogynistic dimwits that the rest of the world has slightly moved beyond such banal retorts.