Tour of the Gila director speaks out

[Rainbowshit]

www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2023/05/09/tour-gila-director-cycling-trans-row-kill-sport-uci-rules/

Think this is a very important intervention.

Concerning that sponsors as well as female competitors are waking away.

He’s a brave man to raise it, but it absolutely needs to be raised. Well done Michael Engleman

Kudos to Engleman for speaking out so clearly. Interesting that he fears the UCI's supposed consultation about trans cyclists is (yet another) attempt to kick the issue into the long grass.

A relief to see a man in cycling finally speaking out

This, this isn't 'ironic'. This is vile. Bravo to Engleman for speaking out.

https://twitter.com/i_heart__bikes/status/1655735210187554817?s=46&t=HTxp6zC_d4GZ2FFv4a-YeQ

Did everyone also see this over the weekend. I think the woman in third place’s body language says it all.

Seplavy is the editor of Bicyling Magazine (if I remember correctly) and has form for posting pictures threatening women who don’t agree with Seplavy claims of being a woman.

That was an honest read.

I couldn't read the piece as it's behind a paywall, but I'd have said 'overdue but good that sponsors are walking away'.

It does. But I consider her to be in second place. I discount winners when they cheat. It is a shame for the person who should have been on the podium who wasn't. Obviously there is a financial loss to this woman which is appalling, but if she's reading this, please know that we know you were second. Well done!

That was extremely honest.

That body language is very telling! Good for her - she’s not in third place, she came second. And the woman who took second place actually came first, maybe that’s why she looks so delighted. The cyclist on the winner’s podium shouldn’t have been in a women’s event, so as far as I’m concerned, their win is not valid. Shame about the woman in third place who didn’t get anywhere near the podium because she was displaced by a competitor of the opposite sex.

Tweet from Bicycling Mag., with a link to their article. Didn't see one single supportive tweet below it. There's a link to a gushing article about Killip which, tbf, does not ignore the transgender issue. The Amy D Foundation should be ashamed although I wonder if they were targeted, strong armed by sponsors and/or if their hands were tied by legislation or UCI rules. Either way I stand by my earlier comment, that a Foundation, set up in the memory of a young woman, to support female athletes being used against them is vile.

Sorry

https://twitter.com/BicyclingMag/status/1654208158896726017?s=20

Here you go, Errol: https://archive.ph/kKA4Y

I'm guessing a man won't try to win this fabulous prize, but who knows...
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/may/08/if-you-win-housewife-spanish-womens-race-sorry-after-winner-given-food-processor

This quote from him from the article about Amy Dombrowski (the young woman who the Amy D Foundation was set up in memory of) is heartbreaking:

"I knew Amy super-well. I helped her all through her career. I remember exactly the spot where I was on the road where I heard she died. This trans issue had ticked Amy off, but she had to be silent. Everyone’s going to say, ‘You can’t speak for Amy, she’s dead.’ But the point is that everybody saw this moment coming. And nobody in power who could have helped the sport chose to do anything.”

I would be spinning in my grave if I wanted to leave some kind of legacy to support women and girls, and it ended up benefiting someone who wasn't entitled to it.

This is as hard hitting as it gets. He's pulling no punches, no equivocation. Other than the sheer unfairness of it all, he's saying that women's cycling will be dead if funding that's already hard to find before all this becomes even scarcer.

The worst thing is the fear. His fear he'll be out of a job for saying these words, and threats of being shot in the face. Sponsors shit scared that any word out of place from the TRA mantra will lead to repercussions. Fear amongst normally rational human beings causing them to speak and act irrationally. Fear making people ignore the rights of women, and basic sporting ethics.

If his intervention doesn't cause a reaction, I don't know what will.

Sponsors shit scared that any word out of place from the TRA mantra will lead to repercussions

I don't really understand why they think these repercussions would be serious. What is the worst that could happen? They would look un'woke', but the vast majority of people are opposed to this anti-women agenda how would that harm them realistically?

This is a very good contribution by Engelman though, he has put across some very well argued points. Revealing that the powers that be are obviously just hoping it will all go away, buts it's not going to and they have to step up and face this.

I mean look at the sheer mediocrity of Seplavy. The ordinariness of the unfit male body compared to the athletes pictured. This person needs to be sacked from Bicycling Magazine too for outrageous journalistic bias.

Thank you to Engleman for speaking out. It’s disgusting what is happening, mediocre males who would lose in the male category are winning within the female category.

I have some limited sympathy for this. Look at how obsessively trans activists police women - every kind of threat possible, doxxing, always going for people's employers, trying to get them sacked and catastrophising everything. Some of them even rock up on here to lecture women. I can understand why companies reckon it's just not worth it. People who only have aggression, threats and lies as opposed to intellectual arguments are so often best avoided.

Trouble is it's then down to women to fight this while the governing bodies cosy up to Stonewall etc. Sigh.

Oh, I understand and agree. And I can imagine that getting online threats is something it's not easy to live with. It's interesting how they phrase some of them too. As Michael Engleman says, it's things like 'I hope you get shot in the face'. It is threatening, but not an actual threat. Quite sneaky.

But that is all they are in the end - threats. 'We demand you sack this person!' The answer should be 'Or what? What are you planning to do if we don't?' And when it comes down to it they cannot really do anything, threats are their only weapons.

Companies and international governing bodies should surely be able to stand up to bullying and threats from a tiny group of crazed individuals. Any big social or political change must never be brought about because of a fear of force and violence.

It will be interesting to see how the Bud Light thing has played out. The Mulvaney stunt has cost them millions, but I'll bet they are hoping that everyone will forget and their fortunes will rise again. Let's hope they are wrong. There are increasing numbers of men who are speaking out but I agree that it's depressing how much it is being left up to women to bear the brunt.

“I know how hard it is to get people to put money into a women’s team, at any level,” he says. “And now they’re asking, ‘Is this something I can touch? What if an athlete says the wrong thing? This is harming the sport. It’s a reality that somebody has to speak about.”

It's good to hear someone articulate clearly the effect that this issue is having. It's not just about bumping some women off the podium and the obvious unfairness of that (though I can understand that for sports-lovers, this is quite an important part of it).

It's about making the issue so verboten that people will just swerve hard away from it.

As ever, the freedom of speech and belief is fundamental to this issue.

This is the archive version of that article:

https://archive.is/kKA4Y

My post was instantly deleted. Are we not allowed to post archive links for articles? Apologies if that's the case.