Simone Biles attacks Riley Gaines

[ItsCoolForCats]

Simone Biles has come out in defence of males in women's sports, and has attacked Riley Gaines for fighting against it. She said on Twitter:

"@RileyGaines
You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser. You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!! But instead… You bully them… One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!"

So, so disappointing. Both my daughters do gymnastics and are huge SB fans, so it is awful for her to show such contempt towards RG, who is fighting for a level playing field for women and girls in sport. And to suggest a separate category as if nobody has ever thought of that and tried it 🤦🏻‍♀️

There are some posts on X showing some of the comments trans people have made about Simone Biles's trwwt. They are not happy with her one little bit as she has suggested a 3rd space. They consider that to be "apartheid ".

Definitely agree.

I know another poster did say this. But I never said that Gaines' views discredited her trans advocacy, I was clear that that was a good thing. I think some people probs thought I was a subverter come to discredit GC, and I get why, bc people do come to be a thorn in the side. But that was not why. I simply wanted to critique her other advocacy (which I was partly mistaken about) not to discredit her trans fight, which has clearly been v brave.

Argh you see that on Reddit all the time. Disgusting, offensive & ridiculous.

She's being called a TERF. 😂

I think it isn't odd in the context of America - hard to overstate how little awareness there is of this scandal over there and how entrenched these views are amongst almost anyone who considers themselves liberal/a good person/anti-Trump. It's going to take a long time for things to change I think - probably a generation.

Good point. It's nice too that you can see men defining themselves that way, eg. Obama. Historically 'family values' was a phrase often used by some Republicans as a banner to campaign against abortion & gay rights (among other causes) so I think it's a bit unfair to say that Dems are just perversely criticising Republicans for being pro family if they criticise the use of that phrase. It is still used in that context today, but sometimes the Dems oppose the phrase in any context, or just the mention of family, which is ofc harmful & detrimental.

You see, Simone. These people want nothing but total capitulation. It's like the Grauniad, they are hated on trans reddit because they dared to publish a few GC writers in a sea of pro trans stuff.

Yes - a poster said 'she's always been a vicious thing' which is completely without evidence. This personal and ignorant attack on Gaines is the first time Biles has done anything unpleasant in the public eye.

I think Biles is a good person, she is simply ignorant on this issue. To be anti trans ideology in liberal America is genuinely seen as being some sort of evil Trump-supporting bigot. Things are really f-ed up over there.

Lolololololol….. 2017 Simone wants a word with herself…

I wish we could leave politics out of this. I am not a Trump supporter and did not vote for him, but his administration, unlike the Biden administration, has actually been helpful to the GC cause.

Not really. In her recent post she did not advocate for transwomen to play women. She suggested their own category. So it does not conflict with her 2017 post at all

As Martina has every right to. However, just bc someone gets on w gay people doesn't mean they support lgb rights. An obvious example is Jennifer Lahl, who is friendly w Julie Bindel but opposes same sex parenting. Bindel is in contact & cooperates w a lot of other right wing & often Catholic authors who are anti-surrogacy, sex worker etc but also lgb rights. They behave nicely to her, but it doesn' mean they support lgb rights.

After all, in life we probs know some people, maybe older or religious ones (or ofc sometimes younger ones) who oppose lgb rights but don't act hatefully to gay individuals.

Ofc she's allowed her opinions, it's not even clear what they all are. And her trans advocacy is great

🤔 Are you suggesting that RG is against LGB Rights?

O Lord, I thought we might have put that one to bed for 24 hours at least.

Time for a wikipedia link?

As was often the case when WPUK used to circulate their open letters warning against collaborating with people they wouldn't name, I feel it would be useful to have a list of the people we are allowed to talk to.

I don't know if she does or not. She is a conservative Christian by her own description, she is definitely pro-life and has criticised modern feminism (see the Feminism Ruined Society episode). All this fits w the typical profile of a conservative Christian podcaster/opinionmaker (such as many of her podcast guests, as well as orgs like the ADF & the Leadership Institute, the latter of which she works for) and these people tend to oppose lgb rights too.

But we do not know if that is the case for Riley herself, hopefully not

. In my post I was simply pointing out that Martina being friendly w her isn't itself evidence that she supports them. I'm not saying if she does or not bc it's not clear from the info we have. In the Kara Dansky interview she came across as a sympathetic interviewer but didn't state her view on anything aside from trans.

Whatever her view is, she's not broadcasting it (as I had initially thought she was) so it's not really an issue as yet. She came across really well in the podcast and I hope she gets more chances to be a force for good on behalf of women. The swimming chances being snatched away must still be v painful, especially w the TRA shock troops on her back.

https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/how-jennifer-strickland-found-purpose-beyond-the-runway/id1696360492?i=1000659489089

I have posted in nearly every post that I support and applaud Riley's trans advocacy & support GC alliances w her. How many times do I have to do that before people understand that criticising someone's views on another feminist issue (based on a mistake which I have apologised for) is not by default the same as forbidding alliance w them or denouncing their trans advocacy?

I understand very well that many GC people have done harmful purity tests like that, eg. WPUK or Actual Gender Critical Left, that there are scars from that & people are conceivably wary. I have a lot of sympathy w that. But this is not what I have said. Several posts seem to be replying without reading what I've written.

As I posted before, forbidding criticism of ant GC figure or ally is simply a different kind of purity test, as if you can only be GC if you don't criticise any GC figure, even in a carefully qualified way.

Why do we have a podcast on Jennifer Strickland now?

Bc it's Riley interviewing her - I linked it to indicate Riley's complex relationship w feminism, since she supports many feminist causes but promotes this episode w the tagline, ' Feminism Ruined Society', as the picture shows.

Lots of women do advocacy for women and girls without calling themselves feminists. Sometimes it's because Feminism!!! as a label comes with an entire menu of associated ideological commitments that they don't necessarily agree with. Sometimes it's because of bruising experiences with elite feminists who think everyone else is there to take their instructions. And sometimes they just do advocacy for women and girls without feeling a need to give themselves a label.

This thread is not about Gaines's advocacy or otherwise of LGB rights, whether using the sane or insane definition of LGB. It is not about whether Gaines is, or even calls herself, a feminist. It is not about how a bunch of naive (your words) women need to educate ourselves about the full range of social and political opinions of every ally in the war. I think you need to start your own thread. I'm sure it will get lots of engagement.

I understand that. I don't have an issue w Gaines not calling herself a feminist. The point is not what she calls herself, but that she is claiming that feminism 'destroyed society', while supporting many arguably feminist causes..

Full of Bile

Well the brand of feminism that introduced gender studies and queered women's language and believes that we can somehow confuse the patriarchy into submission by allowing men to be women has 'destroyed society' - so maybe she has a fucking point