Is he (or is it they) really Non Binary?

[Justme56]

https://marathonhandbook.com/did-a-runner-exploit-bostons-non-binary-qualifying-standards/

I saw this being discussed on X.

👏👏👏

Well quite. Unless participants the current three supposed ‘gender’ categories have to wear ‘masculine’, androgynous and ‘feminine’ shorts with designs that somehow significantly affect performance, why on earth is ‘gender’ supposed to be a relevant categorisation?

Please tell me the article is actually from Private Eye. This gem at the end of the second paragraph:

Qualified .. for the non binary division despite not meeting the male standard.

Meaningless bollix

I think this chap has done us all a favour! He clearly wants to run in this particular marathon. He read the rules. And applied as per the rules. Obviously the NB rules are ridiculous and unnecessary but hey.

the journalist writing the article is so close to realising the new category is a load of nonsense. But she can’t quite get over the leap of - no this is just really ridiculous.

Oh my.

So BM, who do not recognise the significance of sex in the female category, might be nevertheless forced to recognise it in the NB category?

Will this be the point where we pass through the Gender Singularity and into the Gender Inversion, with women able again to run a women's race but only by not identifying as wonen?

Truly, no matter how the Gender Duvet tries to smother it, the Fart of Truth will always seep out somewhere!

No one is 'assigned' a sex at birth. Sex is assigned the moment the sperm enters the ova. And observed at birth (and beforehand at ultrasound).

I hadn’t heard of Cal Calamba but having now read the Wikipedia page I might imagine Cal being v upset about this turn of events.

Presumably Cal wasn’t allowed (or wanted to?) enter the female category because of taking CSH, but knew that Cal would struggle to make entry in the men’s category because of sex-based differences.

Now, having campaigned hard for marathons to include a new NB category, it must be upsetting for Cal and other genuine NBs to suspect that an AMAB runner is not really NB but is pretending to be one to gain access to resources previously exclusive to genuine NBs.

"the interim system may be vulnerable to good-faith loopholes, scenarios where runners register in a category not as an expression of identity, but as a way to meet easier entry standards"

It might even be enraging that this brand new NB entering the NB category could end up winning all the prize money in that category. And yet, I’d place any amount of money that when it’s pointed out that men can exploit gender ID for not nice reasons is precisely why women do not want any man to use ssss, Cal and co would say "that’s different!".

I think @Toutafait is being ironic with their comments.

So BM, who do not recognise the significance of sex in the female category, might be nevertheless forced to recognise it in the NB category?

This puts it brilliantly. It's fantastically absurd.

Going by the Wikipedia page, the new category came about because of a female runner who takes testosterone and identities as male/NB wasn’t allowed to compete in the female category anymore yet wouldn’t have qualified in the male category but still wanted to run marathons.

And now to everyone’s utter surprise, it feels like a man has come along and taken advantage of that space previously reserved for just them to win woman of the year, woman’s short list, woman’s medal, woman’s space in a refuge, a bed on the woman’s ward a place on the BM podium.

Who could have possibly guessed that might happen?

So are they going to have something like the Spanish Inquisition to test genuineness of faith before being allowed to sign up?

I could see they having a screening process where they check social media for pronouns and things. So stupid though.

Er, isn't that gatekeeping? Which, if I recall correctly, is so, so wrong.

ETA comma

This is starting to remind me of the heavily oversubscribed local C of E primary school, and the increasingly committed performances of devotion required before the vicar will sign off a family as being a regular member of his congregation.

But if they now realise they need to divide NBs into ‘AFAB’ and ‘AMAB’ subgroups, WTF do they do about hormonal performance enhancement in the former group?
This runner should have been told doping is doping, women athletes have to make huge choices and sacrifices.

I don’t disagree, but in the case of this one runner, along with surgery to remove their breasts, seems to be taking testosterone as part of identifying as ‘transmasc’. What you might have thought of as really a trans man. Whether the ‘NB’ aspect is prioritised only because of the marathon race element is anyone’s guess.

NB I’ve noticed that Gen z don’t really use TM or TW but transmasc or transfemme. What’s that about?

And they seem entirely comfortable linguistically shifting between making sex-based references (men are stronger) and gender identity reference (if a man feels he’s a woman then he should be allowed to compete in the female category) without missing a beat. It’s the craziness of our educational and health professionals adopted wholeheartedly aide and abetted by trans influencers.

Maybe the journalist is well aware but can't say.

That direction of travel I'm actually ok with. A world where "masc" and "femme" and all sorts of other labels outside sex simply become people declaring how they think about themselves like their clothes and tech choices and don't claim ownership of the actual opposite sex experience or identity, I'm ok with.

I think it may be the way this mess gets unwound, where sex quietly comes back but everyone can still continue to claim their trans identity so no one had to admit the politics of trans identities in the 2010s and 2020s was wrong, nor admit or even recognise the Terfs were right all along.

What about all those transmen on testosterone, who are not good enough to compete against actual men and are no longer allowed to compete against women? Sometimes sacrifices have to be made.

Nobody is non binary.

Either that or everyone is.

Little frisson of national pride here for EDEN RAINBOW COOPER a UK runner with a proper non binary name. You go Eden Rainbow!

There is no such thing as "non binary". Total cringe.

Love the comment by Naunet. Says it all.

I don’t think anyone should be policing Peter’s Non Binary Identity. We should accept that people are who they say they are - maybe Peter is gender fluid Non Binary. If Peter feels they belong in the NB category no one should gate keep. Sport should be inclusive but the more athletic will always do better, so why should people be rigidly categorised.