Monday, January 29, 2024

Utah situation shows how ban on trans athletes can be weaponized against other cis athletes


Editor's note - my apologies for not having the full article about the subject of this post. It is behind a paywall. However, the tweet included is the accurate summation of the situation.

A while back, transgender activists predicted that laws banning trans athletes from competing would backfire against cis athletes. A recent incident in Utah has proven them right.


And apparently a similar event took place in 2022. And in Utah. According to an August 19, 2022 article in The Independent: 

 Parents of girls who finished second and third in a Utah scholastic sporting event filed a complaint with the Utah High School Activities Association claiming that the first place finisher is transgender. She’s not. David Spatafore of the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA), the body responsible for enforcing the state’s new ban on transgender participation in school sports, told the Deseret News that he had no choice but to investigate the first place finisher’s gender after parents filed the complaint. He found that not only is the girl in question cisgender, but that his office has received other complaints about the girl including one that she stating that she “doesn’t look feminine enough.” 

 It gets worse. According to an article published on that same day by MetroWeekly, UHSAA made the school investigate the young girl's record all the way back to kindergarten.

Basically, these laws which supporters claim are created to protect cis female athletes can be used - weaponized is a much better word - by fellow cis athletes and parents disgruntled at losses during athletic competitions. They can also be used to target and denigrate cis athletes who don't conform to supposed standards of femininity.

So much for fairness.

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