Fallon's Fun With Flawed TERF Sports Thinking

TransGriot Note: Been a while since I had a guest post up from my sis Fallon Fox and one slamming the TERF's. 

I get to gleefully do both at the same time with this guest post in which Fallon takes aim at the TERF's who are loud, wrong and scientifically illiterate while attacking trans women who participate in sports. 

TERFs. Every single time they have made, and will continue to make themselves look rather silly when they open their mouths against transgender women.

This reality struck me more than it has in the past with this recent small time WordPress blog from Culturally Bound Gender entitled "All the things you can't deny: Title IX, trans women, and the reality of neutrality.".

The article focused primarily on the physical height that some transgender athletes may have as a result of a likely ratio of taller transgender women in sports, and society in general. The moment I stumbled across this despicable piece of paranoid delusional drivel, I knew that it would be great idea to knock the dunce hat from atop it, grab it by the ear, drag it from obscurity, and pull it directly to the front of the room for the whole class to see. Pretty much the ones still actively promoting the ridiculous notion that trans women as a whole have 'unfair' advantages because of skeletal related 'advantages' are bigots, misinformed individuals, and TERFs also known as Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists.

The latter is an unfortunate offshoot of the feminist movement that most feminists (including the one writing this) tend to steer clear of because of their blatant hatred for men in general, and their day to day straw man attacks against transgender women. TERFs tend to see transgender women as men. A mindset that could not be farther from the actual truth, and actually goes against the documented peer reviewed findings and collective consensus of those in the fields of psychology and medical fields.

Because of not having the power to hurt men in any meaningful way out of spite for the wrongs inflicted on them by the hands of some, they seek to harm what they view as the next best thing - transgender women. They are so blindsided, so hate filled, so bitter about by their hatred of men, that they refuse to deeply fathom the reality that some women were unfortunately born with male genitalia, yet have female brains. 


A reality that has been stated repeatedly and accompanied by peer reviewed testing within the scientific and medical communities that study transgender women's brains. . This reluctance by TERFs to embrace the medical and scientific reality make me ponder if I should attempt to contact Lisa Vogel - the owner of the deeply transphobic Michigan Womyn's Music Festival  and propose that they build a gigantic mountain in the center of Michfest.    Then they could hold that shindig in the middle of winter with a womyn atop that mountain spraying it down with a fire hose just so that a small percentage of the participants who are against trans women's participation can have practice with ice skating uphill.

They'll need the ice skating practice.  Because as the months and years pass by, we learn more and more about transgender women's brains and bodies, especially when it comes to a sports setting.   Fighting the gravity of those findings is something they really need to get used to. On one hand, it hurts me to see someone so lost that they lash out on the innocent.

Because, it is truly tragic that TERFs are the way they are because of despicable misogyny against women. But, that's how many hate groups have been formed throughout history. And I almost think that it is a good thing that the TERF's continue to print and promote such rhetoric as what gets posted now and then on WordPress sites that not many within their right minds agree with.

Those irrelevant articles TERFs tend to write give those of us on the right side of history something to point at and say, "Now, look at the utter ridiculousness of what they are saying. Go ask those in the medical communities who actually study transgender bodies on a day to day basis the reality of trans women's bodies. Go ask the psychologist who actually work with transgender women on a day to day basis. They will disagree with these insane statements."

I learned a mindset within the martial art of jiu jitsu a long time ago. The thought process is, it is highly beneficial for one to sometimes use the energy and momentum of the attacks against oneself as momentum for ones own attack. This concept can be used in many situations. So that's part of the reason why, when I look at the forest before the trees, those articles that caused me to lose sleep in the past when I first came out as a transgender athlete are now the articles that cause me to sleep more soundly.

There's a shift that's been happening, a momentum for widespread understanding of transgender people and their bodies that has taken off within the last year. There is no doubt opposition to the shift. But the more the opposition flails, the more they fight, the more they sink into the quicksand of their own hatred and bigotry.

There's even beginning to be a shift within government  and businesses around transgender equality. And let's just face it one of the major reasons why TERFs and the religious right are clinging to trans participation in sport is because if we're involved in sports in any meaningful number, that will speak to the "person on the street" in a way that sports personalities reach their fan base.

If society were to see a trans woman on the Olympic team, who won for the USA, as an example, that would send a shockwave through the right. Who would they have to hate if what some consider sports to be is the last bastion for equality of humans? What straw man could they erect for Americans to hate then?

We are winning, and I'm quite sure that behind closed doors they are whining to each other and responding within their group like bunch of near death Darth Vaders. They look to each other and say, "Our arguments are dying!". The response back is heavily breathed response, "Nothing... can stop that now."

Except I highly doubt that there will a redemptive move on their part that the audience of the world will applaud in the end. Yes, on a long enough timeline the TERFs are political toast. I say that not to encourage complacency. Actually, I propose the opposite. I suggest those of us on the more rational and all around more empathetic end of spectrum shine an even bigger light in their hateful ideals as much as possible. I think it's time to lay waste to that antiquated framing that bone structure in a minority group should be cause for concern within sports.

It's about time that we poke fun and at the hate groups who stand against transgender people like we do the other hate groups that attack other minorities and seek to exclude them. Then again, it's not like I even have to wish or call for it. It's already beginning to happen in some progressive circles outside of the transgender collective.

So, let's have a little fun with them shall we? Let's examine the TERFs claims. Gather round y'all, it's fun for the whole family. Let's examine the "All the things you can't deny: Title IX, trans women, and the reality of neutrality." nonsense.

Let's observe the height of Gabrielle Ludwig, the college basketball player the blog attempts to attack. Then, let's compare that height to the best WNBA player on the planet. Gabrielle Ludwig's height is 6' 6". Wouldn't you know it? The blog was correct! That's incredibly tall for an average woman in the United States, that is for certain, no?

Then we have Britney Griner, a cisgender woman who stands at a whopping 6' 8". Two inches taller than her transgender competitor.

Only, she's not Gabrielle's competitor.  Britney Griner is a WNBA player and one of best in the world.  Her skill level would likely crush our transgender college player if they played one on one.  That's not to say Ludwig is not talented. She is!  It's just - well, like other women, some can be more talented, or have a higher skill level than others.

If we think about the blog's perspective, that when certain minority groups have populations that happen to be taller than others, we should separate those groups in competitions all by themselves, we naturally have to consider what that would mean for minorities across the board.

See, what slipped by the TERFs is that height disparities among other minorities happen all of the time in sports. Take the Dinkans for example. Dinkans like model Atong Arjok are statistically the tallest group of humans on planet Earth. Yet nobody in their right mind would question their participation in the height category.

If you have a basketball player who happens to be of Dinkan ancestry, it's likely that they will be hella tall! Now, do we say that because of this, we ban all Dinkan people from basketball as we must look out for the interest of Asian people who may be at a disadvantage in the height department?

No, we don't. Because we realize doing so would be racist as hell. Not to mention that not all Dinkan people will be tall, and not all Asian people short. And what if all Dinkan people happened to be over 6' tall? Do we then say that no Dinkans can participate in basketball? No, we don't.

As I mentioned earlier. Asians are the shortest ethnicity by ratio. Almost everyone knows that this is a fact. You will rarely see a tall Asian in basketball within the United States, although it does happen. I only have to mention the names  Zheng Haixia or Yao Ming to illustrate my point.

Remember Manute Bol ? All 7' 7" of him? Remember how he was actually celebrated for his height? What a marvel! What a player we'd like to have on our team! What a hero! He had Dinkan ancestry yet nobody says a damn thing about banning Dinkans from basketball. Know why? Because being against Manute Bol's participation in basketball because of his height would be racist.

Guess what? Being against Gabrielle Ludwig's participation in basketball because of her height would be (and is) transphobic. Of course, it's quite obvious what is going on here. We happen to live at the time in our American history where we are at the tipping point where transgender people are beginning to gain rights, and the bigotry of years past is starting to fade a little bit as more correct information is getting out there, and people are starting to see us as fellow human beings.

And have we all noticed noticed how opponents of trans participation in sports have been laying off of the whole strength advantage nonsense lately because the correct medical authorities who were in the know, exposed their pseudoscientific ignorance within this last year?  Those who were more sane and educated beat the opposition back, and held a light to their bigotry. All of this happened because some had the audacity to actually stand up and fight for themselves, and their allies heard the drum beats of those calling for promotion of the truth, and took the initiative to stand with them. We will beat them back on this height and bone structure nonsense also. It's the last thing that they have to cling on to, and their grip is slipping quickly.

So, TERFs, I know that you're out there dabbing the sweat from your foreheads as you click and type away from your keyboards. My message to you is bring it! Give us more and more fuel to politically dump over your bigoted mindsets that are already going up in flames. This is comedy at this point. And I'm loving every moment of it. Please write more. We will be waiting.