Draw For 2012 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament Held

There are twelve women's national teams still in the running for the last five spots in the 2012 Olympic women's basketball tournament.  

Our Canadian neighbors and Puerto Rico are two of those squads.  They discovered during the draw held on February 15 what groups they are in and who they will be competing against in the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament For Women when it tips off in Ankara, Turkey on June 25-July 1.

The four groups ended up shaking out like this:  

Group A:  Japan, Puerto Rico, Turkey
Group B:  Argentina, Czech Republic, New Zealand
Group C:  Croatia, Korea, Mozambique
Group D:  Canada, France, Mali

Top two teams in each group advance to the June 29 quarterfinals.   The Group A winner will face off against the runner up in Group B.   The Group C winner will face the Group D runner up and the Group D winner will face the runner up team from Group C.

The four quarterfinal round winners will automatically qualifying to go to London and the four losing teams head to the semifinals to begin the knockout competition for the final spot in the Olympic women's basketball tournament.

The Loser in the [A1 v B2] game will face the Loser of the [C1 v D2] game.
The Loser in the [B1 v A2] game will face the Loser of the [D1 v C2] game.

The winners in those semifinal games will face each other in a pressure packed July 1 matchup in Ankara with a trip to London on the line.

The victor in that matchup gets the last qualifying spot and prepares to pack for the 2012 Olympic games and all the once in a lifetime experiences that go with it.  Everyone else goes home and begins their preparations to qualify for the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey and the 2016 Olympic women's basketball tournament in Rio.

Brittney Griner Named As 2012 USA Olympic Team Finalist

Y'all know I have much love for my Houston b-balling homegirl Brittney Griner who is now a junior center with the number one women's ranked Baylor Lady Bears. 

Was happy to hear that when the 21 finalists were announced by USA Basketball for the 2012 USA Women's Olympic basketball squad that will attempt to fivepeat in London, she will be one of them.

The finalists for the 2012 Women's Olympic squad in addition to Brittney Griner (Baylor University) are:

Jayne Appel (San Antonio Silver Stars), Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Rebekkah Brunson (Minnesota Lynx), Swin Cash (Chicago Sky), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever), Tina Charles (Connecticut Sun), Candice Dupree (Phoenix Mercury), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), , Lindsey Harding (Atlanta Dream), Asjha Jones (Connecticut Sun), Kara Lawson (Connecticut Sun), Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream), Renee Montgomery (Connecticut Sun), Maya Moore (Minnesota Lynx), Candace Parker(Los Angeles Sparks), Cappie Pondexter (New York Liberty), Diana Taurasi  (Phoenix Mercury), Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota Lynx) and Sophia Young (San Antonio Silver Stars).

Bad news for the rest of you basketball playing nations on the rest of the planet.  Ten of the women on this finalist list were on the number one ranked 2010 FIBA Women's World championship squad.

And yes, do have to point out the USA women have won six out of the last eight Olympic women's gold medals with the last four coming at Australia's expense. 

But back to bragging about my hometown hoopster.

Brittney will attempt to become the first collegiate player to make a USA Olympic women's basketball team since Vicky Bullett and Bridgette Gordon both did so and played on the 1988 squad that won a repeat gold medal in Seoul.

Good luck to Brittney and the rest of the women who have a shot of making our 2012 Olympic team. 

Canadian Air Travel Regulation Changes Concern Trans People On Both Sides Of The Border

Air travel is a stressful enough situation for trans people to endure, especially when we have combinations of identity documents that may or may not match our current gender presentations for various reasons.  

Mercedes Allen has a post up at her Dented Blue Mercedes blog which comments about a Canadian regulatory change in the Aeronautics Act pushed through by Harper government ministerial fiat that may affect the trans communities on both sides of our shared border.  

The air travel regulation change  happened July 29.  It has trans Canadians concerned and has the potential to cause problems for transpeople of other nations either flying to, from or transiting Canada if they possess documents that don't reflect their gender presentation.

Sec 5.2(1)(c) of the ID screening regs of Aeronautics Act "An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents."



Hmm.  That's problematic to say the least.   What if you're from a province that will not allow you to change gender markers on your ID without surgery?   The Canadian government also will not allow you to change the gender marker on your passport without proof of surgical reassignment or a letter guaranteeing you will undergo SRS within a year..

So in a nutshell, our Canadian transpeeps in that mismatched gender marker situation are effectively banned from flying on airplanes inside or out of their nation.

There are also a few US states that will not allow you to change the gender marker on ID without proof of SRS either, but that is mitigated somewhat by the State Department regulations allowing us to obtain United States passports with the correct gender marker without surgical intervention.  

The regulation's unintended (?) discriminatory consequences needs to be pointed out to Transport Canada.