When it comes to sports competitions, cyclist Rachel McKinnon is not going to let a little thing like “fairness” slow her down.
McKinnon, you may recall, created a stir last fall when she won a cycling world title.
Her competitors cried foul because McKinnon … is actually a man:
I was the 3rd place rider. It’s definitely NOT fair.
— dr. jen wagner-assali (@jkwagnermd) October 15, 2018
Fast forward a few months later, and McKinnon – an assistant professor at the College of Charleston, SC – is still giving it his all trying to shame women who disagree with him. His latest targets are 1980 Olympic swimming silver medalist Sharron Davies, and tennis great Martina Navratilova.
He successfully led the charge in having Navratilova, an LGBT rights pioneer, excommunicated out of several prominent LGBT groups over her belief that men competing in women’s competition gives the men an unfair advantage.
And just a yesterday, McKinnon regurgitated a familiar yet absurd transgender talking point on this same issue:
If Sharron Davies, Paula Radcliffe, or Martina Navratilova had said we need to keep black women out of sport to "protect it" and the "integrity of women's sport"
That would be obviously racist
That's why it's obviously transphobic to exclude trans women now
Not "name calling"
— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@SportIsARight) March 5, 2019
Um, no, sir. No. Repeat after me: Excluding an entire race is not the same thing – not even remotely comparable – as excluding men from being able to compete in women’s competitions.
Black athletes were once viewed as inferior based on their race. Men’s and women’s competitions have always been separate because their bodies are different. It’s an indisputable scientific fact.
As Spiked‘s Ella Whelan said in a recent piece defending Navratilova:
Why would we bother dividing sport into gendered categories if we didn’t appreciate that men’s and women’s bodies are different?
This ain’t rocket science, y’all. Female athletes find losing to male athletes in female competition demoralizing, and they have legitimate reasons for feeling that way. Yet they’re being told to shut up, sit back, and take it.
Townhall‘s Kira Davis emphasized the silencing component of the transgender movement in a must-read piece last month. In short, women are being told to be quiet while the guys get to make all the rules.
In 2019.
McKinnon, who prefers to be called “Dr. McKinnon”, will ignore the backlash his baseless comparison has started. In fact, as I was writing this he has already moved on in attempting to silence another “transphobic” female sports figure:
I think both @iamspecialized and @GarminUK need to take a stand on their athlete @damekellyholmes Kelly Holmes's transphobia
She is trying to ban trans women from competing in women's sport, which we've been allowed to do since the IOC's Oct 2003 policy.
Do you stand for this? pic.twitter.com/Y0PMSmiJ2G
— Dr. Veronica Ivy (@SportIsARight) March 6, 2019
And if you don’t like it? Tough sh*t. McKinnon has declared the debate over: “If you feel it’s unfair for trans women to compete, too bad. Suck it up, buttercup. The world has moved on. There is no ‘debate’ to be had.”
Like hell it is, buddy. Like hell.
By the way, I’d take these arguments to McKinnon directly on Twitter if he didn’t have me blocked already. Probably because it’s one competition against a woman he knows he can’t win.
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—Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–
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