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Lowenna Waters
Mar 07, 2019
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iStock Getty / Twitter
In recent weeks, there has been a stream of negative propaganda around the topic of transgender athletes.
Transgender athletes have begun to break barriers at all levels of competitive sports, however their achievements have sparked a backlash of resentment among those who think that they're not competing on a level playing field.
First, it was tennis star Martina Navratilova, then Paula Radcliffe and Kelly Holmes. There's even a pressure group called Fair Play for Women that's trying to argue that people should only be allowed to play sport in the gender they were born into.
However, some people are fighting back against what they view as a 'transphobic' stance, including the activist, writer and former naval aviator Brynn Tannehill.
In a series of tweets, she perfectly explains why the toxic debate needs to be put to bed.
1. The transgender athlete won't seem to die. This is so frustrating, because from a logical standpoint, the answer… https://t.co/2iFJwZEzKe— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707905
2. Quick test: name a transgender Olympian off the top of your head. You can't, because since the IOC started allow… https://t.co/jPOq4a2Q9F— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707905
3. The NCAA has allowed transgender people to compete without surgery since 2011, and there has not been a single d… https://t.co/mQIkwDn8LN— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707905
4. These constitute large scale, longitudinal tests of the system with millions of athletes as a sample, and the IO… https://t.co/Tb2VdO0wnj— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707905
5. 15+ years and millions of test subjects is bigger, and longer, than any clinical trial of a drug that I can thin… https://t.co/V4XgeRf4NY— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707905
6. The clinical evidence and subject matter opinion aligns with the observed results: removal of testosterone for a… https://t.co/g5FLHMh7jU— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707906
7. The arguments from the other side are either anecdotes (What about so-and-so who won some mid-level event?), or… https://t.co/put38YQrTK— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707906
8. The implied "solutions" of "Well, they can compete against men or get their own league" replaces a speculative h… https://t.co/qCHwk5jZ2o— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707906
9. Testosterone, which the NCAA and IOC regulate, is a key factor in performance. Because trans women lack it, they… https://t.co/mPnkJuCnPK— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707906
10. And there simply aren't enough transgender people for them to "get their own league", nor would there be enough… https://t.co/ZalGJJ6Bzb— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707906
11. On top of that, segregating transgender people from society, and driving them from public life, is what the rig… https://t.co/tlSeS1s6Hd— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707906
12. If, at some point we start to see a disproportionate number of transgender women winning high level athletic ev… https://t.co/aUZ03yxH5J— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707907
13. Athletic leagues do this all the time: if something is giving people a competitive advantage, they ban it (but… https://t.co/CgXryyBO0Z— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707907
14. I'm frustrated as hell that we're still fighting this battle. The empirical evidence all points one way. We hav… https://t.co/644EuLc05B— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707907
15. So, when I point these things undeniable facts out, and people still want to argue, I have no issue with callin… https://t.co/LrKoNJoFCL— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707907
16. Oh, and Renee Richards was 40+ years ago, never ranked higher than 20th, never won a major event, and Martina N… https://t.co/OkzWLTQtxK— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707907
17. The woman who complained about Rachel Evans winning, had beat Evans in 8 of the 11 events they had met in previ… https://t.co/68zxUvjz8E— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551707907
18. We have thoroughly field tested the hypothesis that transgender athletes will dominate if they are allowed to c… https://t.co/rCHSl6o1sF— Brynn Tannehill (@Brynn Tannehill) 1551709791
Thanks Brynn, we salute you.
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