Swimming’s global governing body, Fina, on Sunday ratified its new “gender inclusion policy” that went into effect on Monday. Henceforth, swimming competitions conducted under its auspices will only admit those born Male who now identify as Women if they “transitioned” before the age of 12. The logic here is that puberty grants Males all sorts of physical advantages which no amount of hormonal “therapy” later in life can ever cancel. In an effort to placate those who may no longer qualify to compete against Women, Fina is considering establishing an open competition category that will presumably exclude no one. But how might that work? While Lia Thomas of Penn State has been dominating his/her competition since he came out as a Female, he was but another “also ran” when competing against Men. Is not any “open competition” attended by Men likely to be dominated by them. Is not Biology an Objective Given which cannot simply be willed out of existence? In a recent interview, Thomas stated disingenuously: “I’m a woman, just like anybody else on the team.” This is a lie? And if what we define as the “good” must inevitably be aligned with the “true,” is not his success as a Female swimmer brazenly unethical?
Sebastian Coe, head of the International Association of Athletics Federations, has fully endorsed Fina’s ruling, saying that “fairness is non-negotiable” and that “biology trumps identity.” It is no coincidence, I would think, that he is a British “conservative.” I’m sure his perspective, as is mine, is rooted not in an antipathy for Transgenders, but in a simple acknowledgement of Objective Reality.
Could it be we are approaching a time when one might rationally mock, without being denounced as a racist, the absurdity of a society willing to tolerate if not applaud a violent, destructive “social justice movement” launched on behalf of a career criminal high on fentanyl on the day he died? An NBC piece suggests Derek Chauvin’s defense team had attempted to “smear” George Floyd’s reputation! He had been arrested at least 8 times and, in spite of claims that he had cleaned up his act, was clearly, indisputably high on an illegal drug on May 25. No one is exonerating Chauvin of his poor judgment, but is not a society which celebrates recidivist criminals, a society which has gone mad?
Reality will not be denied. In a Juneteenth celebration in Louisville this past Saturday, Democratic Mayor Greg Fischer, who had implored law enforcement to stand down before the mayhem of BLM in 2020, was ludicrously punched in the face by a member of the crowd he was addressing. Was he not a victim of the moral decay he had in fact celebrated? Is the escalation of violence in many Western countries a product of the availability of guns or of the juvenile sense of entitlement implicit in the narrative of the Left? Is there not an irrefutable message in the social/economic decay, indeed utter chaos of those American cities [Chicago, L.A., etc., etc] presently ruled by forgiving Democrats, or do the statistics of Objective Reality no longer count on the Left?
In spite of the rants of the LGBTQ community, Fina’s transgender ruling was rooted in simple common sense. While it is chic to belittle common sense in certain “intellectual” quarters, we can only hope it will once again take its rightful place in our “enlightened” Western Democracies.