Rita Panahi: Why sporting greats are taking stand against trans athletes

There is simply no way female athletes can compete against biological men. You can pretend gender is a social construct but biology doesn’t lie.

The anti-conversion legislation is more complicated than it looks. Picture: Pau Barrena/AFP.

The Left has learned a sweet trick to fool the apathetic masses.

Give whatever divisive, radical program or group you’re pushing a wholesome name nobody reasonable could possibly object to, then ram through highly contentious and unpopular policies while labelling any dissenting voices as bigots.

Groups such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa (anti-fascist) have names we all agree with but their violent, divisive antics are a different matter entirely.

There’s nothing democratic about the Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea and there’s nothing anti-fascist about the destructive, totalitarian activism of unwashed Antifa thugs.

Closer to home programs such as “Safe Schools” and “Respectful Relationships” sound wonderful until you take a closer look at the detail. It’s little wonder that NSW, Queensland and South Australia have pulled out of the Safe Schools program while Victorian schools remain dutiful adherents.

While the anti-conversion laws sound like a good idea, the legislation contains alarming provisions. Picture: Rebecca Gredley/AAP.

Similarly, the so-called “anti-conversion” legislation before the Victorian parliament is another case of the name not matching the detail. Of course any reasonable person is against gay conversion therapy but the bill will do far more than that.

It will introduce changes to the Equal Opportunity Act that redefine “gender identity” with far reaching, sinister consequences. It will also make it unlawful for parents and counsellors to provide sound guidance to children confused about their gender identity.

The National Association of Practising Psychiatrists and The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists have separately written to the Victorian Attorney-General about their serious concerns with the bill, which they fear will criminalise therapy for troubled youngsters experiencing gender incongruence issues.

NAPP president Dr Phillip Morris has come together with Prof Patrick Parkinson to point out the legislation is “based to a very large extent on erroneous and unscientific beliefs” and that providing therapy that may see a patient decide not to proceed with irreversible treatments is in fact an ethical obligation for health professionals.

“The science does not in any way support the criminalisation of therapy for children and young people who identify as ‘trans’ and there is no history of unethical practice in this area that in any way parallels the long-discontinued and ineffective practices that attempt to change sexual orientation. These are completely different issues,” they explain.

It says plenty about the ineffectiveness of the Victorian Liberals that academics, feminists and doctors are putting up greater resistance against the excesses of the anti-conversion bill than members of the Opposition.

Meanwhile, the trans lobby scored another big win in the US with an executive order that may prove devastating for girls and women’s sport. Who would’ve guessed that on day one of his presidency male feminist Joe Biden would sign an executive order that would shock and anger scores of female athletes.

The virtuous-sounding “Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation” will in effect see schools forced to allow biological males identifying as girls to compete in female sporting competitions.

Under the order, schools that receive federal funding and fail to allow trans girls to compete against biological females will face administrative action from the Education Department. Fearing the consequences of the radical policy, a group of female athletes and advocates including tennis great and loud and proud Democrat Martina Navratilova, Olympic gold medallists Donna de Varona and Micki King are taking a stand for women’s sport and calling for federal legislation to exempt female sporting competitions from Biden’s order.

But they’ll have their work cut out for them with the bulk of the media, academia and activist class including majority of modern feminists siding with the trans lobby over the rights of biological girls and women.

Premier Daniel Andrews speaking in Victorian Parliament during a debate on the bill to criminalise conversion therapy in December. Picture: David Geraghty/NCA NewsWire.

There is simply no way that female athletes can compete against men. As author Abigail Shrier noted in the Wall Street Journal, the fastest female sprinter in the world, Allyson Felix, who has more gold medals than Usain Bolt, has a personal best time of 49.26 seconds for the 400m.

“Based on 2018 data, nearly 300 high-school boys in the US alone could beat it,” Shrier wrote.

Just look at what happened when Serena and Venus Williams played a bloke ranked 203 in the world; Karsten Braasch won 6-1 6-2. Or when Australia’s national women’s soccer side, the Matildas, played the Newcastle under-15 boys and lost 7-0 in the lead-up to the Rio Games in 2016.

And then there’s New Zealand’s heavyweight weightlifter, Laurel Hubbard, who went from competing against men to identifying as a woman and smashing records.

We must protect girls’ and women’s sporting competitions against woke lunacy. You can pretend gender is a social construct but biology doesn’t care about your feelings.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist

@RitaPanahi 

Originally published as Rita Panahi: Why sporting greats are taking stand against trans athletes