As trans swimmer triumphs, real women look on in cowed silence
by Donald Forbes, TCW:
AMERICAN trans swimmer Lia Thomas broke six records at the weekend – and set off another round of nervously-hedged talk about the fairness of former males competing in female sport.
In the 500 metres, 22-year-old Thomas, a muscular six-footer competing for Pennsylvania University at the Ivy League women’s swimming and diving championships at the Harvard University pool in Boston , finished half a pool length ahead of the second-placed girl.
No biologically female competitor stood a chance of winning against him and qualifying for the prestigious National Collegiate Athletic Association championships next month, something for which the girls have trained since childhood.
Thomas is expected to triumph at these championships as well. But, while lips were pursed around the Harvard pool, none of the competing girls or their parents dared to break the omerta that surrounds his participation.
Transgender hysteria and the prospect of career-threatening reprisals by their universities against complaining students guaranteed that. Girls worry that a word out of place could be held against them when they apply for post-grad courses, or even jobs, when their studies are over.
The internet is a permanent public record and the transphobia police permanently look out for prey. Ivy League students who belong to the future elite in government, the media and finance, can easily be hounded into untouchability on social media.
This is quite simply intolerable, not least because the taboos about transgenderism largely lie outside the legal sphere. Its privilege arises from fear of being caught offending the unwritten laws of inclusivity and identity politics. Self-censorship ensures the orthodoxy of everyone who wants to keep a job, the prospects of a career and even friendships.
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