The situation is actually considerably more insidious than just saying that women are biologically inferior.
The reason why chess tournaments for women specifically exist isn’t because women can’t compete against men, but because professional chess has a rampant misogyny problem and female competitors often face horrific harassment from their opponents, coaches, audience members, media coverage, and international fans online. Many chess tournaments are actively unsafe for women, so tournaments specifically for women are to not just give them more attention and coverage, it’s also a measure to protect them from sexism and violence.
On August 3rd, an open letter from some of France’s top women players was posted on twitter, talking about the misogynistic harassment and sexual violence that women and girls face in the chess community and that many women are forced to stay silent about. It got dozens more signatures from women around the world. At least one person who signed it and one of the co-writers of the letter, Yosha Iglesias, is a transgender woman (and a very famous player).
For this new rule to be made almost immediately after women, including at least one transgender women, it seems like it’s direct retaliation for daring to talk about misogynistic violence. It’s also very blatantly shifting the blame for that harassment onto transgender players, specifically transgender women (though trans men are also suffering because of these rules), implying that removing trans women from one of the few spaces in professional chess that they can feel semi-safe will solve the issue of sexual harassment.
It’s punishment, plain and simple. Punishment for daring to speak out about misogyny, punishment for daring to speak out about transphobia, and punishment for daring to stand in solidarity with trans women. Women spoke up against violence and hate and the ICF responded by trying to drive a wedge between them, by pinning the blame on their fellow women and fellow victims.
And now, transphobes who have never once given a single fuck about chess or sexual violence among chess players are flocking to praise a transphobic decision that is only being used to further silence victims of misogyny and violence. They don’t care that the letter was made as an act of solidarity between cis and trans women over the violence they all face, they don’t care that this will only further hurt women in the professional chess community, all they care about is that it hurts trans people.
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