The paper, which claimed that Algerian cisgender boxer Imane Khelif, adds fuel to an already raging fire over womanhood and boxing.
Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:
Over the last week, conservative influencer accounts have ignited a firestorm over cisgender boxer Imane Khelif, alleging that she is actually a āmanā and suggesting she might be transgender. This is despite officialsĀ confirmingĀ that Khelif was assigned female at birth and has competed as a woman her entire life. The controversy has led to statements from Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and anti-transgender influencers, who are using the boxerās participation to target transgender athletes. Now, the Boston Globe, a major American paper, hasĀ published and circulated into printĀ the false claim that Khelif is transgender. The title reads, āTransgender Boxer Advances.ā The headline was placed on an AP article written by sports journalist Greg Beachem,Ā who asserts, āThat's not my headline. That word isn't in my story. My stories are syndicated worldwide, and customers are allowed to write their own headlines.ā The use of alternate headlines is a common practice for wire services. The word ātransgenderā does not appear once in the story, which wasĀ printed on August 2, 2024.
There is no evidence that Khelif is a transgender woman. Although transgender women are allowed to compete in the Olympics, there areĀ no openly transgender womenĀ competing this year. Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee President Thomas BachĀ has confirmedĀ that Khelif is a cisgender boxer, calling disinformation about her gender ātotally unacceptable.ā Khelifās family sharedĀ pictures of herĀ as a child, as well as identity documents showing her assigned sex at birth. Notably, gender transition isĀ criminalizedĀ in Algeria, making it extremely unlikely that transgender people would be allowed to transition in the country.
The original claim about Khelifās sex eligibility arose when the scandal-plagued International Boxing Association (IBA)Ā ruled her out of competition, alleging she failed an unspecified gender test afterĀ defeating an undefeated Russian boxer. Notably, the IBA is presided over by Umar Kremlev of Russia, an associate of President Putin. In 2023, the International Olympic CommitteeĀ voted to derecognizeĀ the IBA due toĀ concernsĀ about corruption, governance, and judging controversies.
[...] Update:Ā The paper hasĀ issued a correctionĀ and apologized. āA significant error was made in a headline on a story in Fridayās print sports section about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif incorrectly describing her as transgender. She is not. Additionally, our initial correction of this error neglected to note that she was born female. We recognize the magnitude of this mistake and have corrected it in the epaper, the electronic version of the printed Globe. This editing lapse is regretful and unacceptable and we apologize to Khelif, to Associated Press writer Greg Beacham, and to you, our readers.ā
The Boston Globe should be ashamed of themselves for inaccurately describing Imane Khelif as ātransgenderā. The paper did later, apologize for the insensitively bigoted headline but not the trans community as a whole.
