#harrison browne

More thoughts on this book about trans people in athletics:

The anti-trans court cases that have sprung up across the US have been funded by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

I knew they were the same group that fought against marriage equality, but I didn't know that they were the reason Roe v Wade fell

Theyve brought over a dozen anti-LGBT cases to the US Supreme Court

They've funded cases abroad, in India and Belize, to try to make queer sex illegal (bringing back what locked up Oscar Wilde cool cool cool)

Browne makes the point that people fear-mongering about trans women/girl athletes focus on trans women/girls who win against cis women/girls, but is this really a metric to be concerned about?

That is: the ADF tends to lose its cases where trans women are accused of unfairly beating cis women because (1) those cis women usually lost against other cis women as well, and (2) the trans women also usually lost against cis women as well, or had lost against them in the past.

The idea that trans women are just obliterating cis women in sports is both really easily demonstrably false and is rooted in the unquestioned idea that men are just sooo automatically superior to women

But more than that: about 98% of all athletes are not competing for wins. Across the country, students participate in athletics for fitness and health, a sense of community, the self-confidence and self-discipline it ingrains in you, etc. So the real question would be whether trans girls are stopping cis girls from accessing those things.

It might make more sense to look at the number of sports-related scholarships for women that trans women have received, for example.

0 (zero) trans women have received sports-related scholarships.

Yeah. Yeah...

I wanted to give Harrison Browne his flowers in what little way I could so here’s this quick portrait. What an inspirational human being. (And the only pro hockey player on the damn show.)

Best of luck in all of your endeavors. I hope Connors got his room service.