Behind the scenes of the battle over transgender inclusion in community sports
- In October, Sports Minister Chris Bishop ordered Sport NZ to rewrite its principles on transgender inclusion in community sports.
- This followed his apparent backdown in June on the National-NZ First coalition commitment to cut funding for sporting bodies that have gender rules compromising fairness.
- In between, Bishop heard blowback from NZ First leader Winston Peters, former Olympians in an open letter, and dozens of National Party supporters threatening to vote elsewhere.
The What is a woman? petition was received by Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of NZ First Winston Peters and their NZ First Trans Troll MP Tanya Unkovich.
The manner in which 4th wave feminist and non-binary allies have made the entire trans debate more radioactive than Chernobyl will forever be held up as what not to do when attempting to build a movement.
There is no doubt that the Trans movement at the height of the woke cancel culture purges of 2016 went way too far with their alienation super powers and the fiasco of beating Possie Parker from the stage while screaming victim over at the SpinOff didn’t help…
…but the reality in a liberal progressive democracy is that every individual is promised freedom and agency and the Trans whanau (despite their radioactivity and jaw dropping ability to poison all good will) deserve the same agency we all are which means they need access to Identification and rights that do need negotiating with Gender Critical Feminists.
The debate needs good faith and that’s the last thing NZ First are bringing.
NZ First are bringing lies, smears and falsehoods to the debate.
Winston was utterly wrong again here…
…and NZ First are wrong to threaten community funding if a Trans players is part of the team!
Unfortunately NZ First lying and spreading falsehoods doesn’t matter because the entire debate has collapsed into a toxic dumpster fire that no one wants to touch now.
At some stage the middle class woke activists of Wellington need to take a very long hard look at the manner in which their Trans debate, a debate that impacts less than 1% of people, has managed to become a culture war that the Left can not win.
The middle class woke built this trans culture war and the rest of us are having to suffer it while NZ First exploit it.
Take puberty blockers.
Puberty blockers to be prescribed more cautiously in New Zealand after review
Doctors will be told to show caution in prescribing puberty blockers in New Zealand after a review found strong evidence for their effectiveness and safety was lacking.
The Ministry of Health today released its long-awaited evidence brief and a position statement on puberty-stalling hormones.
“The evidence brief found that the evidence supporting the effectiveness and safety was limited and of poor quality,” the ministry said.
As a result of the findings, the ministry is outlining an expectation that greater caution is used in prescribing the medication. Further safeguards may be introduced after consultation with interested parties.
Other countries have also taken steps to restrict puberty blockers out of concern about a lack of robust evidence and rising prescribing rates.
How do you tell The Spinoff they’ve been wrong?
How do you tell Stuff, RNZ and vast swathes of the Public service it’s all been a bit of a bullshit fad?
How do you tell the Woke Wellington Wankers, those Transphobe purges and cancelation social media lynchings may have been a tad overdone?
And most importantly, how do you do it without exciting transphobic right hate groups?
it is hard to acknowledge a middle class identity cult has become a fad, but the stats don’t lie…
…Ian Powell’s thoughtful critique of puberty blockers is an important contribution here.
For the millionth time. The idea that there are some women who believe they are men and some men who believe they are women and some people who believe they are neither and some who believe they are both is as uncontroversial to me as the range of eye, skin and hair colour in the human species.
As a matter of basic human curtesy we should always refer to a person by what ever pronoun and name they wish us to use and we should make it as easy as possible for people to legitimately be able to gain the paper work they need that states their gender and identity so they can go about the lives like everyone else.
This is a liberal progressive democracy, and everyone is promised the same agency and we want our Trans whanau to enjoy the same fruits of human rights we all enjoy, and for those who identity is a real issue, we want them to flourish, however when a middle class identity cult takes over the cultural debate to try and enforce a medical solution to their gender dogma, that’s where the adults in the room have to collectively stand and say, ‘hold on’.
There are genuine issues here that we have ignored in the rush to endorse woke Trans dogma, however what we don’t want is the excesses of the middle class cult to excite the transphobic right hate groups into any belief of justification.
My issue has never been anti-Trans, my issue is the radioactive manner in which the Trans activists and 4th wave feminists went about alienating every voter.
I know many staunch Kiwi Feminists in NZ who feel deeply uncomfortable with the extremeness of some woke Fourth Wave feminists and who feel intimidated to express their true thoughts for fear of being torn to pieces.
Remember how we on the Left had people sacked from their jobs during the social media lynchings of 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 for questioning Trans Dogma?
Isn’t it hilarious the first tiny bit of power our activists had they used to alienate almost everyone? Thank Christ they are all on Bluesky now which is the equivalent of screaming into a cushion that no one else can hear.
It is the woke middle class Identitarians who have generated the political backlash we saw in America and globally.
Here is how spastic the Trans debate became in America.
Trump consistently claimed Democrats would allow illegal aliens sex changes in prison, what’s the truth?
Yes the American Prison system allows those transitioning to access the medicines they require because that’s a health issue, but how many have actually accessed sex change operations?
2 FUCKING PRISONERS!
When challenged on this, Kamala Harris said “I will follow the law”, rather than explaining that there are only 2 examples of this and both were domestic prisoners, not ‘illegals’.
She didn’t point this out because the Dems were terrified of insulting the woke by mentioning the Trans debate in any way that didn’t worship them.
The Trans debate – thanks to the toxicity the Woke spent 8 years injecting into this issue, was manipulated by the Right to paint us as gender extremists FFS when only 2 prisoners have ever accessed it!
When you replace class and citizenship as our guiding values on the Left for identity politics, you make it impossible to get to the 51% democratic majority required to win power.
We want our Trans whanau to be able to enjoy the same agency that everyone is promised in a liberal progressive democracy, but the extremism of our woke middle class activists drove the debate off a cliff and now they are pissed off at the rest of us for not supporting them in driving off the cliff???
While I’ve been vocal against their woke alienation, I’ve ended up being one of the few still willing to stand with the Trans community against this Government threatening community funding for any amateur sports team having a Trans player because while I disagree with the Trans alienating tactics, I disagree much more with punishing community funding for their mere existence.
This whole debate needed to be far more rational and far less hating. Could the woke please go back to sleep?
We get it wokies, your manufactured identity is far more important than the common ground between us.
Meanwhile, the Planet is melting, global war looms and the economy is tanking. If we could just get back to those issues please?
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There are only two biological sexes, male and female. I don’t want these THINGS competing in any category of female sports. If they want to play sports, they should compete against other trans athletes.
Poor Zelda it must be very sad to be you in your perfect world and with your perfect world view. I feel so sorry for you and your labels of “THINGS”. Remember the days of homophobia and it was illegal to be gay and you went to prison, remember the days when black people were less than people because of their skin color, they were called many names too. Unfortunately it was not that long ago and here we are again with your comments showing absolutely no understanding of people and their biological make up. Don’t you know the trauma and suicide rates of children who have been locked in the closet by your label of “THINGS” . Unless any of us have been there we have absolutely no understanding of these people’s lives and I suggest you educate yourself on what it actually means to be a transgender person in your so perfect world and I suggest if you want to argue your ignorance and have a different opinion just call people people not “Things”.
Zip it, Zelda. Yesterday you trashed poor working class people burned out of their Californian mobile home parks as sinners being punished by your god, and today you’re denying humanity to persons with complicated gender issues.
I don’t want you referring to anybody as a THING, and bear in mind that in doing so, you appear a bit of a sub- human simpleton yourself.
Zelda I agree 100%.
We all are things Zelda. But each of us is more complex than we realise or can cope with, and so we never achieve greatness as one thing in a simple manner. We are thinking things but don’t do enough of that, we are doing things and do either too much or too little of that. Support us all in our effort to be transcending things Zelda please. We have been trying for centuries, not too well much of the time, and now we have only decades left. I ask this of you Zelda as a legacy that you could bestow. Pray if you will, but try to achieve this.
“As a matter of basic human curtesy we should always refer to a person by what ever pronoun and name they wish us to use”. Well, ok. And as a matter of basic science we should recognise the fact that humans are unable to change their sex.
And also recognise while our physical bodies may only have two shapes .
We should also recognise our human biological makeup is much more complex than previously thought as medical science is now revealing.
This fact must be recognised sooner or later no matter what religious dogma may want us to accept.
People can change how others see them and can act as the sex they choose to be . This does not mean theycan always be except as that sex if it gives them an unfair advantage access to their chosen changing room .
I agree Don. “Our TRANS whanau” may actually flourish with accepting reality and not being ashamed of their actual sex, however they feel and present themselves.
I give you Laurel Hubbard, the weightlifter. Say no more
Tom Gardner – Yup – disgraceful decision by Weightlifting NZ to send “her” to the Olympics…where “she” bombed out
I would suggest to Zelda and Don that they google up sexual ambiguity. Admittedly this condition only effects a very small number but if physical ambiguity is real why can’t phycological ambiguity be a reality for some? Shouldn’t we be applying knowledge, understanding and compassion to this situation.
Really happy to accept your argument that any person claiming a “trans” identity requires a diagnosis of a Difference of Sex Development.
It’s never been about that tiny unfortunate minority, and you know it.
We should be far more interested in what winston peters and don brash were talking about in that photograph taken outside that cafe back in the early 1990’s and who was that third maggot in a suit looking on in watchful silence?
I can no longer find that photograph anywhere on-line. Funny that.
Re sport/genitals. It’s sport so who cares aye zelda you early rising angry loony israeli psycho.
Viagra Boys.
Sports
https://youtu.be/QjL7D33xpS4?feature=shared
Keep off the Viagra was what I learned from that. And it seems all like a tease as you wait for his trousers to slip down and show us all his tats which must have cost a heap. Males have few choices – you can understand why they might want to change. It was sports or war or fiddling with greasy machines though it has expanded to celebrity chefs, wine tasters, vodka makers.
Perhaps there will be a vid of a man wandering around gasping ‘wine or beer or ale’, and other one syllable drinks to be addicted to. The real problem is sports and drink and engines; a man who can’t get past that terrible trio is real goner-bait.
No Don Brash I think he’s never worn his hair cut short like that and is taller. Where is lurker can’t see? What is the the label on box in pic. Care to answer?
The biggest issue I have is the Trans and rainbow community bringing their sexuality into the public space, seriously who gives a shit.
Maybe to not “trigger” them we could all self identify as (Insert name) the Heterosexual.
Seems to me that this is issue became radioactive when the police sat back and let transgender extremists terrorise and physically attack women at Albert Park in Auckland. Private bodyguards got Posy Parker out of that violent melee and Coster never did account for the whys and wherefores of that disgraceful day.
The transgender ideology in the school curriculum prematurely sexualising young children and unnecessarily confusing them and blithely ignored by the then-major political parties, was the issue addressed by Winston Peters which sent my vote to NZ First for the first time ever. It affects far greater numbers of people than the predicament of sportspersons, and medical science being replaced by trendy ideology isn’t in any kid’s best interests, IMO.
And in my opinion too, Holly.
Just the wrong 1% for the left to be taking action on.
What a bunch of wankers some people are .The world is burning or drowning and you are stressing because some one wants to play sport .I remember the days when girls were seen as too weak to be a jockey .Now they out number men in that profession .I would imagine Winston would have been at the forefront of the anti girls in this case .
Sport is sport and the world will not stop rotating because a girl wants to play against the boys or the other way round .If you all shut the fuc up and stop giving these things media coverage it would be a non issue .
You are overheated gw. The problem is that women haven’t the right to be true to themselves-women now; anybody can be a woman if they want to enough. It is insulting. And those who felt most insulted by men are the women at the top who have taken up the right to be better than men, or to reject them and put wimmin first every time. And men are retaliating.
Ordinary women wonder at these power games and it just divides any community we have within gender, and between genders. That is the world now SNAFU. Your comment simplifies things gordon w. I think you are getting change-lagged like many; a new mental stress for the psychologists?
In totally uprelated news, rest in piss Anita Bryant!
How do you tell The Spinoff they’ve been wrong? How do you tell Stuff, RNZ and vast swathes of the Public service it’s all been a bit of a bullshit fad?
The only answer that resonates, is that you can’t tell them… One must have the wit, and maturity to listen before elucidation is possible…
The childish fools you mention are utterly bereft of the necessary qualities to do more than react childishly, and with mean spirit to any rational concept of adulthood…
Complete failure in life, and isolation from the stream of life will eventually drive many people back to rationality, but the numbers of those who’s lives were sacrificed “for the cause” will always stand as collatoral damage from yet another attempt to stymie humanities evolutionary progress…
Humans can be much stupider than they really are far too often for their own good…