Trump Promises to Ban 'Men' From Women's Sports
NBC News reports. “So ridiculous.” By “men,” of course, he meant trans women.He also denounced Lia Thomas, a trans woman on the University of Pennsylvania swim team who recently broke several records at a meet in Ohio. “Trump misgendered Thomas, referring to her by the wrong pronouns, and then falsely stated that Thomas broke an 11-year-old swimming record by 38 seconds,” NBC notes.
Actually, she won one event by 38 seconds but didn’t break a record in that case; she had record times in some other events, but she bested the previous records by only a couple of seconds.He further claimed a trans woman broke a weightlifting record that had stood for 20 years, but it’s unclear what he was basing it on or if the statement was true.Trump didn’t say how he’d enact the ban he talked about.
He has spoken against trans inclusion in women’s sports previously. At last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, for instance, he said Democratic policies would “destroy women’s sports.”Barring trans women from women’s sports has become a popular cause among conservative legislators at the state level.
Last year, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia passed laws barring trans athletes from competing under their gender identity in K-12 public school sports; some of the laws affect athletes at state colleges and universities as well.Idaho put such a law in place in 2020, and South Dakota’s governor last year signed executive orders to the same effect; the state is now considering legislation on the matter.
