Born a boy, Andraya Yearwood is of great value to the LGBTQ agenda. So is Mirin Fader, a Bleacher Report writer who uses Yearwood's story to promote transgenderism. In her feature on Yearwood, Fader comes up with excuse after excuse to wiggle out of obvious advantages that males have over women in sports competition.
To no one's surprise, Yearwood (see photo of state track sprint finals) is much faster than virtually all the girls she races against. She finished second at state in this year's 100 meters, trailing only Terry Miller, another boy allowed to compete as a "girl." As a freshman last year, Yearwood won the title in Class M. It's not Yearwood's advantage over girls that draws opposition. It's phobia: "Because this 17-year-old Black transgender girl represents what they are afraid of: no longer being the norm."
The gender denier Fader says Yearwood does not have, as opponents say, a “biological advantage” over girls. That's just "vitriol." Yearwood qualified for nationals, and Feder thinks this proves his detractors wrong. But the girls he's beating did not qualify; he's actually proving their accusations of unfairness.
Though Yearwood intentionally erased his birth gender, Fader complains that President Trump is "erasing" transgenders. He's "A Black transgender girl in a world that is intent on policing and erasing girls like her." Yearwood was hardly invisible on Good Morning America or in his speech at Harvard University.
Yearwood is portrayed as weak. He's just starting to lift weights, and he's vulnerable to anti-videos and petitions opposing his inclusion on the girls' track team. Two female track and field officials were overheard saying he has no business competing against females, striking fear into the boy who runs as a girl. Those words could have (but didn't) turn into actions, Fader writes. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference escorted her about the field in case any stone age cisgenders threatened her.
The parent of a rival school's track and field team says it is an "injustice" for Yearwood to run as a girl. Though a photo of Yearwood displays muscle mass that girls don't typically have, Fader insists environmental and economic factors determine athletic skills. She writes of research demonstrating that hormonal replacement therapy resulted in “a loss of speed, strength and endurance—all key components of athleticism.” Tell this to the girls who are eating the dust of Yearwood and Miller!
Fader's fantasy continued to weasel around Yearwood's obvious male strength and speech advantages over girls. "A level playing field is a fallacy," says Dr. Myron Genel, Yale professor emeritus of pediatric endocrinology. "There's so many other factors that may provide a competitive advantage," Genel says. "It's very hard to single out sex as the only one." That may be true in Hollywood, where movies and TV programs often show women beating up on men.
Fader surely can't be talking about Connecticut's girls' state track championships when she writes: "There is no proof that cisgender men are inherently more capable than cisgender women." Her explanation for the fear that ''transgender women will be able to dominate women’s sports without effort due to the inherent advantages men have over women" is a mixing of apples with oranges. It's "a new iteration of the old stereotypes that kept women & girls out of sports prior to Title IX.'" In time, transgenders may keep women on the sidelines.
Robin McHaelen, executive director of True Colors, a Hartford-based LGBTQ youth group, says that if Yearwood "can't play, we are denying her all of the other benefits of participating in team sports ... ." Really? Yearwood and Miller are eligible for something called the boys' track team.
