By caving into bigotry and cowardice, the NCAA is putting transgender athletes’ lives in jeopardy. When USA Today’s hardcore leftist Nancy Armour called the NCAA on the carpet about this spurious claim, the association didn’t even have the guts to respond to this angry social justice warrior writer’s protest.
Armour torched the NCAA from her social justice soapbox because it awarded women’s postseason softball tournament sites to three states that passed laws protecting the integrity of women’s sports. The organization is sorely lacking both spine and conscience, and it's practically saying trans lives don't matter, she railed.:
“Not even a month after its Board of Governors came to the defense of transgender athletes and put the states who target them on notice, the NCAA caved to the bigotry. By selecting three states that recently legalized discrimination against transgender athletes as hosts for the postseason softball tournament, the NCAA told an already marginalized group of young men and women just how little their lives and self-worth mean.”
Worse yet, NCAA president Mark Emmert and “his cadre of toadies” didn’t even have the guts to defend their decision, Armour contined. They dared to decline repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press and did not bother to respond to the high and mighty USA TODAY Sports department.
Transgender athlete Chris Mosier picked up Armour’s attack in a Monday tweet:
“The NCAA's lack of action in remaining silent as these bills were being discussed was a passive offense to transgender student-athletes, but this is an actual attack. The NCAA is saying, clearly, 'We do not care about our transgender student-athletes.' "
Armour wrote the NCAA’s “latest act of cowardice” puts the lives of transgender athletes in danger.
The three states selected to host NCAA women’s tournament games are Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. Each state passed “draconian” legislation – Armour’s words -- that prevents transgender athletes from playing sports. Or possibly their new women’s sports integrity laws can prevent athletes from pulling a “Cece Telfer.” He was a Franklin Pierce University sprinter who ranked 390th among men’s hurdlers. He then switched on his inner femininity, appeared on the women's track team and won a women’s national championship. A pretty slick move to gather in some hardware.
Armour recalled that the NCAA’s Board of Governors recognized the new state laws “for the dangerous nonsense they are.” Last month, the board said postseason championship events should “only be held in environments that are ‘safe, healthy and free of discrimination.’ ”
A majority of the public opposes “hateful anti-trans laws, recognizing that they will only ‘otherize’ further a group that already has frighteningly high rates of suicide and depression,” Armour roared. “But the radical right is hellbent on inflaming the culture wars, and it doesn’t care if it has to twist facts to do it.”
Armour knows all about twisting the facts. A March poll by Morning Consult and Politico revealed 53 percent of respondents support state laws aimed at protecting women’s sports.
“Cisgender athletes have not seen their opportunities to compete shrink nor have they been crowded off the podium,” she insisted.
Armour goes down swinging about NCAA President Mark Emmert losing his spine and politicians who are playing “a dangerous game with the lives of transgendered children and young adults. Shame on Emmert and the NCAA for standing silent while they do it.”
The USALGBT Today writer has no sympathy or concern whatsoever for the young girls and women victimized by the intrusion of males into their respective sports.
