14/11/2024
The ranting of the transphobic internet trolls hit a new low last week after false claims that a female boxer competing in the Paris Olympic Games was a transgender woman. It transpires that in fact bitter losers against the champion fighter was the motivator for the false claims, which were then repeated until the far right believed them in their own web based echo chamber. Erin in the Morning, a daily blogger online, takes up the story, and reports "conservative influencer accounts have ignited a firestorm over cisgender boxer Imane Khelif, alleging that she is actually a “man” and suggesting she might be transgender. This is despite officials confirming that Khelif was assigned female at birth and has competed as a woman her entire life. The controversy has led to statements from Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and anti-transgender influencers, who are using the boxer’s participation to target transgender athletes..... There is no evidence that Khelif is a transgender woman. Although transgender women are allowed to compete in the Olympics, there are no openly transgender women competing this year. Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has confirmed that Khelif is a cisgender boxer, calling disinformation about her gender “totally unacceptable.” Khelif’s family shared pictures of her as a child, as well as identity documents showing her assigned sex at birth. Notably, gender transition is criminalized in Algeria, making it extremely unlikely that transgender people would be allowed to transition in the country." You can read the full devastating analysis at the web page of Erin Reed in the Morning. Sign up for a regular series of incisive and very well written analytical essays.
