#transvestigations

[justinssportscorner]

Alex Abad-Santos at Vox:

Despite being a time when people from all over the world come together in equality and peace, the Olympics are still uncertain territory for transgender athletes. There are no transgender athletes who are competing outside of the gender they were assigned at birth at this year’s Games. Transgender women who transitioned after puberty aren’t allowed to compete in major sports on a college level. Athletes Nikki Hiltz, a runner, and Hergie Bacyadan, a boxer, both identify as transgender (Hiltz also identifies as nonbinary), but both have always and continue to compete in the women’s division, which is the sex they were assigned at birth. Athletes who do not identify as trans, like Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, have also been scrutinized for their gender. Along with China’s Lin Yu-ting, Khelif is one of two women boxers who failed a “sex test” from the International Boxing Association last year. They have since been connected to discussions of sports and Differences of Sexual Development (DSD), a rare group of genetic and hormonal disorders allowed under International Olympic Committee guidelines. After Khelif’s Italian competitor Angela Carini conceded their match less than a minute into their bout, many have weighed in, including Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling.

Outside of the Games, trans people face so much backlash, often for simply existing. The conversation around sports is particularly fraught, from children’s athletics right up through the pros. Despite the International Olympic Committee vowing to be more inclusive, the future for trans athletes is unclear. It all raises the question: How did we get to this point, and did it always have to be this way? The answers found in historian and journalist Michael Waters’s The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports might be surprising. Waters’s book traces the emergence of Zdeněk Koubek, a track and field star representing the country formerly known as Czechoslovakia who, at 21, won two medals — a gold in the 800m and a bronze in the long jump — at the 1934 Women’s World Games. (The Women’s World Games was the precursor to women competing at the Olympics). In 1935, Koubek announced that he would be living life as a man and swiftly became an international celebrity.

Perhaps the most intriguing facet to Koubek’s story was in the public response. Koubek was more welcomed and celebrated than we might imagine. There was an open-mindedness and empathy to the reception of Koubek and his gender identity and expression in the 1930s. Waters also pinpoints where and when that changed, specifically at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Armed with a propensity for eugenics, gender anxiety, and a startling lack of scientific evidence, a small set of Nazi officials influenced the International Olympic Committee into gender surveillance and trans panic — stuff that eerily mirrors the transphobic attacks that athletes, cis and trans alike, face today.

Anti-trans discrimination in the Olympics stretches as far back as the infamous 1936 games in Berlin.

[rjalker]

Enemy-viv for your free blocklist. Cyberstalking, misgendering, and literally transvestigating Aaron Bushnell, the man who self-immolated to protest genocide, because White Queer People cannot fucking show solidarity or care about anyone or anything unless they think they can relate personally.

Aaron Bushnell signed his pronouns as he/him in his message to the press. Twisting the conversation away from his sacrifice for Palestine to protest the active fucking genocide so you can cyberstalk him and misgender him and speculate about him secretly being trans as though he's a fictional character and not a real fucking person who made the ultimate sacrifice to try and stop genocide is fucking evil.

There is something deeply, morally wrong with you you cannot fucking bring yourself give a single shit about someone who publically sacrificed his life in protest of genocide unless you think you have something to gain by it by projecting a Queer identity onto him like he's your new favorite blorbo and not a fucking real person who died to protest genocide.

Stop fucking distracting the conversation away from the literal genocide he was protesting. Stop literally fucking transvestigating people. Learn to fucking care about people even when they have no Queer identity in common with you. What the fuck is wrong with you people.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

John Russell at LGBTQ Nation:

Lady Gaga recently opened up about rumors that proliferated early in her career that she had a penis — and explained why she never denied them. Earlier this week, Netflix dropped its new show What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates. The five-episode series features conversations between the billionaire Microsoft founder and various thought leaders and celebrities about the most pressing challenges of our age. In its second episode, Gates tackles truth in the age of digital misinformation, and one of the experts he turns to is Lady Gaga, who knows a thing or two about how false claims and rumors can spread online.

“So, when I was in my early twenties, there was a rumor that I was a man,” the “Born This Way” singer explains to Gates. “And I went all over the world. I mean, I traveled for tours, for promoting my records, and almost every interview I sat in they said, you know — well, there was this imagery on the, on the internet that had been doctored. And they were like, you know, like, ‘There’s this rumor that you’re a man.’ Like, ‘What do you have to say about that?’” As them notes, rumors that Gaga had — as one dubious gossip site put it at the time — “both male and female genitalia” seem to have peaked in 2009, a year after the release of her debut album The Fame. A photo taken that June during her set at the Glastonbury Festival appeared to show a bulge in her underwear, and the famously vicious gossip blogs of the decade used it to fuel wild speculation about the singer.

[...] “The reason why I didn’t answer the question was because I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie,” she said. “But I thought about, like, what about a kid that’s being accused of that, that would think that a public figure like me would feel shame?” “I guess what I’m saying is, I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumor was not in the best interest of, I thought, of the well-being of other people,” she added. “In that case, I tried to be thought-provoking and disruptive in another way. I tried to use the misinformation to create another disruptive point.”

Lady Gaga went on Bill Gates's podcast What's Next? to explain why she refused to address transvestigation rumors of her having a penis.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ari Drennen at MMFA:

Candace Owens’ eponymous new show is only one week old, but the former Daily Wire personality has already returned to an old fixation: a conspiracy theory that the first lady of France is secretly a transgender woman. Similar false accusations, known informally as “transvestigations,” are raging everywhere on social media, targeting figures from Kyle Rittenhouse to Taylor Swift — an uncomfortable if inevitable evolution of a mass hysteria fixated on the bodies of trans people.   Prior to losing her job at The Daily Wire, Owens proclaimed that she would stake her “entire professional reputation”” on the theory that Brigitte Macron, the longtime wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, was hiding the fact that she is a transgender woman. While her accusation was met with derision, outrage, and concern, Owens made the claim in a new video on her YouTube channel, and then repeated it several days later.  Two women in France are currently facing defamation charges for helping spread the claim. Macron’s husband has recently adopted strident anti-trans rhetoric in the run-up to new elections.

 Accusations of a secret trans identity have been weaponized against women deemed insufficiently feminine or subversive for years. Lady Gaga was asked in multiple interviews about rumors about her genitalia, and similar claims pushed by Infowars host Alex Jones dogged Michelle Obama during her husband’s time in office. Although Jones recently announced that he would have to liquidate his assets to settle claims over a separate conspiracy theory about the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, accusations that the former U.S. first lady and mother of two children is secretly trans have refused to go away. 

“Transvestigations” have been hard to miss on social media in recent years, targeting basketball stars Britney Griner and Caitlin Clark, pop stars outspoken in their support for LGBTQ equality like Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa, Man of Steel star Henry Cavill, and even former President Lyndon B. Johnson.   These false accusations come amid a broader “trans panic” encouraged by right-wing media and politicians. And right-wing media stars are not immune to this scrutiny, with similar accusations lodged against Laura Loomer, Riley Gaines, Kyle Rittenhouse, and others.  

[...] In recent years, the idea that trans people either do not exist as a meaningful category or are a recent invention has taken hold in right-wing media — especially among Owens’ former colleagues at The Daily Wire. 

The right-wing conspiracist media’s transvestigation obsession, particularly from Candace Owens, has done harm to cisgender people who have alleged to be trans, along with actual trans people.

The following people have been subject to baseless transvestigations: Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Brigitte Macron, and Caitlin Clark, and much more.

Even right=wing pundits like Kyle Rittenhouse, Laura Loomer, and Riley Gaines aren’t immune from the transvestigators.

[macbethz]

that tweet where they transvestigate rob mcelhenny makes me laugh so hard

happy pride trans icon <3

[victusinveritas]

[autisticexpression2]

This bullshit around Imane Khelif has to be the biggest mass delusion I've seen from the right, and that's really saying something.

Transvestigators are nothing new. People have been calling Michelle Obama a man for years. But it has mostly been a niche thing not even taken seriously by most republicans.

Qanon is unhinged but mostly deals with that which is unknown to the average person, leaving room for speculation, however wild.

But Imane Khelif's gender is a straightforward issue. She is objectively a cis woman. This isn't at all debatable by any sane standard. There is absolutely no reason to believe otherwise. She is a cis woman from a conservative Muslim country where any expression of queerness is illegal. There is no way a transgender or otherwise queer person would be selected to represent Algeria. There are even photographs of her as a little girl if you're still not convinced.

But the right has arbitrarily decided that she's a man based on absolutely nothing, and suddenly, the question of whether or not this WOMAN has a penis, an objective true or false question, has become a culture war issue. So now it doesn't matter what PROOF you bring up. Saying this woman is a woman is woke now, so they have to disagree on principle against all evidence and logic. People who have been screaming about precise biological definitions of gender for years now have decided someone's gender based on vibes alone because irony is fucking dead.

And it's not just a niche view held by the more unhinged online sections of the right. Celebrities like Elon Musk, JK Rowling, and Logan Paul are tweeting it. Politicians are tweeting it. Babylon Bee is publishing "satirical" pieces about how abusing women is now an Olympic sport.

We are living in the absolute stupidest timeline.

[animentality]

[dingledraw]

The IT GIRLS (Rival models au?? Jk… unless👀)

🔥Outfit inspo 🔥

[citricjoy]

at what point do we start asking questions

[justinssportscorner]

Mira Lazine at LGBTQ Nation:

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif opened up about the hate she’s received from the far-right during their “transvestigations” of her, focusing particularly on Elon Musk’s role in the hate mobs. [...] Khelif has been the victim of intense hate mobs directed at her solely on the basis of transphobia and racism. It started when she defeated her opponent, Italian boxer Angela Carini, in the first round of boxing at the Olympics. Carini dropped out after being punched in the face and anti-trans bigots began to accuse Khelif of being either a trans woman or a cis man, using an accusation made by an ally of Vladimir Putin on Telegram earlier this year. Algeria does not allow individuals to transition, and Khelif’s entire family has said that she was assigned female at birth. The International Olympics Committee has also confirmed her as cisgender.

Things only began to escalate when reference was made to when the Russia-based International Boxing Association disqualified Khelif after she defeated a Russian boxer, claiming she did not pass unspecified gender testing. However, the International Boxing Association has given no proof of the testing and has been banned from recognition by the International Olympic Committee due to instances of corruption and scandal.

Imane Khelif, the female Algerian boxer that was falsely accused of being a “male”, opens up about the experience of being a cyberbullying victim by anti-trans scum such as Elon Musk, JK Rowling, and Riley Gaines.

See Also:

The Advocate: Imane Khelif calls out Elon Musk for all the transphobic hate he sent her way

[rjalker]

"NO ONE wants anyone to be trans or to transition!!!!"

Except for all the trans people who harass cis GNC people into transitioning and admitting they're secretly trans.

Pretending these people simply don't exist despite them very publically sexually harassing GNC people does not make you look good, it just proves you don't have any actual arguments.

Speculating about people's gender identities and harassing them to "admit" they're secretly trans is wrong, even if it's trans people doing the harassing and a cis person as the victim. You are not actually any better than the far righters who do the exact same thing.

Pretending that it's not a problem because society at large doesn't want GNC people to be trans doesn't absolve you or your friends or your idols of sexually harassing people over them not identifying in the way you want them to.

[beckyts]

In a world full of people who couldn’t care less, be someone who cares more.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Peter Montgomery at RWW:

Carlo Maria Viganò, who used to be a far-right full-on MAGA Catholic archbishop, is now a far-right full-on MAGA former archbishop, having been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church in July. Viganò has been one of the most frenzied right-wing critics of Pope Francis, who he called a “servant of Satan.” Viganò apparently intends to continue using his platform to rile up right-wing activists. He released a raving rant against the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, which set off more than a few religious-right activists. Viganò’s statement went much further than claims of blasphemy, anti-Christian bias, and “wokeism.” He also promoted false far-right conspiracy theories claiming that the wife of French President Emanuel Macron and former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama are actually men:

[It is no coincidence that the one sponsoring this revolting carnival is an emissary of the World Economic Forum, Emanuel Macron, who passes off a transvestite as his own wife with impunity, just as Barack Obama is accompanied by a muscular man in a wig. It is the reign of mystification, of falsehood, of fiction erected as a totem, in which man is disfigured precisely because he was created in the image and likeness of God.]

Viganò’s statement was irresistible to BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales, who called it “the take that everyone needs to be talking about.” She called attention to Viganò’s remarks in the Monday episode of her “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” show. “He brings up both Big Mike [the snide term used by far-right activists who claim Michelle Obama is a man] and Macron, the president of France’s ‘wife,’ question mark?” [...] On her show, Gonzales showed a video clip of Michelle Obama dancing on The Ellen Show and claimed that the video shows something “shaking” in her pants—an obsession in some corners of the internet—with Gonzales repeatedly showing the clip and asking her producers to “zoom in.” Asking why these conspiracy theories or drag queen performances matter, Gonzales returned to Viganò’s statement, which says “Tolerance cannot be the alibi for the systematic destruction of Christian society.” Responded Gonzales, “Well said.”

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales promoted the far-right excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s deranged anti-trans rants about Michelle Obama and the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies on last Monday’s episode of her Sara Gonzales Unfiltered show.

From the 07.29.2024 edition of BlazeTV's Sara Gonzales Unfiltered:

[gremlingirlsmell]

the egg prime directive is transmisogynistic, joking about a cis person you know might be an egg is pretty harmless, and saying otherwise is transmisogynistic. hope this helps

[mclennon-amv]

Wow…. Holy cow…. I had no freaking idea Paul McCartney was a petite, bouncing baby biogirl