Bigots and morons foment anti-trans panic because a cis woman lost a boxing match to another cis woman of the same weight class and whined about it
Even by the standards of transphobic moral panics, this is one of the dumbest fake controversies ever. An Italian boxer who seems to have learned her defensive technique from watching Rocky movies left her head fully exposed, which led to her being punched in the face, which tends to happen in boxing matches. Her response was to…quit and whine about how her opponent (a cis woman in the same weight class) must actually be a man. It’s some of the most pathetic excuse-making and poor sportsmanship I’ve ever seen, but transphobes on both sides of the Atlantic are pretending to believe it:
Got punched hard in the “who’s the hardest puncher in the world?” contest I volunteered to do https://t.co/zUgUXhNyU4 pic.twitter.com/7o2TXz50lO— Kyle Patrick (@kyry5) August 1, 2024
I know this story has reached thermonuclear levels of BS and grift-fueled hate on here, but if anyone is actually interested in learning more about Imane Khelif, I found this helpful.https://t.co/J6hZ04fzkN pic.twitter.com/YPIHGleXYA— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) August 1, 2024
It’s also worth noting that Carini’s self-serving complaints about how Khelif is such an unstoppable force that she must be a man is pure bullshit coming and going:
Imane Khelif is a female boxer who has been defeated 9 times by women opponents. Those claiming she's a man have the same aims as those who claimed that the suspect in the Southport stabbings was a Muslim asylum seeker: to stir up hatred against a marginalised community https://t.co/Pn9vaKd7N9— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) August 1, 2024
Irish Olympic champion Kellie Harrington fought Imane Khelif in the last Olympics and won. Everyone tweeting now about how Khelif is 'really a man beating up women in the ring' (she isn't) has likely never watched a moment of women's boxing in their lives.https://t.co/Vz62eMi18x— Aidan Comerford (@AidanCTweets) August 1, 2024
I don’t expect better from Republican politicians — lying and invidious discrimination are central to their worldview — but to see professional British sportswriters employed by major newspapers taking Carini’s ridiculous story at face value…what are they putting in the water over there. At least I can be glad I’m too old to have ever have to have cared about Harry Potter.
…and as Lauren Thiesen says, you would have to be a gold-plated dumbshit to think Algeria would send a trans woman to the Olympics.