They think trans women have an unfair advantage in… fishing?
Three members of an English women’s fishing team in England are refusing to compete at the world championships due to the fact that one of their own teammates is trans.
The Shore Angling World Championships will take place in Italy in November, and the board of the sport’s governing body, the Angling Trust, has said it will not prevent trans angler Becky Lee Birtwhistle Hodges from applying to compete.
Before even opening the article I knew it would be England. Fucking TERF Island.
OK, I may be wrong on this one, and I may have my inbox murdered for this, but I am on the fence here. No, not because I feel the trans woman has any advantages over the other women, but in a sport like fishing, or even esports, there are women’s leagues because the men dominate the current participation rosters, have better sponsors and training and equipment and therefore make it exclusionary to women. Having a women’s league promotes being more inclusive in the sport and creating a level (not fair, level) playing field for those who would typically not get the opportunity to compete.
I know this is further complicated by the fact that trans people are even more marginalized than women, and should therefore have more encouragement to participate in these competitions.
My view is that I would let the trans woman participate, I just also get the fact that some people may have reasonable feelings relating to why they feel this kind of thing does a disservice to them. But then there are other people who are just discriminatory assholes. I get that too.
I never knew organized animal torture was a gendered pastime
When you put it that way it sounds significantly cooler
Why is there an issue with ‘trans’ but not ‘women’s’? If they’re going to divide up (exclude) sexes, perhaps make a ‘trans’ competition too.
In chess it made sense.
You only get better by playing higher quality opponents. And even today a lot of the male grandmasters won’t play women unless forced to.
For fishing tho?
It makes no sense, there’s not even skill involved with fishing, just luck on what bites.
So really, you should be asking why is anyone holding fishing tournaments
