Madison DeBos of Southern Utah University has written an op-ed.
Madison DeBos (center) at the Bob Larsen Invite at UCLA, March 2022
Madison is a long distance specialist. Top 10 in the 1,500m and 5K as a collegiate Junior. And she has seen a few important changes during her career.
One day at practice during my freshman year, our coach told us that another team in our conference had an athlete who had previously competed on the men’s team who now identified as female and would be competing against us. This biological male runner had posted the same time in the 1,500-meter as the fastest woman in the world in that event — 3:50. Now, it was my teammates and I who were being forced to compete against someone who had already broken the female record.
Here’s another quote:
At the indoor Big Sky Championships in 2020, I started the distance medley relay for our team, and the biological male runner anchored the relay for the University of Montana. That’s when we heard the athlete’s coach say something no one expected to hear: "Slow down."
Slow down to give the appearance of a fair fight, I suppose. But we watched as this athlete went on to take first place in the mile — replacing a female runner on the podium.
When you show up at a conference meet and see a biological male athlete towering over you, way more muscular and with a completely different build than any female on the starting blocks, it is at first surprising. Then, quickly, disheartening and even heartbreaking. How do I stand a chance, despite my nearly two decades of training for this moment?
According to ace journalist Abigail Shrier, US Child Protective Services…
has already become thoroughly politicized and weaponized by the Left. Dozens and dozens of loving parents have told me over the last two years that CPS showed up at their homes or threatened their custody or even testified against them in court, all for the sin of failing to “affirm” their minor child’s newly-announced gender identity or vetoing the kid’s immediate medical transition.
In California, matters head from bad to worse: a new bill aspires to transform California into a “sanctuary state” for gender-swapping youth, making it possible for even a non-custodial parent to run to California to transition her child against her ex-spouse’s wishes.
Here, then, is the question: If our ultimate goal is return to a normalcy in which government agencies and corporations treat all Americans fairly regardless of viewpoint, how are we to achieve this?
She documents how the Ideologues have CANCELLED certain dissenting voices.
Will they come for you too?
Of course, for my Christian Brothers and Sisters, we must fight the way Jesus fought. Silencing, deplatforming, cancelling, shouting down our ideological opponents is not Christian. We must listen to what they have to say. And then speak the Truth as we understand it. Unfortunately, the more I study this issue and the forces in play, I’m led to the conclusion that the Gender Ideologues are not terribly interested in dialogue or viewpoint diversity. For them, this is a massive Power Play.
We critics of Gender Ideology are left to wonder: When will I swipe my credit card and find my payment’s been denied? Or attempt to rent an Airbnb, only to be told my money’s no good there either?
A final warning from a High School teacher in Texas, a gay man, about the True Believers of Gender Ideology:
This point was best put to me by a high school teacher in Texas, a gay man, regularly hounded by his school administrators to teach gender ideology to his students. Here’s the remarkable thing: he doesn’t want to, doesn’t think it’s a good use of his time, and doesn’t believe encouraging his students to obsess over their sexual orientation during class is anywhere near as helpful to high school students as the material he trained to teach them. But he also doesn’t think passing a law banning gender ideology will make the slightest difference.
"I try to tell parents, if you’re considering pulling your kids out of public school—do—because you can go to as many school board meetings as you want and complain. There’s still going to be people who are going to teach whatever they want."
To my liberal readers (you know who you are) please read this comment to Shrier’s piece:
ClemenceDane I am a traditional Liberal (I guess you could call me a “1990s and earlier Liberal”) and yes, I greatly object to censorship, delisting, canceling, disinviting, removal from Amazon (and eBay and Target and Powells and Barnes and Noble etc.) of any book. I don’t want to read a Pro-Life book, but I don’t want it removed or censored. I’m still waiting for second hand copies of those “banned” Dr. Seuss books to come down low enough in price that I can afford a copy of McElligot’s Pool, my favorite Seuss book of childhood. It’s appalling that his works were removed from Amazon and libraries. It’s also appalling that the American Library Association removed Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from the award created in her honor because a bunch of 2 dimensional thinkers screamed at them about her depictions of white settlers who were anti-Native American. Never mind that one of the women in question had seen her entire family massacred by Native Americans. Never mind that Wilder goes out of her way to show that the characters who are critical of Native Americans are less noble and tolerant than her own family, who actually hide a Native American man in their cabin when a gang of armed white men comes after him. It calls into question the integrity and legitimacy of every award they give out, including the Newberry Award. I will always support Classical Liberal values like free speech, free thought, free expression, open debate, a free press, etc. I also don’t think it is “liberal” to expose young children to drag queens. Or to free violent felons from prisons and defund the police. What on earth is Liberal about that? These are radical anarchic Leftists.
Government advice on free sanitary products in schools repeatedly referred to “students who menstruate” rather than to “girls”.
A document on the Department for Education (DfE) website detailed how providing menstrual products to girls did not disadvantage anyone under the Equality Act. Its wording angered women’s campaigners, however, who have warned of the dangers of alienating women and girls by using more inclusive gender-neutral language.
The seven-page 2020 memo told of “students who menstruate”, “young people menstruating” and “learners who menstruate”. There was one mention of “girls” and one of “women”, both in the footnotes, and two of “female”.
The Times brought this seven page 2020 memo to the attention of “education chiefs.” And according to a Department for Education spokesman: “The wording is being amended and we are urgently reviewing all of our pages to that effect.”
