Media Construct Their Own Reality for Trans Athletes

Last week, I wrote about how the legacy media — including an outlet where I previously worked as a fact-checker on the opinion team, USA Today — published unfounded claims in defense of boxer Imane Khelif under the guise of “fact-checking” during the Paris Olympics in 2024. One example of the supposed “fact check” articles comes from the LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD, which claimed that “Imane Khelif is a cisgender woman” and that “it is not verified that Imane Khelif has a variation in sex traits or DSDs,” even though verifying the former disproves the latter. And this week, I wrote about Simone Biles stunning us with an ideological backflip; she defended males competing in women’s athletic divisions, and despite her previous commitment to promoting bodily self-acceptance among young girls, she attacked Riley Gaines’s appearance. (Biles has since publicly issued a lackluster apology, written in PR-speak, to Riley Gaines, but she further expressed support for “competitive equity” in sports, which I assume means she will soon distribute her gold medals.) I’m afraid a third installment is necessary: a fact check of a USA Today article celebrating Simone Biles’s comments on “inclusive” sports.

In a flippant USA Today opinion piece titled “Simone Biles shows her greatness again in standing up for transgender community,” sports writer Nancy Armour claims that “Gaines has used her tie for fifth place with Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships to become a MAGA media darling.” It is unfair to reduce all of Gaines’s activism to a single grievance, since she’s brought attention to many cases of injustice where male athletes dominated female competitors. In fact, Gaines doesn’t speak solely of her own loss in sports, nor does she speak solely about sports; for example, she’s used her platform to criticize the harmful practice of child mutilation that is absurdly branded as “gender-affirming care.” Armour then vaguely suggests that Gaines is killing people, writing that “her grifting has done real harm to the transgender community, which is already at an elevated risk for suicide and self-harm.” Gaines puts transgender-identifying athletes “in harm’s way” with each critical tweet, Armour claims.

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Abigail Anthony

Abigail Anthony is a staff writer at National Review.

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Last week, I wrote about how the legacy media — including an outlet where I previously worked as a fact-checker on the opinion team, USA Today — published unfounded claims in defense of boxer Imane Khelif under the guise of “fact-checking” during the Paris Olympics in 2024. One example of the supposed “fact check” articles comes from the LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD, which claimed that “Imane Khelif is a cisgender woman” and that “it is not verified that Imane Khelif has a variation in sex traits or DSDs,” even though verifying the former disproves the latter. And this week, I wrote about Simone Biles stunning us with an ideological backflip; she defended males competing in women’s athletic divisions, and despite her previous commitment to promoting bodily self-acceptance among young girls, she attacked Riley Gaines’s appearance. (Biles has since publicly issued a lackluster apology, written in PR-speak, to Riley Gaines, but she further expressed support for “competitive equity” in sports, which I assume means she will soon distribute her gold medals.) I’m afraid a third installment is necessary: a fact check of a USA Today article celebrating Simone Biles’s comments on “inclusive” sports.

In a flippant USA Today opinion piece titled “Simone Biles shows her greatness again in standing up for transgender community,” sports writer Nancy Armour claims that “Gaines has used her tie for fifth place with Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships to become a MAGA media darling.” It is unfair to reduce all of Gaines’s activism to a single grievance, since she’s brought attention to many cases of injustice where male athletes dominated female competitors. In fact, Gaines doesn’t speak solely of her own loss in sports, nor does she speak solely about sports; for example, she’s used her platform to criticize the harmful practice of child mutilation that is absurdly branded as “gender-affirming care.” Armour then vaguely suggests that Gaines is killing people, writing that “her grifting has done real harm to the transgender community, which is already at an elevated risk for suicide and self-harm.” Gaines puts transgender-identifying athletes “in harm’s way” with each critical tweet, Armour claims.