An American woman athlete who has won 35 titles in cyclocross competitions says she is retiring due to biological men being allowed to compete in the women’s division.
Hannah Arensman shared her decision to retire in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court last week. The brief was on behalf of 67 women athletes, coaches, and parents from sports such as volleyball, disc golf, cycling, track, and more, relating to a case involving the state of West Virginia. The Mountain State is being sued by a transgender over the Save Women’s Sports Act that disallows a transgender’s participation in female athletic competitions.
Arensman decided to retire after finishing fourth place in a grueling December meet, in between a third-place transgender and a fifth-place transgender. The person who took third place was Austin Killips, who has also been accused by witnesses of roughing up Arensman three times during the December race. He has denied doing so, but others say he got physical as he tried to push Arensman off the course.
Cyclocross is a non-Olympic racing format that consists of many laps of a short course that may include pavement, trails, mud, grass, hills, gullies, and obstacles that require the rider to dismount and pack the bike to get around various obstructions.
Arensman said it had “become increasingly discouraging” to train as hard as she does only to lose to someone with an “unfair advantage,”
“I have decided to end my cycling career. At my last race at the recent UCI Cyclocross National Championships in the elite women’s category in December 2022, I came in 4th place, flanked on either side by male riders awarded 3rd and 5th places. My sister and family sobbed as they watched a man finish in front of me, having witnessed several physical interactions with him throughout the race,” she said.
“I feel for young girls learning to compete and who are growing up in a day when they no longer have a fair chance at being the new record holders and champions in cycling,” Arensman wrote in the filing. “I have felt deeply angered, disappointed, overlooked, and humiliated that the rule makers of women’s sports do not feel it is necessary to protect women’s sports to ensure fair competition for women anymore.”
The amicus brief argues that females are uniquely and adversely affected when they are forced to compete against males in sports, and that the psychological, tangible, and long-term harm suffered by females forced to compete against males is irreversible.
“Females are suffering real harm that threatens their right to basic equality and equal opportunity,” the women argue.
But the ACLU and the plaintiff, whose name is protected because he is a minor, say the boy is covered by Title IX, the 1972 law that people like the late Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska fought for in order to end discrimination against girls and women scholastic athletes. The federal government has been, through regulation, changing the definition of Title IX to include prohibition against gender identity and the Biden Administration intends to publish new rules in May that will protect transgender athletes at the expense of females.
According to the lawsuit filed by the transgender, girls are allowed to play on boys’ teams, but boys are not allowed to play on girls teams, which is not fair.
“So echoing language from Title IX’s implementing regulations, 34 C.F.R. § 106.41(b), the Sports Act reiterated that women’s and girls’ sports teams based on ‘competitive skill’ or ‘involv[ing] a contact sport’ should not be open to males, W. VA. CODE § 18-2-25d(c)(2). Instead, male students remain free to play on male or co-ed teams, while female students can play on all teams. Id. § 18-2-25d(c)(3). The Sports Act then drew an administrable line, defining ‘male’ and ‘female’ by looking to the student’s “reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” Id. § 18-2-25d(b),” the lawsuit says.
Defining male and female by biology violates the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX, argues B.P.J. and the ACLU. The district court granted B.P.J.’s request for a preliminary injunction.
In the amicus brief filed by women athletes last week, women runners in Alaska are mentioned as part of the documentation of how females are being bested by biological males in the female divisions:
“Roughly two years ago, the West Virginia Legislature passed H.B. 3293—the Sports Act—to ensure equal opportunities and fair play for all student athletes. In recent years biological males identifying as female have increasingly competed against and beaten biological females in women’s sports events across the country. High-school-girl sprinters in Connecticut, young women swimming in the Ivy League, teen volleyball players in Hawaii, young female runners in Alaska, and student athletes everywhere in between have found themselves falling behind or pushed aside for biologically male athletes,” the women say in support of the Save Women’s Sports Act.
Other groups have filed amicus briefs in this case.
One is from the Women’s Liberation Front (“WoLF”), a non-profit radical feminist organization dedicated to the liberation of women by ending male violence, protecting reproductive sovereignty, preserving woman-only spaces, and abolishing gender and sex discrimination.
“WoLF’s interest in this case stems from its interest in empowering and protecting the safety and privacy of women and girls and preserving women’s sex-based civil rights. Those rights are threatened when court decisions and agency policies embrace the vague concept of ‘gender identity’ in a manner that overrides statutory and Constitutional protections that are based explicitly on ‘sex.’ If, as a matter of law, ‘sex’ is no longer understood to be an immutable characteristic, but instead merely a subjective self-declared and mutable ‘identity’ – then the ability to protect women and girls from sex-based discrimination is greatly diminished,” the feminist group wrote.
The Alliance Defending Freedom’s amicus brief can be read at this link.
“For the first time, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to protect fairness in women’s sports from today’s threats. It’s time for the Court to follow biological reality and ensure equal opportunities for female athletes, Alliance Defending Freedom said.
The increase in transgenders taking over women’s competitions was evidenced again last week, when transgender cyclist Tiffany Thomas, 47, won the Randall’s Island Crit (New York City) women’s division. Thomas started bike racing in 2018, when she was already in her 40s. Since then, Thomas has had at least 20 first-place finishes in women’s cycling divisions.
How dare a woman want to compete against women?
Bigot.
I fought for womens rights in the 1960-70s, hard to believe that any MALE can grow his hair, wear a dress and call himself woman. All so he can beat the girls.
Men can beat women in competitive one on one spors, what a shock, I am so surprised (sarcasm).
Women and girls, if this crap passes, get out of these sports.
Protest by not competing against males. And yes, this is crapola, don’t waste your energy competing, find another outlet.
According to the women claiming damages, the so-called “transgenders” doing the damage are not men, but merely “biological men.” As long as they continue to use the adjective their complaints are weakened. A man taking female hormones and undergoing feminizing surgery may look like a very feminine woman; even beautifully attractive. However, he is a man… with no need to modify the noun by using the word “biological.”
According to the women claiming damages, the so-called “transgenders” doing the damage are not men, but merely “biological men.” As long as the women continue to use the adjective their complaints are weakened. A man taking female hormones and undergoing feminizing surgery may look like a very feminine woman; even beautifully attractive. However, he is a man… with no need to modify the noun by using the word “biological.”
You are so right. It feels like all the hard work I did to pave the way to work in traditionally male jobs, and demand the same respect and pay that the men got, has been blown out of the water and women are made redundant. This is not right, this is not fair. Biological women – REAL WOMEN – need to stand up and start fighting against the misogyny being shown by these biological men and the faithless and traitorous biological women who are helping this travesty to happen.Curse them…curse them all!
What a bunch of horse&*(^. And we’re wrong to speak out against this. What about my rights?
When you allow the narrative to be controlled, you’ve already lost the battle.
On God’s green earth ( white in some places) Humans cannot “transgenders”
Proper narrative is “cross dressing “
Open a new division in the “Special Olympics’ specifically for this disorder. Lump them all together in the same class.
Save these women athletes hard work and place in the record books.
Congress has increasingly written open ended legislation that allows for agencies to modify the laws to the point the original intent of the law is abandoned. Title IX was written to allow for WOMEN to compete in a PARALLEL arena to men. It was written to allow for them to compete against each other, not these manufactured morphodites that have attempted to elevate themselves by pursuing the winners circle in an arena in which they do not belong. IF the law allows for The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to make rules that allow for morphodites to compete against women that started out in life as males, then women will be marginalized for a few entitled men that are mentally unfit for their rolls in society.
True be told, they started out as men. When they meet their maker……
Guess what . Yep you subconsciously answered correctly…….
Exactly. Title IX purposed to create equivalent opportunities by creating competitive sports within women’s leagues, not to put women on men’s teams. Women do end up on men’s teams, predominantly in individual sports, when there is not a team for women available, and they do not have an advantage. Transgender athletes can start their own leagues and have transgender teams. Quite hijacking women’s sports!
Men competing against women in sports is just stupid. Women are giving away all the progress that has been achieved for the rights of women. Stand up for yourselves! Refuse to compete until the men are not allowed. How can anyone believe that this is even remotely fair to women? How many girls/women have lost scholarships because of the stupidity being allowed? Why are men allowed to use the women’s locker room? Don’t women have the right to privacy for the male gender?? Why do is the rights of the few more important than the many? Boys are Boys and Girls are Girls.
We went from diet fads in the 70s to lots of sex in the 80s. Later, it was a bad thing for religious groups to mutilate people, and “cultural appropriation was bad,” but now, it’s a “good” thing for cultists to mutilate children and appropriate the opposite sex.
What society could ever survive these constantly shifting goal posts? Laws can’t keep up with computer technology as it is. How will they ever keep up with such whimsical fads?
Common sense needs to reign supreme lest we lose our entire nation.
Thank heavens there are still courageous, honest, real women out there, who will speak up against the fakers.
This is the bed that we let our society make. It’s been beat into us that you’re not born a specific “gender” as it’s what you choose according to how you feel. It’s been accepted. Now, time to sleep in that bed. Pull the covers down, crawl in, pull your comforter up and snuggle up. This is our new reality. Accept it.
No I won’t.
Women must not compete with them. If they continue to compete, then the problem continues and gets worse. If women simply say “No” and leave to compete with no one, or with each other, they may win by default, but it will be an even emptier “victory” than it is now.
This is the product of rejecting God and his moral standards for a new set of ever-morphing tolerances with no absolutes.
The kicker likely she helped the very liberals by her votes who put her out
If anchorage liberals(dem, rep
, np,nv, and Inde) don’t want to experience what being kicked to the curb feels like they’d vote for non liberals by apr3rd.
I just told my brother the only cure for all this insanity is the bloodiest world war in history, a demonic force has taken hold of the entire planet.
I do not blame these authentic WOMEN for quitting sports!!! This is a sickening turn of events!!!
Pop Quiz for all commenters on here. Why did women need to create their own chess league?
Male that thinks he is female goes on the mens’ team.
Female that thinks she is male goes on the female team.
If the female is taking Testosterone, they are banned from competition like any individual taking an artificial performance enhancer in sport.
Of course, placing the observably mentally-ill in close quarters with normal athletes is probably shouldn’t be considered ‘best practice’.
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