By TIM BARTO
As big-time sports go, fencing and disc golf aren’t the typical topics of discussion over beers at the watering hole. Not to disparage the sports, but I’m willing to bet a fleche to your flippy that the vast majority of Must Read Alaska readers have neither played nor watched either sport.
Nonetheless, these competitive endeavors are suddenly leading the way in standing up for truth, justice, and a well-executed flick.
As athletic organizations continue to defy reality – and, in some cases, the law – by allowing men who feel like women to compete in female sports, women are starting to do what is necessary to save women’s sports for real women: they are refusing to compete.
Last week, in what is now a viral video, fencer Stephanie Turner refused to compete against Redmond Sullivan, a man who pretends he is a woman and expects everyone else, especially fellow fencers and their governing bodies, to go along with him.
Turner removed her mask and took a knee, telling the puzzled referee, “I’m sorry, I cannot do this. I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women’s tournament. And I will not fence this individual.”
As the referee walked over to figure out how to proceed in this apparently unprecedented situation, Sullivan approached Turner to inquire of her actions, to which Turner responded, “You’re a man, and I’m a woman, and this is a women’s tournament.”
Turner, who is now my favorite all-time fencer, was given the equivalent of the black card of death. Literally, the referee took a black card out of his pocket and showed it to Turner, and that was the end of the tournament for our heroine.
It may also be the end of Turner’s fencing career for the veteran of over 200 matches, including national championship competitions, as USA Fencing’s policy allows men acting like women to participate in the women’s category, and judging from the organization’s statements since the incident, they are going to continue favoring the infiltration of men into women’s competitions.
On to disc golf.
Yep, disc golf is a sanctioned sport. Yours truly is admittedly guilty of thinking of it as a leisure activity for folks who wear tie-dye clothing that smells of cannabis, but your truly is grossly incorrect. The sport has professional athletes and even has their own network, appropriately, if not unimaginatively, called the Disc Golf Network.
Just a couple days after Stephanie Turner refused to compete against a female impersonator, disc golfer Abigail Wilson similarly refused to compete.
Wilson was scheduled to play in a first-round match against one Natalie Ryan, who, like fencer Redmond Sullivan, proclaims himself transgender and has gone to court for permission to be allowed to play in the women’s division.
Wilson was announced and took her place at the tee (is it called a “tee” in disc golf?), but when she stepped up to take her turn, Wilson flung her arm forward but held onto the disc. She then turned to the audience and announced, “Females must be protected in our division! This is unfair. I refuse to play!” and walked off the course.
As with Sullivan, Wilson acknowledged that her actions may cost her a career in the sport she loves, issuing this statement: “Today I refused to play at the Music City Open. Females deserve to have their gender protected division be protected. This is unfair. I have worked so hard to get to this point to play on the DGPT, but the sacrifice of my career and my hard work is worth it if it means I can make a difference for other women, daughters, nieces, and the future of our sport. If you feel how wrong it is to have biological males be competing in female protected divisions in sports, now is the time to speak up and stand your ground.”
Stephanie Turner and Abigail Wilson are sacrificing themselves for common sense and the common good, pushing back against systems that are supposed to organize and uphold the integrity of their sports. Unfortunately, it seems as though this route is the most effective. Now we need other courageous women and girl athletes (and the girls’ parents and coaches) in other, more mainstream sports, to take the same courageous stand.
Tim Barto is a regular contributor to Must Read Alaska, and vice president of Alaska Family Council, an organization dedicated to strengthening traditional family values.
Thanks to the ladies who are willing to sacrifice for the greater good! Many of us had to do so years ago when we were relegated to secretaries making coffee and typing. Let’s not go back there!
Women can fix this on their own~a national week of protests~don’t play at ever level for the week, this goes bye bye.
I know being a leftist liberal democrat means being a little insane, but women are attacking young women in their sports. Why would you try to destroy opportunities for young women? You hate being a woman or what?
Transgender women (actually male) are the ultimate incarnation of misogyny.
The left is following orders from the elite. It’s about being submissive and bowing to cancel culture. Zero tolerance for toxic individualism. Remember the #MeToo movement? Gone. Women should embrace defiance and fight for their rights. Otherwise, the next encounter could be Sharia Law and Burkas.
I’m not sure I understand your comment. Do you think letting biological males who pretend to be women play in women’s sports is okay?
Sorry Andrew but no man masquerading as a woman will EVER know what it is like to be an actual one. Oh sure you can pump yourself full of hormones, get cosmetic surgery and change your outside appearance. However you are still you in your DNA, your thinking/reactions, the experiences you have had, the musculature you grew up with and the dexterity innate to any male. So no these are not “young women” these are opportunistic men, showing the “little ladies” how it’s done!
Ostentatious homosexuals leave disaster in their wake as can be the case w/ many other mental disorders as well.
Damaged goods. You should celebrate them.
Or not.
Absolutely epic. That picture will go down in history.
I can’t wait for the first time all the women conspire to ridicule the “trans” woman.
Just imagine the swim meet when all the women choose to do cannonballs into the pool and doggie paddle to the other side, while some man thinks he is racking up a gold medal.
.
Make it happen, and all this trans stupidity goes away.
I can only imagine that fat schlep ref must’ve been embarrassed as hell for DQ’ing a competitor for all the wrong reasons. Shame.