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Emily Stewart's avatar

I am waiting for someone at one of these congregational show hearings to stand up a say "have you no decency, at long last?"

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Joan the Dork's avatar

Today's conservatives have neither decency, nor any shame for the lack of it.

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Tommy Lamont's avatar

Thanks, S. Baum, for reporting this.

Can you let us know how much these hearings cost the taxpayers? I love pointing out to conservatives how wasteful these “investigations“ are, as well as how private associations that receive no taxpayer money are being harassed by the feds.

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Sadie C.'s avatar

I am so tired of paying taxes and contributing to support a country that wants to see me and my community destroyed. We give so much to this country and all we receive is cruelty in return. This is so abjectly amoral. Where is our justice?

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Joan the Dork's avatar

They know their position is bullshit, no matter what they claim to believe. Their hate is genuine, but they 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 they don't have the facts on their side. You can 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 that they know, because of how they shout down opposition. For our side, the burden of proof is insurmountable, because we're never allowed to present any- for theirs, the burden of proof is irrelevant, because they know they don't need it as long as they hold all the power.

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Anne's avatar

They were not interested in a discussion. They were interested in dragging Damien over the coals. Madge once again proved that she is not fit to be a human. The sheer hypocrisy of Stephanie Turner is astounding. She has since claimed that her fencing career is over. She was a mediocre recreational fencer who, if she kept at it, could have become a less mediocre recreational fencer.

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Elizabeth B.'s avatar

Same with Riley Gaines. Mediocre swimmer tied another mediocre swimmer who was beaten by 4 other/better cis athletes. Yet, America rewards its conmen and grifters. It LOVES them. It even GIVES them positions of power because it can't get enough of them. America loves to watch a reality tv show trainwreck. The difference is this show affects 100's of millions of REAL lives.

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Erin Whitla's avatar

And even as USA Fencing pre-comply with MAGA ideology they insult our intelligence with a statement that could be summarised as "we pay lip service to our support and care for the trans community but we will happily join the pile-on to ensure we personally don't join in your loss".

"To be abundantly clear, USA Fencing deeply values every member of our community. If adopted, this policy is solely to ensure future compliance required by oversight organizations. This policy does not reflect any change in our strong support for each individual's right to identity. We recognize that many people — particularly transgender and non-binary athletes and their supporters in fencing clubs nationwide — will be profoundly impacted if this policy takes effect. As we continue navigating recent attention and conversations around this complex issue, we ask our community to come together with empathy and unity."

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Erin Whitla's avatar

So that whole fiasco was brought on by Fair Fencing Organisation, a sporting lobby group created last year by Charles Wang, father of a female fencer and Chinese-ex-pat bigot with a truck load of money. He's a lawyer and clearly hasn't read anything at all factual concerning trans people or gender affirming health care. In announcing the establishment of FFO he wrote,

"Fencing should be open to everyone regardless of age, gender, or race, but the competition

should be fair. USFA’s transgender policy totally disregards the fact that biological males

already gain physical advantages during and after puberty. USFA’s categorical allowances of

transgender-women to women fencing based on the former’s self-identification is not only

unfair to biological women athletes but also unfair to true transgender women who have

endured great many efforts to make the transition. For example, under USFA’s current

rules, a self-declared transgender women can compete in the Cadet level or lower at will for

any given season. Literally, a biological male fencer can simply register as a transgender to

compete in women fencing for one season, and change back to compete in the fencer’s

biological sex the next year. Anyone who has watched fencing in NAC can tell you how

faster and stronger 16-year-old boys are comparing to the same aged girls. Is such an

unthoughtful and capricious policy really geared to protect transgender and women

athletes, to promote more women and transgender to participate in the sports? Or it

merely a statement for a politically show, while no true fairness is being considered for

either transgender or woman fencers?"

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Erin Whitla's avatar

Great reporting. The proof-reader in me insisted that I mention "trans inclusion is caused by or is correlated with" should probably read "trans inclusion causes or is correlated with".

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Mike Gelt's avatar

mtg must be voted out along with the rest of these homophobic, racist politicians who think that anyone who disagrees with them must be wrong and not worthy

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Elizabeth B.'s avatar

cool, and how many dead trans people will there be before this EVEN happens, if at all?

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Mike Gelt's avatar

If we can at least take back the house with these special elections at least maybe we can slow them down until we can win in 26

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Moriko「森子」Handford's avatar

Not just HAUC, this has me thinking about the SS (Schutzstaffel), though maybe that's more of an enforcement branch like the Proud Boys.

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