Psaki: Concerns about men in women’s sports are not worthy of discussion

Ryan FoleyChristian Post reporter Thursday, November 21, 2024

The longtime Democratic Party political insider turned cable TV host dismisses concerns about transgender men’s participation in women’s sports as “right-wing propaganda” that is “not worthy of discussion.”

On her MSNBC show Sunday, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki spoke about the “soul-searching” going on in the Democratic Party after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election to President-elect Donald Trump.

“What worries me is that in all this soul-searching, some Democrats may come to the wrong and radical conclusions,” Psaki said.

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She expressed concern about a finding by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., that Democrats’ stance in favor of allowing trans-identified male athletes to compete in women’s sports may have cost them support among voters.

Moulton told The New York Times: “Democrats are spending too much time trying not to offend anyone, instead of being brutally honest about the problems facing many Americans.” For example, Moulton said he has two daughters and doesn’t want them to be “knocked down on the playing field by a man or a former male athlete.” He lamented that “as a Democrat, I should be afraid to say this.”

Psaki said concerns about transgender male athletes competing in women’s sports are a “manufactured scaremonger” and an example of “right-wing propaganda.” She described complaints that there is a “crisis of boys playing girls’ sports” as “lies.”

“There are incredibly few examples of transgender girls playing youth sports,” Psaki said. “When we see these examples, there is no evidence that these children pose a threat to safety or justice.”

Amid protests and calls for his resignation, Moulton detailed his views in an appearance on MSNBC last week.

“I just spoke candidly, as a father, about one of the many issues where I think we are simply out of touch with the majority of voters,” he said.

Reacting to the video clip, Psaki insisted: “If this was truly an issue in thousands of schools across the country, it would be worthy of discussion.”

A study by polling firm Blueprint found that 78% of undecided voters who chose Trump over Harris thought the fact that the Democratic nominee “placed more emphasis on cultural issues such as transgender issues than on helping middle class” was a reason not to vote for her in the 2024 elections.

In closed sessions last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democratic candidates partly blame the party’s losses on GOP ad campaigns in battleground states that focus on transgender issues . Republicans have spent at least $77 million on ads in 10 states focusing on transgender issues, according to Axios.

Moulton is not the only progressive whose post-election analysis of the issue has drawn the ire of other Democrats. About three days after the election, one CNN panelist accused another of transphobia after he said many families and voters “don’t believe boys should play girls’ sports.”

More than half of US states have passed laws or regulations banning transgender male athletes from participating in women’s sports due to concerns about threats to the safety and fairness of female athletes: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana. , Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

In 2022, a male swimmer named Leah (Will) Thomas broke records and won the NCAA women’s swimming championship after competing for three years on the Penn State men’s swim team.

In 2023, high school volleyball player Payton McNabb testified before the North Carolina Legislature about how she was “seriously injured during a high school volleyball match by a transgender athlete on the opposing team.”

“I suffered a concussion and a neck injury that I’m still recovering from,” she explained.

“Other injuries that I still suffer from include blurred vision, partial paralysis on the right side, constant headaches, as well as anxiety and depression,” she added. “I was unable to play for the rest of my last volleyball season, and although I play softball now, due to injury, I cannot perform as well as I used to. Comprehension has also been compromised and because of this I need a place at school to get tested.”

Video footage of the incident shows the transgender man hitting the volleyball with force before it landed on McNabb’s face.

Biological differences between men and women, defined by USA Powerlifting as including “increased body and muscle mass, bone density, bone structure, and connective tissue,” are cited as reasons why trans-identified male athletes have an inherent advantage on average. over their female counterparts and should therefore be banned from participating in women’s sports.

Numerous examples of trans-identified male athletes dominating women’s sports have raised questions about the fairness of policies that allow athletes to compete on sports teams that match their self-proclaimed gender identity rather than their actual gender.

Selina Soule, a Connecticut track and field athlete, was eliminated from a regional track meet attended by college scouts because two transgender-identified male athletes placed in the top two places.

Taylor Silverman, who competes in women’s skateboarding, was “relegated from first to second place several times” when she had to compete against transgender male athletes.

According to advocacy group She Won, which opposes policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports, 717 female athletes worldwide have been stripped of a total of 1,055 wins, medals, scholarships and other records across 518 competitions in 35 sports because trans-identified men were allowed to participate in women’s sports.