The president yesterday signed one of his executive orders, this time to ban transgender athletes. Our Charlie Baker, now head of the NCAA, immediately complied, expressing gratitude for "a clear, national standard" he can get behind.
Baker's alma mater, Harvard, which just this week got sued for allowing a trans woman to compete in a series of 2022 swim meets, also quickly dropped to the ground in supplication and "removed a policy promising inclusion for transgender athletes from its website Wednesday."
And UMass Boston, like Northeastern University before it, has changed what used to be its Diversity & Inclusion Web page into its Inclusion & Belonging page (at least as of five minutes ago, UMass's flagship campus, in Amherst, still isn't afraid of the word "diversity").
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By Ari O
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 1:11pm
The "read more" link is broken, somehow, although it works fine once you click through.
The president yesterday signed one of his executive orders, this time to ban transgender athletes. Our Charlie Baker, now head of the NCAA, immediately complied, expressing gratitude for "a clear, national standard" he can get behind. Ma href="https://www.universalhub.com/2025/todays-profiles-courage-charlie-baker-...">Read more
Fixed
By adamg
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 6:07pm
Sorry about that.
I know people are getting tired of the poem
By SWKR
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 1:53pm
But I gotta say, Niemöller pretty much nailed it. I understand that for most folks, trans rights feels like a non-issue at best, or a "culture war" wedge issue at worst, but anyone who thinks this will stop at rights for trans folks hasn't read enough history. Capitulation to the idea that diversity, equity and inclusion are somehow bad (or f you, Bondi; illegal) sends us down a terrifyingly dark path. Changing language like this (and so quickly) sends a signal that these groups are ready to roll over on a host of other important issues. First they came for... etc.
Two "rights" oppose each other here
By deselby
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 7:33am
One is the right for females to only face other females in women's sports.
Women - as in "adult human female" not "I decided to be a woman today for competitive advantage or safety in prison."
Every jacked trans woman who competes takes a "right" away from a female who would have won
The comparison is ridiculous
no
By Michael
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 9:09am
Has there ever been a "things that have never fucking happened" category on Jeopardy
This is Insane
By Pete X
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 10:27am
JFC, can you possibly believe that someone would transition just so they can win a swimming race?!!
"jacked trans woman" You've lost touch with your humanity.
none of the replies above address the rights of females
By deselby
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 11:19am
It's like women don't exist, aren't within the protected class of "sex" (not "gender").
Like there weren't laws protecting against discrimination by sex (again, not "gender") which were violated when women (adult human females) weren't equally protected under Title IX by being able to compete solely against members of their sex.
Easy to find instances of abuse in the prisons. From two weeks ago
Man posing as transgender woman raped woman at Riker's
there's no legal standard to stop males identifying themselves as women. the whole transgender rights thing enabled the rape.
I was watching a CNN segment yesterday. In 2021, 62% of Americans opposed transgender women in women's sports (face it, it will never go the other way, transgender men in men's sports because biology).
In 2025, it's 79% opposed. The more people are exposed to the issue, the more they oppose it.
"none of the replies above address the rights of females"
By Pete X
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 2:09pm
That's the point, you are totally ignoring the rights of females who are trans. You are saying they are just males pretending to be women so they can better compete in sports and attack women in bathrooms. You are exhibiting a complete lack of empathy for these women and their attendant rights.
there are no females who are trans other than "trans men"
By deselby
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 10:45pm
The CNN screen banner is deceptive in that regard. There are no "transgender females." If you want me to say "transgender woman," ok I'll go along with the cosplay to be polite.
The dictionary definition of female is "of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs, distinguished biologically by the production of gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes."
Biological sex is a reality no matter what pharmaceutical or surgical interventions are tried.
Believing otherwise is a delusion on par with QAnon fantasies.
Again, empathy for the trans woman athlete or prisoner is callousness toward the female athlete. Or prisoner.
I'd rather have empathy for the female, because the trans woman knows they have advantages in skeletal structure and musculature, as the trans woman runner in that NYT video I posted acknowledged. If they still insist on competing, it's a moral failure.
The definition
By Esquire
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 1:54pm
Of complicity.
Smilin' Charlie strikes again.
By CopleyScott17
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 1:57pm
Was just listening to Michael Lewis being interviewed about his podcast series on the ramifications of sports gambling. He recalls Baker, in his new capacity as NCAA President, telling him how shocked he was to discover how quickly FanDuel and DraftKings have hooked so many college students, especially men. I don't think anybody besides Charlie is surprised to learn that college kids would be particularly susceptible. Didn't that come up during the legalization debates back here?
Remember the Orange Line fire?
By nxrble
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 9:13pm
July 2022. State legislators spend all night on the last day of session to pass legalized sports betting for Mr. StringBean Baker. The very next morning, the T caught fire and a woman jumped in the Mystic.
Every sitting legislator voted for the sports betting as their priority and send off to Charlie Hands-in-Pockets on his way to the NCAA, and look at what came of it: sports ads EVERYWHERE. On the T, on the billboards, in the apps, bet bet bet, gamble gamble gamble.
I got words for Charlie f'n Baker, but I won't write 'em. He is a bad human.
The State has a
By Frelmont
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 3:32pm
The State has a responsibility to provide for the moral welfare of its citizens. The argument that any given state that eschewed gaming would lose out irreparably to their neighbors is not false, but it is a failure of mission, of public trust.
Guessing...
By lbb
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 9:41am
Guessing he was otherwise occupied that day, pursuing a fun and lucrative post-gubernatorial career.
Nobody banned transgender athletes from sports
By Sock_Puppet
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 1:59pm
That lazy lie looks bad on all journalists. Transgender athletes can sport it up all they want; it's just that transgender athletes born male can't compete on women-only teams or in women-only competitions, and the ones born female can't compete on male-only teams. They can all still compete on mixed-sex teams or on same-sex teams for their sex.
Time to give the lazy lie a rest; it's tired.
The Real Lazy Lie
By anon
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 2:22pm
That you are human being who supports human rights.
Nobody banned black children from schools
By berkleealum
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 2:43pm
That lazy lie looks bad on all journalists. Black students can go to school all they want; it's just the black students born in traditionally black counties cannot attend schools in white counties, and white students cannot attend schools in black counties. They can all still get the same education, just in the communities in which they were born.
Time to give the lazy lie a rest; it's tired.
Are you sure you really want
By lodger
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 9:43pm
Are you sure you really want to mock those who lived through school segregation? And females who now find males among them in prisons, women's shelters, and sports teams?
Because that's exactly what you're doing here.
Nah
By lbb
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 9:42am
That is not what they're doing.
That is a thing that doesn't happen.
Nope. You want to find the "lazy liar", look in the mirror.
hmm
By berkleealum
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 12:39pm
it is? care to explain? try to avoid circular reasoning.
Insinuating that female-only
By lodger
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 1:32pm
Insinuating that female-only spaces/sports is bigotry along the lines of racial segregation of schools is ignorant and flippant. Real people worked and fought and died to eliminate the laws that limited educational opportunity based on race.
To compare that to women being asked to give up female-only spaces based on the gender identity of males makes a mockery of both civil rights workers who worked to desegregate education and women's orgs who have created female-only spaces. Equating the two types of segregation is just willfully ignorant.
Read again, my friend
By Lecil
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 2:45pm
The EO addresses ONLY trans-women. There is no mention of trans-men. Which honestly, tells you pretty much everything you need to know about this bigoted piece of treacle...
Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports
asymmetry
By lodger
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 4:00pm
Come on. You and I both know that it addresses only transwomen because transmen are not at an unfair biological advantage vis-a-vis males. The question should be: Why should females not be entitled to female-only sports? Which is what inclusion of transwomen in female sports dismantles. Sports are about bodies, not identities.
Neither are
By Transphobia Watch
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 4:47pm
Go fresh yourself on the research around athletes who are established on HRT.
And also on the number of trans athletes who've been in the top of their class in a sport. If your claim were correct, you'd be able to name tons of trans women who are top athletes, no?
If sports were actually about
By hats
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 5:06pm
If sports were actually about bodies, we wouldn't have segregated sports at all. But men kept getting their knickers in a twist when women beat them, and kept being misogynist jerks, so here we are.
If being trans - either a woman or a man - magically conferred "biological advantages", we'd see trans athletes dominating the records, the Olympic medals, etc. We do not see this. We also don't see athletes transitioning in order to gain a competitive advantage.
If "biological advantages" were actually an issue in sports, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky would have been banned from swimming. Papi and Nomah would have been banned from baseball. And on and on and on. But they sure weren't.
All of this nonsense you're spouting is just that - nonsense. And it's being used to target people. Enough.
So you are arguing for all open sports
By lodger
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 5:57pm
Got it, you don't think female vs male are valid categories. You don't think females should be able to keep what has been fought so hard for.
Nobody is saying trans confers advantages. Being born male confers advantages. If you don't believe that, fine, but admit to yourself you are arguing against having female-only sports.
Ouch
By lbb
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 10:05am
This kind of transparently insincere pearl-clutching is genuinely painful to watch. I will venture to guess that:
Several people have already addressed this, but I'll say it again. There are advantages in sports. Many of them are biological. No one has proposed eradicating those advantages or eliminating biologically advantaged athletes from competition.
While we're on the subject, let's talk about non-biological advantages. Specifically, let's talk about the fact that some athletes have always had advantages: because of money, because of access to training facilities, because they know someone who knows someone who gets them the right coach. All of these have always existed, and none of the induhviduals manufacturing outrage over trans athletes have ever expressed the least desire to "level the playing field" with regard to any of these. But now they show up in high dudgeon, self-righteously pontificating about the unfairness of a trans woman playing sports at any level, and they come all dressed up in their white-knight armor in defense of women's sports. What a steaming load of bullshit that is. Show me where any of these pseudo-allies have ever defended women's sports. Show me where they've lobbied networks to give equal time to women's sports. Show me where they've gone after schools and colleges that continue to exploit Title IX loopholes to preference men's sports.
I hear crickets.
To all of these frauds, I say: take your manufactured self-righteous indignation, print it on #40 card stock, fold it until it's all corners, and shove it up your ass.
So do you think that
By lodger
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 10:43am
So do you think that segregating athletes by sex in sport is legit or not? Athletes are also separated by size and age in some sports. These are legit categories IMO.
If you think that males should be able to identify as women to compete with them, you are de-legitimizing sex as a category.
Which is it?
More transphobic nonsense
By Transphobia Watch
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 11:10am
Adam, since you seem unaware, referring to trans women as "males identifying as women" is transphobia. Why do you allow this on your site? I don't see you leaving up dehumanizing language about any other groups.
And ... you refuse to answer
By lodger
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 11:41am
And ... you refuse to answer the question.
And...
By lbb
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 4:23pm
...you keep making transphobic statements.
What's the transphobic
By lodger
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 4:59pm
What's the transphobic statement?
Also, I'll kindly remind you that being male is the only sine qua non of being a transwoman.
Unless you believe in biotrans? Bio women who identify as transwomen? It's a thing.
Everybody’s sincerely held
By Frelmont
Sat, 02/08/2025 - 8:56am
Everybody’s sincerely held beliefs are sacrosanct, well, protected by, like, the First Amendment or, they used to be until the installment of an absolute dogma (dogmas) across the length and breadth of government and society, which is a bit too 1984 if you think about it and antithetical to a civilization who went through Reformations, threw-off tyrannies and tyrants and developed safeguards against that rising again. Another comment in this post referred to anti-trans sentiment as the thin edge of the wedge, but that wedge wedges in the other direction too, because it is flat wrong to say the sweeping mood in the country is solely transphobia when fact ot’s just the pendulum swinging from unConstitutionalism and the denial of reason and speech. I’m not denying some people, a lot of people are anti-trans-x, but suggesting commentators be censored and exhubbinated, branded as heretics for engaging in open debate. I would never insult someone by using a non-preferred identifier, even as it runs counter to my perception of reality, but in debate and argument about the fundamental realities of life and existence we must be free to speak in good faith without censorship. What is the test for good faith? Should there be one?
If you think that males
By berkleealum
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 11:20am
this is largely overblown. the majority of school sports are intramural or recreational, so the idea that trans athletes are out here gaming the system for some massive competitive edge doesn’t hold up. more often than not, they’re just trying to be in community with the gender they identify with. what would even be the end goal of “seeking advantage” in a non-competitive league? even at higher levels, the number of trans athletes is tiny, and there are already policies in place for fairness. what will happen when a standout woman athlete comes along? are we going to check her pants? ridiculous. acting like this is some kind of existential crisis for sports is just detached from reality.
and let’s not pretend sex-based categories in sports have ever been simple. XY women exist. intersex people exist. PCOS and other conditions that affect testosterone levels exist. none of this is new. what’s new is the outrage. people are acting like this is some brand-new, unprecedented problem, but it’s really just the latest in a long history of fights over who gets to compete; really who gets to be seen as human. the panic is manufactured.
In fact...
By lbb
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 11:32am
In fact...yes. That is exactly what they want to do.
Next month they'll be rolling out their plan for period checks. Or is it next week?
Please
By lbb
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 11:30am
I think that if this is the only thing you care about wrt: "leveling the playing field" - and you keep demonstrating that it is - no, it's not "legit". Upholding a so-called standard in the name of "legit" competition, while turning a convenient and cowardly blind eye to every other inequity in sports, is not and can never be "legit".
If you think that trans women are "identifying as women to compete with them", you're either a disingenuous liar or an idiot.
Which is it?
I misspoke. I meant to say
By lodger
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 3:02pm
I misspoke. I meant to say "If you think that males who identify as women should be able to compete with them, you are de-legitimizing sex as a category."
You are splitting hairs and avoiding the question.
Yes there are inequities. The question is which categories are legit for grouping athletes. Do you really think sports should based on hand size or arm length or zip code or parents income? Really?
Sex is a legit category. Or it was until 10 minutes ago when males wanted to be able to compete with females on the basis of identity.
Ok...
By lbb
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 4:26pm
We have just established that you don't know the difference between sex and gender, so...maybe you should take a seat until you know what you're talking about.
No, I'm not. I'm really not. You, on the other hand, are asserting without evidence that being a trans woman, per se, confers a significant advantage in sports competition, and hand-waving the fact that there are many other advantages that have a demonstrably more significant effect.
"You, on the other hand, are
By lodger
Sat, 02/08/2025 - 10:39am
Wrong. I asserted that being born male confers significant advantages over females in sports competition.
Please name them. What are the factors that provide athletic advantages that 'have a demonstrably more significant effect' than sex? I'm eager to learn how these have been demonstrated.
Speaking of lazy lies
By anon
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 2:51pm
The real world includes, and has always included, births that are defined by some doctor or parent as "male", but in fact the individual has differentiation in hormones, genes, or physical attributes (such as a penis inside a vagina), that blur the traditional definition of male and female.
Some of these individuals recognize early or later in life that "male" does not adequately define who they are.
According to the National Geographic series a few years ago on development in the womb, usually hormones defining sex traditionally develop in the fetus before sexual organs. But in about 1/10000 individuals , the sex organs develop before the hormones and a person can have hormones that are different than their sex organs.
There are many different reasons why someone is transgender or intersex or non-binary.
"Born male" or "born female" does not begin to define the range of human identity. It's sometimes complicated, which is especially hard to understand when one approaches the issue with hate in their heart.
It's far more complicated than "born male"
By anon
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 3:06pm
Despite the ignorant and hateful thoughts out there, "male or female" does not include the entirety of human existence. Here is just one example from this morning.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/intersex-dna-test-results-gender-identity...
Separate but equal!
By Angry Dan
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 3:41pm
Let me see if I can remember how that works. Oh, yeah!
Everything old is new again.
This suggests you would like
By Ben
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 4:07pm
This suggests you would like only one category of competition for all genders.
It recognizes you
By Angry Dan
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 7:59am
Nobody is safe in the long run when people like you target a minority and get away with it.
Magoo sez
By MisterMagooForYoo
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 2:54pm
Magoo hasn’t thought about Chuckles Baker for some time now. Magoo will not think about Chuckles Baker for some time starting … now. Magoo is now thinking about how yummy tummy warm brownies are with a big glass of cold milk. Mmmmmm brownies with cold milk. Mmmmm. Magoo. 🥸🤗🥸
Question
By Mike Murphy
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 3:32pm
What is the solution here?
I support DEI and trans-rights but is it equitable to have such biological / physical advantages for some athletes?
My daughter recently played high school field hockey and the MIAA allows teams to play two boys at a time because there are no male FH teams in Mass. A muscular, 5' 10", 175 lb. young man competing against my muscular 5'3" daughter was tough to watch.
South Hadley went undefeated last season with their two males stars leading the way.
OBVIOUSLY male =/= transgender but there are parallels.
What do others think is fair?
This is not fair to your
By lodger
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 9:39am
This is not fair to your daughter at all. If the schools want to have open teams for some sports as an option, great. But apart from the unfairness issue (as your South Hadley example illustrates), this is most definitely a safety issue. It's not bigotry to point this out.
While we're talking about equitable
By lbb
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 10:17am
Is it equitable that your school has more money for its sports programs than some other schools?
If your politics start in someone elses pants
By Sator
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 3:55pm
The you're a bigot.
Many ways to describe these people
By agingbualum
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 4:10pm
Also, the word "collaborators" springs to mind.
I mean
By hats
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 4:58pm
Charlie Baker is and has been a quisling.
Am I mad? Yes. Am I surprised? I wish I were.
Actually, I'm surprised
By jmeltzer
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 7:18pm
that Charlie didn't institute a Special Subcommittee Task Force to study the problem, and thus bury it.
No he didn't
By dvg
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 11:09pm
Uhub headline: "The president yesterday signed one of his executive orders, this time to ban transgender athletes."
That's misleading by omission. The NYT has a more accurate headline and coverage:
N.C.A.A., Following Trump’s Order, Excludes Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports
The decision, effective immediately, came a day after President Trump signed an order barring transgender girls and women from playing in women’s sports at federally funded educational institutions.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/us/politics/ncaa-transgender-athletes...
Not quite. The Globe did better
By Sock_Puppet
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 5:35am
"NCAA changes transgender policy to limit women’s competition to athletes assigned female at birth"
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/06/sports/ncaa-changes-transgender-p...
They could leave out the weasel-word "assigned," but the Globe headline is more correct than the Times. People born female who now identify as transgender can compete in women's competitions (assuming they aren't doped up with testosterone), so it's not true that all transgender athletes are banned from women's competitions.
dupe
By Sock_Puppet
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 5:41am
x
What does President Trump
By Don't Panic
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 3:13am
What does President Trump, Charlie Baker, Harvard and UMass Boston administrations have against the less than 10 Transgender athletes among the 530,000 athletes competing at 1,100 NCAA member schools?
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-target-transgender....
glad I voted for you Charlie
By deselby
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 6:52am
you were always a common-sense guy. The tide has turned on this issue, not just in the USA but in the UK, Finland, Sweden etc. Is it still a profile in courage?
I'm old enough to remember when males competing against females was a comedy segment - Andy Kaufman's Intergender Wrestling.
When you support transgender women in women's sports, you're supporting the most extreme and grotesque imbalances in body size and muscular development and the consequent injustice to women who trained in good faith.
I disapprove of MMA in general and women in MMA in particular, it's monetized savagery. But the fights are a good illustration of the imbalance, like in this fight here.
When Joe Rogan, an MMA fighter himself, criticized this fight, not only was excoriated as a "transphobe," anyone who appeared on his show was ripped by the "activists" and the erstwhile Twitter and other social media mobs.
It was reported that when Kamala proposed to appear on his show, she faced a revolt from the "woke" Gen Z staffers who threatened to quit. So she didn't appear and missed the opportunity for three hours of exposure to voting demographics she needed to win. So she lost.
Sometimes the true "profile in courage" is not the "transgressive" view, or the minority view, but the return to sanity.
Charlie Baker...
By lbb
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 10:20am
...was always a sniveling coward. Just like Mittens Romney.
Is the NCAA a public entity
By Starluna
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 1:21pm
I'm not super familiar with the legal structures of sports ball organizations. Does the NCAA have government contracts? Is it a public entity or is it a private entity?
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