USA Today deletes 'hurtful language' from op-ed by female HS sprinter angry she's lost to biological males. What apparently was so 'hurtful'? She called them 'males.'
USA Today is feeling the backlash after deleting what it termed "hurtful language" from an op-ed by a female high school sprinter upset that's she's been forced to race against — and has lost to — biological males who identify as female. In short, transgender females.
And what apparently was so "hurtful"?
Whatever else she may have written, Chelsea Mitchell referred to her aforementioned opponents as "male" or "males" — and USA Today later cut those references from her piece.
See, in WokeWorld, that's known as "misgendering" — and it's a no-no.
What are the details?
Townhall said Mitchell's USA Today op-ed first ran over the weekend — but by Tuesday the paper added an editor's note at the top: "This column has been updated to reflect USA TODAY's standards and style guidelines. We regret that hurtful language was used."
Alliance Defending Freedom — which is representing Mitchell and other female Connecticut track athletes in a lawsuit over having to compete against transgender females — stated that USA Today editors "without notice to Chelsea, changed the word 'male' to 'transgender' throughout her piece."
Indeed, the Internet Archive reveals that the May 23 version of Mitchell's USA Today op-ed contains 11 references to "male" and "males" — but they all were either deleted outright or replaced with the word "transgender" in the piece's present form.
Here's one example from Mitchell's original piece: "Instead, all I can think about is how all my training, everything I've done to maximize my performance, might not be enough, simply because there's a runner on the line with an enormous physical advantage: a male body."
Catch those last three words? Well, they're gone now.
The new sentence uses the word "transgender" before "runner" — and the words "a male body" have vanished: "Instead, all I can think about is how all my training, everything I've done to maximize my performance, might not be enough, simply because there's a transgender runner on the line with an enormous physical advantage."
What's been the reaction?
As you might expect, folks got angry at USA Today. Christiana Holcomb of ADF certainly gave the paper what for:
What was the "hurtful language" that editors deleted from Chelsea's opinion piece three days after publication? The word "male." 2/3
— Christiana Holcomb (@ChristianaADF) 1622051367.0
Author Abigail Shrier — who knows something about the subject (and getting deleted for her views) — weighed in as well:
Outrageous. @usatoday changed Mitchell's words, post-publication, on the grounds that the word "male" is hurtful.… https://t.co/NGC4pG7cqX
— Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) 1622082224.0
This is the second incident I've heard of where leftist propaganda outlets such as USA Today have altered words pos… https://t.co/vAKPlirBed
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) 1622080933.0
Absolutely incredible. You literally can't make an argument in corporate media with conceding to the terms set by t… https://t.co/on7IsOk7MG
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) 1622080384.0
And U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) was only too happy to crack that quip:
Hey @USATODAY, since you’ve decided to be a propoganda arm for the woke mob and silence a young female athlete, may… https://t.co/u3s8GQgvdw
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) 1622133846.0
Anything else?
The below video is one example of what Mitchell and other female athletes have been up against. It's from the 2018 Connecticut girls' 100-meter dash. Mitchell is the third runner from the left. The runners to her left and right — Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood — are transgender females.
The results? Mitchell came in fourth. Miller and Yearwood came in first and second, respectively. In fact, Miller set a meet record that day. But had Miller and Yearwood not been allowed to race against biological females, one might conclude that Mitchell would have finished higher that fourth.
Terry Miller of Bulkeley wins the 100m girls dash i. 11.72 (meet record). Andraya Yearwood of Cromwell 2nd, RHAM’s… https://t.co/ivpGzIFM5v
— GameTimeCT (@GameTimeCT) 1528145089.0
'It tells me that I’m not good enough': Female HS track star recalls 'devastating' impact of losing to transgender athletes
A former female high school track star recently slammed the progressive push to allow transgender athletes to compete in women's sports, noting that her personal experience of competing against biological males had a "devastating" effect on both her confidence and collegiate opportunities.
Chelsea Mitchell, once heralded the "fastest girl in Connecticut," explained in an opinion piece published by USA Today why her and three other female athletes — who were forced to compete against transgender athletes for most of their high school careers — decided to sue the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference last year.
In the column, Mitchell recalled the thoughts that ran through her head prior to a race she competed in last February. Though she should have been feeling "confident" and "excited," she remembered only thinking about how all her training and exercise "might not be enough, simply because there's a transgender runner on the line with an enormous physical advantage."
Amazingly, despite her obvious disadvantages, Mitchell would go on to win that race. But unfortunately that victory was an outlier for her due to the CIAC's decision to define sex by gender identity, and not biology.
"I've lost four women's state championship titles, two all-New England awards, and numerous other spots on the podium to transgender runners. I was bumped to third place in the 55-meter dash in 2019 behind two transgender runners," Mitchell recalled. "With every loss, it gets harder and harder to try again."
"That's a devastating experience," she added. "It tells me that I'm not good enough; that my body isn't good enough; and that no matter how hard I work, I am unlikely to succeed, because I'm a woman."
Later in the column, Mitchell pointed out that over and above the psychological toll that losing repeatedly to transgender athletes can have on women, CIAC's and similar policies can inflict several other "tangible harms," as well — including robbing them of the chance to compete for scholarships or race in front of scouts at high-profile meets.
"I'll never know how my own college recruitment was impacted by losing those four state championship titles," she explained. "When colleges looked at my record, they didn't see the fastest girl in Connecticut. They saw a second- or third-place runner."
Mitchell, along with Alanna Smith, Selina Soule, and Ashley Nicoletti, sued the CIAC in February 2020 for depriving them of fair competition by allowing transgender athletes to compete alongside women. Since 2017, when the organization changed its rules, two biological male athletes, Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller, have dominated high school female track in the state.
The legal firm representing the female athletes in court, Alliance Defending Freedom, noted in a news release that Yearwood and Terry collectively "have taken 15 women's state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by nine different Connecticut girls) and have taken more than 85 opportunities to participate in higher level competitions from female track athletes in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons alone."
Nonetheless, a federal district court recently dismissed the female athletes' lawsuit. In her USA Today column, Mitchell vowed to appeal.
Boys competing in girls' sports? It's time to stand for fair play youtu.be
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