Outrage erupted on social media after two transgender men took the first two places in a British cycling event, winning the only category in which women could compete
The ThunderCrit race in London last week had a so-called Lightning category, for “cis-women, non-binary people” and “trans men and women whose physical performance aligns most closely with cis-women,” according to the Post Millennial.
Options were for transgender racers only.
The site said “cis-people cannot choose their racing category. Cis-men will race in the Thunder category, cis-women will race in the Lightning category.”
BREAKING 🚴🏻
Emily Bridges and Lilly Chant take 1st and 2nd place in tonight’s Thundercrit cycle race at Herne Hill Velodrome.
Notice anything different about them compared to the cyclist who takes third place? #savewomenssports#WomensRightsNetwork pic.twitter.com/OF2lmtxKao
— Women’s Rights Network – WRN (@WomensRightsNet) June 3, 2022
Emily Bridges and Lilly Chant, two biological men who identify as transgender, took the first two places in the Lightening category.
Jo Smith, the only female in the top three, finished third, according to the Daily Mail.
Are women being slowly pushed out of sports?
Yes: 100% (50 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
Bridges, who came in first, has been unable to compete in Britain in women’s cycling events sanctioned by British Cycling because he had been competing in male races as recently as February, the Post Millennial reported.
Chant is on the official records of British cycling as a man, according to the Daily Mail.
Many voiced their anger on Twitter.
Two men kiss as they celebrate stealing 1st & 2rd place in a womens race…woman takes care of her child as she stands on the 3rd place she has been relegated to due to male cheats.
This pic tells the story of gender ideology perfectly.
Men first, women & childrens needs last. pic.twitter.com/0rcX8a8UdZ— Aja ⚢💚🤍💜🦖 (@Aja02537920) June 4, 2022
Two men in 1st and 2nd place in a women’s race. If another man chooses to enter, there’ll be no female winners. In women’s sports. If injustice doesn’t inspire fury, you’re morally defunct. https://t.co/alrKeT4hb4
— dammit (@guillotesque) June 4, 2022
Women don’t matter to anyone. No one in power cares if women are marginalized, commodified, colonized or erased.
Feminists fought for equality then gave it all back as soon as men demanded it. https://t.co/l0Blhy0pDD
— libby emmons (@libbyemmons) June 3, 2022
Fiona McAnena, director of sport campaigns at Fair Play For Women, said that rules allowing men to race against women put women at a disadvantage.
“It’s inevitable that if we’re going to allow people who have been through male puberty into the category that is supposed to be for females, those people are going to outperform,” she said.
“Sport is based on your body, and we have a female category in most sports because male puberty confers such an advantage and it is a lifelong advantage. It cannot be undone.”
“It seems extraordinary that in 2022 society has lost sight of an extremely basic biological reality between the sexes, which saw competitive sport divided down the middle with men on one side and women on the other,” a writer using the name of Flat White wrote in the Spectator of Australia.
“The idea that it is considered ‘discrimination’ or ‘hateful’ to prevent a man competing against a woman remains one of the unsustainable repercussions of radical gender theory that is unlikely to survive long as competitive sportswomen rebel against the intolerable situation they now find themselves in.”
