Is it “real feminism” to bully and ostracize a marginalized community? Also Riley Gains came in 5th place - the trans woman came in 4th, meaning 3 other “biological women” beat Riley out as well. She would’ve lost anyway. She is just a sore loser who drank the MAGA koolaid. And Meghan is an opportunistic grifter who absolutely would not have the platform she does (be it as it may - much smaller than before she was fired from the View) without her exploitation of her father’s legacy.
In the 200 yard race you mention, Lia Thomas went from 554th on the men’s team to tying for 5th with Riley Gaines on the women’s. Thomas was given the trophy and spot on the podium. Ranking 5th place nationally is a huge achievement. Gaines had to share that with a man who ranked 554th when he swam with other men.
I started swimming when I was six all the way through DI college. I grew up with two older brothers and am now a mom of a three year old boy and almost 2 year old girl. I've swam with both men and women, became a US Marine and have been a lifelong sports fan and advocate. Anyone who says there is no biological difference between the sexes or that biology makes no difference in fair competition is either lying or has no concept of athleticism, competition, or biology. Trans athletes can play sports -- I don't know anyone who is arguing otherwise -- just compete in the category of your biological sex. If it's such a tiny minority, why disrupt decades and decades of fighting for equal opportunity for women just so women can (again) take a backseat to the whims of a man who has a natural biological advantage? The violence isn't against men, but against women who are suffering physical and emotional and psychological harm from injury and being exposed to men in exclusively women's spaces. Not just locker rooms but women's shelters and prisons where they are abused and raped. We grew up in the privilege of not having to fight for Title IX as our mothers did, and now is our chance to save this opportunity for our daughters. Let's not fail them.
I'm so glad I'm a nobody. I can stand up for this issue and receive zero (or hardly any) pushback. If someone wants to call me transphobic, go right ahead. I couldn't care less. Anyone who would say that does not know me and means nothing to me. I am no longer working and have every right to my opinion. No one can cancel me because I am no one that anyone cares about except my family. It is ridiculous that statements of personal opinion can result in termination of contracts, friendships, jobs, etc. What is wrong with people??
I agree with you, Megan!! How Democrats can’t see this isn’t feminism - a topic they have fought so hard for - is beyond me. They are willing to protect women in some areas, but not here. The bitter pity party needs to stop.
This is why I’ve always liked you! You have integrity. I’m a moderate, old school liberal and this issue has left me furious at progressives. The women’s category in sports is the inclusion—for males to be able to identify into it means women will be excluded from their own protected category. Allowing males into women’s bathrooms and locker rooms is voyeurism, indecent exposure, and sexual harassment, which everyone understood up until the trans activists movement started violating women’s right to same-sex vulnerable spaces. I’m a supporter of gay rights, and of course trans identified people deserve the same rights as everyone else. This does not men that trans-identified men can cross women’s sex-based boundaries.
You mention that “trans identified people deserve the same rights as everyone else”…but then proceed to state that they shouldn’t be allowed to play sports with the gender they identify with. So, where should they go? Should they form their own team? Or should they just not be allowed to play at all…which would then contradict your assertion that they “deserve the same rights as everyone else”.
Sports are separated by sex for the inclusion of women. If all sports were open and women were not allowed to have sex-based categories, women would be edged out by men entirely at the elite level and mostly edged out of other competitions. Men have harder, denser bones, they are taller, they have more fast twitch muscles, straighter hips, larger hands and feet, larger hearts and lungs, etc. Taking hormones doesn’t undo all this advantage. Trans-identified men can say they identify as women, change their name, and dress as they like. But they still have biologically male bodies. The women’s category in sports is not based on gender identity, it is based on sex, and trans-identified men have not changed sex. It is not a human right to identify into a protected category you don’t belong in (imagine if a heavyweight boxer identified as a lightweight). Trans people can play in the category of their biological sex, or they can create their own categories. This is an 80/20 issue. Most people see the absurdity of a man barging his way into women’s sports and are rightfully outraged.
As a trans woman, I have a nuanced take on all of this. Now this may surprise you...but I actually agree with Meghan on most of her points. So buckle up, buckaroos--here are my thoughts.
There is no denying that trans women have a different lived experience than biological women. Our entire experience, social, mental, and physical, is completely different. People assigned male at birth, on average, have far more physical and athletic advantages than their female counterparts. This is a scientific reality. There can be valid concerns around this subject without, as Meghan demonstrated, denigrating the very existence of trans Americans.
Republicans take the extreme position that "trans people don't even exist" and that we're just confused crossdressers. We're called men, freaks, perverts, sinners, and whatever else Nancy Mace cruelly thinks up. This is just hurtful rhetoric that scares voters into hating trans people. Nancy Mace, the Anita Bryant of her time, can fight for women's sports without being so hurtful. Being transgender is a real, scientific reality. However the President has stated I don't even exist.
Democrats, you can't find a nuanced, common sense take on this issue if it kicked you in the gender non-conforming ass. Because you won't take a moderate approach on this issue, trans people are loosing all the rights and civil liberties that we've slowly gained in the past few decades. It was easier for me to transition 15 year ago than it is today. We are being attacked on an unprecedented level and you are actively hurting us with your inaction.
It is possible to support women's sports and trans people at the same time. Thank you for this post, Meghan.
I could talk all day about this topic. I'm a transexual who's trans-sensible.
I will be right there next to you on that hill. I have so many friends who refuse to speak up because they are afraid of the backlash or, more bizarrely, think it is a right-wing concern. Women from the left and right can unite on this issue.
Exactly! 💯 But Meghan clearly lacks the ability or willingness to have empathy for anyone who is different from her. But either of her children could end up being trans, so she should certainly be careful with this!
Oh please. We live in a country where it is legal in many states for known domestic abusers to purchase firearms but THIS is what you think protects women the most??? Any idea what the number one cause of death for pregnant women is in the USA? Here’s a hint…it’s not transgender volleyball players spiking balls at them.
Amen. I wrote this in another post of hers, but it's totally relevant here so I'll put it here too, since it's important to counter the MASSIVE amount of misinformation in this post.
Everyone: Lia Thomas did not "beat" Riley Gaines, Lia Thomas TIED with Riley Gaines, who would've made 5th place regardless of whether or not Lia was even there. Not only that, but in the vast majority of cases, when trans women have competed against cis women, the cis women have won - only 2 trans women have ever even qualified for the Olympics in its entire history (and one of them didn't even medal at all - google Laurel Hubbard). Riley Gaines constantly whining that Lia Thomas "beat out" cisgender women, while conveniently totally ignoring that 4 cisgender women BEAT HER, is not the flex she thinks it is.
If this "unfair advantage" is so prevalent as all of you claim, then you need to explain why we can't seem to find it literally anywhere except for in you and your supporters cherrypicked anecdotes, and why literally nearly every piece of peer reviewed research has found that it flat out does not exist. Your view - honestly, obsession - over this is just not supported by the data.
Beyond that, I'm tired of everyone all of a sudden pretending to care about women's sports. It's embarrassing, it's insincere, and if I dug even a little into the history of the average person who is all of a sudden so incredibly concerned with this, I would likely not find one single ticket purchased to a women's sporting event, not one donation to help fund a women's sports team, not one instance of volunteering for a women's league, I doubt most of them could even name a single team of the WNBA. Yet all of a sudden, now that trans women are the boogeyman scapegoat, everyone is an expert on and ardent supporter of women's sports? Give me a break.
You want to protect women's sports? Get back to me when you've fought to get pay parity for female athletes who are compensated so little despite often having better records than the men's teams that they end up detained in Russia for 18 months because they needed to play abroad to make ends meet.
You have always been our biggest supporter. Most people agree with you regarding this issue. When Andy gave up his beloved dog when he had a baby I stopped liking him. It’s been no loss for me ! You keep standing behind your beliefs !
Wow! So … you would rather a child be harmed than have someone find a more appropriate home for a beloved pet? That is one of the dumbest arguments that I have ever heard!
Because trans people make up 1% of the population.
One. Percent.
And you propose finding enough individuals out of that minuscule population, spread out across our huge country, who also happen to be athletes of similar ability, who play the same sports, and compete against each other in their own league...?
My best friend, a beautiful 36-year-old cisgender woman -- who happens to live in the same city as you, Meghan -- is 6'2". She was 5'11" by the time we were 13. She swam and played volleyball competitively for many years, including as a NCAA Division II athlete. Even among her volleyball teammates and competitors, who are often taller women, she was usually towering over them. As she does with most women she meets in her daily life, and frankly most men. My friend's physical stature was an asset to her in sports, but nothing comes to close to her dedication, hard work, passion and natural talent. Those are what make her an incredible athlete.
I have to wonder if -- and frankly I am quite confident -- you, Meghan, and the many others who are inexplicably fixated on what is between certain individuals' legs would cry foul about my best friend competing against shorter women because the body she was born into is taller than most. Or if you would become obsessed with "proving" she was assigned male at birth, which she was not. You know, like you did with Imane Khelif, the Algerian female Olympic boxer, which you never retracted or apologized for?
You "believe" so many things that are scientifically, demonstrably false. Trans women receiving hormone therapy have estrogen and testosterone levels within the average range for cisgender women (yes, both hormones, because ALL HUMAN BODIES naturally and necessarily create both). And as to gender not being a construct, I would like you to explain your stance on intersex people, who have always and will always exist (the term "hermaphrodite," while not really used anymore, is as old as it is for a reason). Where do these people fit? If their parents choose to raise them as one binary gender over another, or the person chooses a single gender to identify as, is that not constructed if they have both male and female physical attributes and chromosomes?
You're just a bully, plain and simple. Accept it and move along, or better yet, take the time to learn and actually be better.
What about the marginalized community, members of which people like Meghan just put a target on the backs of? Or do you (like Meghan) only have empathy for people who are like you?
What is this “marginalized Community” nonsense. Trans identified people are front and center, in women’s sports, locker rooms, toilets, prisons, and online demanding we all speak the words they want.
These men get what they demand while women lose scholarships, awards and privacy. Trans people have equal rights. They should not have more rights based on them declaring a different gender.
I’m a progressive liberal and I hear what you are saying and understand, but what I disagree with is that this is the hill ‘democrats’ want to die on. From all accounts, surveys had indicated this issue was very low on the issues that matter to democrats during the 2024 election. In fact, no one was even talking about it until Republicans found 2019 footage of Kamala talking about this and then the republicans starting obsessing over this. I definitely think there is common ground in this discussion, but I wish Republicans were able to see how their party was the one that died on this hill and made it seem like Democrats are the ones who made this their central narrative during the 2024 election. I looked it up and really the only information I could find about this was from folks on the right bringing it up and then democrats responding to it.
Preach! And keep preaching until women's sports are for the biological women only. This is just a common sense issue and I will die on this hill with you.
the problem is that this is used as a front for the whole anti-trans movement. when the current administration says it is fighting "transgenderism" and deleting the word from all of their websites. including the NPS site ...actually referring to the LGBTQ FLAG AS A LGB flag! how ridiculous!!! going after gender affirming care. and people in the LGBTQ community in their ads (i.e. pattie gonia and johnathan van ness) it is way more than about sports.
Love this post! Please keep clarifying and standing up for our girls. This is real feminism!
Is it “real feminism” to bully and ostracize a marginalized community? Also Riley Gains came in 5th place - the trans woman came in 4th, meaning 3 other “biological women” beat Riley out as well. She would’ve lost anyway. She is just a sore loser who drank the MAGA koolaid. And Meghan is an opportunistic grifter who absolutely would not have the platform she does (be it as it may - much smaller than before she was fired from the View) without her exploitation of her father’s legacy.
In the 200 yard race you mention, Lia Thomas went from 554th on the men’s team to tying for 5th with Riley Gaines on the women’s. Thomas was given the trophy and spot on the podium. Ranking 5th place nationally is a huge achievement. Gaines had to share that with a man who ranked 554th when he swam with other men.
She still lost…and by a mile.
What a sour thing to say. Are you just here to hate on women athletes while you argue for men to be able to obliterate the women’s category?
I started swimming when I was six all the way through DI college. I grew up with two older brothers and am now a mom of a three year old boy and almost 2 year old girl. I've swam with both men and women, became a US Marine and have been a lifelong sports fan and advocate. Anyone who says there is no biological difference between the sexes or that biology makes no difference in fair competition is either lying or has no concept of athleticism, competition, or biology. Trans athletes can play sports -- I don't know anyone who is arguing otherwise -- just compete in the category of your biological sex. If it's such a tiny minority, why disrupt decades and decades of fighting for equal opportunity for women just so women can (again) take a backseat to the whims of a man who has a natural biological advantage? The violence isn't against men, but against women who are suffering physical and emotional and psychological harm from injury and being exposed to men in exclusively women's spaces. Not just locker rooms but women's shelters and prisons where they are abused and raped. We grew up in the privilege of not having to fight for Title IX as our mothers did, and now is our chance to save this opportunity for our daughters. Let's not fail them.
I'm so glad I'm a nobody. I can stand up for this issue and receive zero (or hardly any) pushback. If someone wants to call me transphobic, go right ahead. I couldn't care less. Anyone who would say that does not know me and means nothing to me. I am no longer working and have every right to my opinion. No one can cancel me because I am no one that anyone cares about except my family. It is ridiculous that statements of personal opinion can result in termination of contracts, friendships, jobs, etc. What is wrong with people??
I agree with you, Megan!! How Democrats can’t see this isn’t feminism - a topic they have fought so hard for - is beyond me. They are willing to protect women in some areas, but not here. The bitter pity party needs to stop.
This is why I’ve always liked you! You have integrity. I’m a moderate, old school liberal and this issue has left me furious at progressives. The women’s category in sports is the inclusion—for males to be able to identify into it means women will be excluded from their own protected category. Allowing males into women’s bathrooms and locker rooms is voyeurism, indecent exposure, and sexual harassment, which everyone understood up until the trans activists movement started violating women’s right to same-sex vulnerable spaces. I’m a supporter of gay rights, and of course trans identified people deserve the same rights as everyone else. This does not men that trans-identified men can cross women’s sex-based boundaries.
You mention that “trans identified people deserve the same rights as everyone else”…but then proceed to state that they shouldn’t be allowed to play sports with the gender they identify with. So, where should they go? Should they form their own team? Or should they just not be allowed to play at all…which would then contradict your assertion that they “deserve the same rights as everyone else”.
Sports are separated by sex for the inclusion of women. If all sports were open and women were not allowed to have sex-based categories, women would be edged out by men entirely at the elite level and mostly edged out of other competitions. Men have harder, denser bones, they are taller, they have more fast twitch muscles, straighter hips, larger hands and feet, larger hearts and lungs, etc. Taking hormones doesn’t undo all this advantage. Trans-identified men can say they identify as women, change their name, and dress as they like. But they still have biologically male bodies. The women’s category in sports is not based on gender identity, it is based on sex, and trans-identified men have not changed sex. It is not a human right to identify into a protected category you don’t belong in (imagine if a heavyweight boxer identified as a lightweight). Trans people can play in the category of their biological sex, or they can create their own categories. This is an 80/20 issue. Most people see the absurdity of a man barging his way into women’s sports and are rightfully outraged.
Sex isn’t gender and gender isn’t sex. In sports, sex matters.
Bravo to you Meghan, (no pun intended)!
As a trans woman, I have a nuanced take on all of this. Now this may surprise you...but I actually agree with Meghan on most of her points. So buckle up, buckaroos--here are my thoughts.
There is no denying that trans women have a different lived experience than biological women. Our entire experience, social, mental, and physical, is completely different. People assigned male at birth, on average, have far more physical and athletic advantages than their female counterparts. This is a scientific reality. There can be valid concerns around this subject without, as Meghan demonstrated, denigrating the very existence of trans Americans.
Republicans take the extreme position that "trans people don't even exist" and that we're just confused crossdressers. We're called men, freaks, perverts, sinners, and whatever else Nancy Mace cruelly thinks up. This is just hurtful rhetoric that scares voters into hating trans people. Nancy Mace, the Anita Bryant of her time, can fight for women's sports without being so hurtful. Being transgender is a real, scientific reality. However the President has stated I don't even exist.
Democrats, you can't find a nuanced, common sense take on this issue if it kicked you in the gender non-conforming ass. Because you won't take a moderate approach on this issue, trans people are loosing all the rights and civil liberties that we've slowly gained in the past few decades. It was easier for me to transition 15 year ago than it is today. We are being attacked on an unprecedented level and you are actively hurting us with your inaction.
It is possible to support women's sports and trans people at the same time. Thank you for this post, Meghan.
I could talk all day about this topic. I'm a transexual who's trans-sensible.
I will be right there next to you on that hill. I have so many friends who refuse to speak up because they are afraid of the backlash or, more bizarrely, think it is a right-wing concern. Women from the left and right can unite on this issue.
Have you considered, Meghan, how you’d feel if it was YOUR child that was transgender?
Exactly! 💯 But Meghan clearly lacks the ability or willingness to have empathy for anyone who is different from her. But either of her children could end up being trans, so she should certainly be careful with this!
Oh please. We live in a country where it is legal in many states for known domestic abusers to purchase firearms but THIS is what you think protects women the most??? Any idea what the number one cause of death for pregnant women is in the USA? Here’s a hint…it’s not transgender volleyball players spiking balls at them.
Amen. I wrote this in another post of hers, but it's totally relevant here so I'll put it here too, since it's important to counter the MASSIVE amount of misinformation in this post.
Everyone: Lia Thomas did not "beat" Riley Gaines, Lia Thomas TIED with Riley Gaines, who would've made 5th place regardless of whether or not Lia was even there. Not only that, but in the vast majority of cases, when trans women have competed against cis women, the cis women have won - only 2 trans women have ever even qualified for the Olympics in its entire history (and one of them didn't even medal at all - google Laurel Hubbard). Riley Gaines constantly whining that Lia Thomas "beat out" cisgender women, while conveniently totally ignoring that 4 cisgender women BEAT HER, is not the flex she thinks it is.
If this "unfair advantage" is so prevalent as all of you claim, then you need to explain why we can't seem to find it literally anywhere except for in you and your supporters cherrypicked anecdotes, and why literally nearly every piece of peer reviewed research has found that it flat out does not exist. Your view - honestly, obsession - over this is just not supported by the data.
Beyond that, I'm tired of everyone all of a sudden pretending to care about women's sports. It's embarrassing, it's insincere, and if I dug even a little into the history of the average person who is all of a sudden so incredibly concerned with this, I would likely not find one single ticket purchased to a women's sporting event, not one donation to help fund a women's sports team, not one instance of volunteering for a women's league, I doubt most of them could even name a single team of the WNBA. Yet all of a sudden, now that trans women are the boogeyman scapegoat, everyone is an expert on and ardent supporter of women's sports? Give me a break.
You want to protect women's sports? Get back to me when you've fought to get pay parity for female athletes who are compensated so little despite often having better records than the men's teams that they end up detained in Russia for 18 months because they needed to play abroad to make ends meet.
You have always been our biggest supporter. Most people agree with you regarding this issue. When Andy gave up his beloved dog when he had a baby I stopped liking him. It’s been no loss for me ! You keep standing behind your beliefs !
Wow! So … you would rather a child be harmed than have someone find a more appropriate home for a beloved pet? That is one of the dumbest arguments that I have ever heard!
Why can’t ‘transgender’ just be an athletic category on its own and compete against each other?
Thank you Meghan! ❤️🤍💙
Because trans people make up 1% of the population.
One. Percent.
And you propose finding enough individuals out of that minuscule population, spread out across our huge country, who also happen to be athletes of similar ability, who play the same sports, and compete against each other in their own league...?
Let me know how that works out. 🙄
My best friend, a beautiful 36-year-old cisgender woman -- who happens to live in the same city as you, Meghan -- is 6'2". She was 5'11" by the time we were 13. She swam and played volleyball competitively for many years, including as a NCAA Division II athlete. Even among her volleyball teammates and competitors, who are often taller women, she was usually towering over them. As she does with most women she meets in her daily life, and frankly most men. My friend's physical stature was an asset to her in sports, but nothing comes to close to her dedication, hard work, passion and natural talent. Those are what make her an incredible athlete.
I have to wonder if -- and frankly I am quite confident -- you, Meghan, and the many others who are inexplicably fixated on what is between certain individuals' legs would cry foul about my best friend competing against shorter women because the body she was born into is taller than most. Or if you would become obsessed with "proving" she was assigned male at birth, which she was not. You know, like you did with Imane Khelif, the Algerian female Olympic boxer, which you never retracted or apologized for?
You "believe" so many things that are scientifically, demonstrably false. Trans women receiving hormone therapy have estrogen and testosterone levels within the average range for cisgender women (yes, both hormones, because ALL HUMAN BODIES naturally and necessarily create both). And as to gender not being a construct, I would like you to explain your stance on intersex people, who have always and will always exist (the term "hermaphrodite," while not really used anymore, is as old as it is for a reason). Where do these people fit? If their parents choose to raise them as one binary gender over another, or the person chooses a single gender to identify as, is that not constructed if they have both male and female physical attributes and chromosomes?
You're just a bully, plain and simple. Accept it and move along, or better yet, take the time to learn and actually be better.
Thank you for standing up for girls/women spaces! When it effects one of us, it effects all of us!
What about the marginalized community, members of which people like Meghan just put a target on the backs of? Or do you (like Meghan) only have empathy for people who are like you?
What is this “marginalized Community” nonsense. Trans identified people are front and center, in women’s sports, locker rooms, toilets, prisons, and online demanding we all speak the words they want.
These men get what they demand while women lose scholarships, awards and privacy. Trans people have equal rights. They should not have more rights based on them declaring a different gender.
It is not up to women to include gender dysphoric men in their protected categories.
I’m a progressive liberal and I hear what you are saying and understand, but what I disagree with is that this is the hill ‘democrats’ want to die on. From all accounts, surveys had indicated this issue was very low on the issues that matter to democrats during the 2024 election. In fact, no one was even talking about it until Republicans found 2019 footage of Kamala talking about this and then the republicans starting obsessing over this. I definitely think there is common ground in this discussion, but I wish Republicans were able to see how their party was the one that died on this hill and made it seem like Democrats are the ones who made this their central narrative during the 2024 election. I looked it up and really the only information I could find about this was from folks on the right bringing it up and then democrats responding to it.
Preach! And keep preaching until women's sports are for the biological women only. This is just a common sense issue and I will die on this hill with you.
xx, Shelly
I loved your father btw. Mine served in Vietnam as well.
the problem is that this is used as a front for the whole anti-trans movement. when the current administration says it is fighting "transgenderism" and deleting the word from all of their websites. including the NPS site ...actually referring to the LGBTQ FLAG AS A LGB flag! how ridiculous!!! going after gender affirming care. and people in the LGBTQ community in their ads (i.e. pattie gonia and johnathan van ness) it is way more than about sports.