Something terrible (and yet, something we may yet overcome) has happened. Other, smarter people will write about that, so instead, I’m going to tell you about something that’s really, deeply stupid. Okay?
Irish. Dance. Oh yeah… you know what I’m talking about. Yes, the only dance you can find in Fortnite that (probably) isn’t the stolen intellectual property of Black people. The mesmerizing heel tapping dance exported straight from Ireland. Ginger Zapateado, if you will. I’m not sure if it’s still popular on Tiktok, maybe it came and went with the COVID-era sea shanty obsession, but there are of course still folks tip tapping away to jaunty Celtic fiddle tunes all over the world.
Except transgender girls in Florida, naturally.
Per reporting by Christopher Wiggins at The Advocate, U.S. Representatives Greg Steube and Randy Fine, alongside Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, sent their terroristic demands in a June 24 letter to An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG, or the Irish Dancing Commission) and the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America.
“Per Florida Statute 1006.205,” Fine wrote, “the State of Florida rightfully requires that all athletic competitions held in public accommodations reserve women’s and girls’ categories for biological women on the basis of sex, not gender identity.”
“However, your inclusivity policy has allowed a [trans woman] to repeatedly steal titles and placements from [her] female peers,” he stupidly continued, “including at competitions in Florida … This outcome involving the [trans woman] dancer comes as no surprise, as we have witnessed [trans women] athletes dominate women’s sports by virtue of biological advantages.”
You’re welcome for the pro bono editorial work, Randy, you annoying bag of bitch.
Anyway, yeah, wrong. This is exceedingly relevant after yesterday’s asinine Supreme Court verdict on trans athlete bans, but to be clear: There has never been a single iota of proof that trans competitors exert any natural advantage over their cisgender peers. As a matter of fact, there has been an overwhelming glut of evidence to the contrary. It seems like a few times a year, some new study is released that proves trans women who have medically transitioned perform comparably to cis women in competitive sports, and jerkoffs like Randy Fine, Greg Steube and James Uthmeier just lie and say trans women and girls are steamrolling cis girls on the field.
It never seems to matter that this just isn’t true.
We’re no strangers to trans sports bans here at Assigned. We’ve reported on the exclusion of trans people from increasingly esoteric competitions for years now, whether it’s chess, darts, golf, or fencing. Most of the time, nobody can even clearly articulate how a trans girl would have any noteworthy physical advantage over her cis peers. In the case of fencing, competitions are largely co-ed in the first place!
In the case of Irish dancing, Fine and co. assert that, because of Florida’s 2021 “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” (gag me with one thousand spoons, if you’d be so kind), the upcoming 2026 North American Irish Dance Championships, hosted by IDTANA in Orlando, must exclude trans girls from their girls’ and women’s categories. Sorry, no, that’s technically wrong… IDTANA must exclude a single trans girl from their competition, because there’s only one. Three grown men are ganging up on a young girl who just wants to dance, for crying out loud. They’re threatening to pursue these organizations in court for violating the law, and even accusing them of “consumer fraud” for advertising their competitions for girls and allowing trans girls to compete in them.
IDTANA has been quite clear about their policy on trans competitors in years past, with their regional director at the time, P.J. McCafferty, saying, “[We] teach all the dancers. We advocate for every one of our dancers. We do our very best to be fair to everyone. This situation is not easy for anyone. Not everyone’s point of view or personal interests align. I am asking for your tolerance. You are expected to respect all the dancers.”
Uthmeier set IDTANA’s deadline to comply with his evil demands for yesterday. The competition is set to begin tomorrow. The organization, meanwhile, has not publicly commented on the situation… so it’s impossible to say whether or not the singular trans girl who wants to compete will be allowed to, and what might happen if she is.
Regardless of what happens, let this be a lesson to every sporting organization and group in America that wants to uphold values like fairness and decency by allowing trans people to compete: You simply must start hosting your events in normal states, where the Attorney General won’t publicly threaten you days before a competition to insist that you do harm to a competitor or suffer legal consequences.
