TWIBSies! Do you remember when, in April of last year, I reported that some dweeb named Stephanie Turner had refused to fence against a transgender woman, defending her behavior by misgendering her opponent and stating, “[This] is a women’s tournament and I refuse to fence on principle.” Never mind that Turner, you know, regularly competed against cisgender men and won! Anyway, for her bravery in the face of no danger whatsoever, Turner was given an award from a t-shirt store and $5,000.
I wish I could fail up that effortlessly.
Well, that was just the start of it, of course. Debates about whether real women should be allowed to compete against cisgender women in the typically co-ed sport of fencing truly kicked off, joining already fraught sports like surfing, volleyball, boxing, chess, golf, darts, Irish dance, disc golf, fantasy football, power walking, deep sea boxing, and pickleball.
I reported last October that trans athlete Dinah Yukich was suing USA Fencing and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee for denying her the right to participate in an event in New York. You see, after that snafu with Stephanie Turner in Maryland, USAF altered their previously trans-inclusive competition rules to read: “In the event that USA Fencing is guided to change its current stance in accordance with oversight bodies or federal legislation, the new policy states athletes competing in USA Fencing-sanctioned tournaments must compete according to their biological sex.”
No federal laws had been passed to ban trans athletes from competing at that point. Even now, these bans have not been codified in federal law, though they have been declared constitutional by Donald Trump’s extra special best friend judiciary, sometimes known as the Supreme Court of the United States. How any legal professional in their right mind could argue that such blatantly discriminatory laws and association rules do not violate their victims’ constitutional rights is beyond me, as I am but a simple country lawyer*. I am certain, however, that the answer is out there somewhere.
* I live in a dense metropolitan area and I have never even attended law school, much less passed a bar examination or acquired a license to practice law. I apologize for deceiving you in this way.
Unfortunately, because USOPC changed their own rules about trans athlete participation to comply with a legally unenforceable threat delivered by Donald Trump in the form of an Executive Order, USAF felt free to do the same. Yukich’s suit seemed to have some inherent merit, given the self-evident discrimination at play in states with powerful anti-discrimination laws, like New York.
Sadly, on September 30, U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden dismissed Yukich’s case on two technical points. Firstly, she says, “Yukich has not sufficiently alleged that the USOPC or USAF
have meaningful contacts, ties, or relations,” which is surprising since Yukich shouldn’t have to do that: USAF is charted under the USOPC, and the company’s CEO has explicitly justified their rules change based on USOPC’s guidance on trans competitors. Those seem like meaningful contacts, ties, and relations to me… though, as I said earlier, I am but a simple country lawyer**.
** Again: I live in a dense metropolitan area and I have never even attended law school, much less passed a bar examination or acquired a license to practice law. I apologize for deceiving you in this way for a second time.
Second, Judge Hayden declared that Yukich must pursue arbitration in the state of Colorado. Referencing the Supreme Court’s seemingly malicious, potentially paid for ruling, she said, “The Supreme Court has rejected the proposition that a nationwide policy creates jurisdiction in every state where it might have consequences.”
It’s as simple as that, folks. An organization can ban you from competing on discriminatory grounds, have that ban take place in a state they are not headquartered in that has strong antidiscrimination policies, and then force you to seek arbitration in a state you do not live or compete in because they happen to be headquartered there, which is completely meaningless.
Very cool.
Where does it go from here? Who knows, dude. Yukich can file another suit in Colorado, but it’s impossible to say whether or not that will go anywhere. That state has its own bigots chomping at the bit to discriminate against trans people in sports, but Colorado’s overall pro-queer vibes seem to be safely repelling that ballot initiative for now.
I hardly know what to say about it anymore! I’m sick and tired of trans Americans having their right to participate in public life stripped from them. Most of the sports we wind up banned from aren’t actually athletic, and in the ones that are, there’s no proof that we would smash the cis competition anyway. It’s certainly not something that has happened a statistically significant number of times before.
Maybe one day we’ll get to enjoy a society where our highest courts aren’t bought and paid for, giving carte blanche to bad actors to discriminate against us on little more basis than raw, unjustifiable hatred. But what do I know about any of it? I am but a simple country lawyer***, after all…
*** Just so we’re FOR SURE on the same page: I live in a dense metropolitan area and I have never even attended law school, much less passed a bar examination or acquired a license to practice law. In no way, shape or form am I qualified to give you legal advice, and nothing I say should be construed as such. Any advice I give of a legal nature is layman’s, by definition, and following that advice could lead to harm or damages that Assigned Media is not responsible for. In fact, just by reading this article, you have agreed that you cannot sue us for following any of my legal advice! Which is not legal advice! Because I’m not your lawyer! Or even a lawyer! Why are you still reading this?!
