(Mike Egerton/PA) (PA Archive)
Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
Twitter is finally a place where real misinformation gets fact-checked. It took Elon Musk paying $44 billion for the company for it to happen.
Following a ruling from the World Athletics Council that bars transgender athletes from competing with women in women-only events, National Public Radio (NPR) embarrassed itself.
NPR put out an article claiming that there is “limited scientific evidence” that men have a “physical advantage” over women in sports.
In its attempt to defend the trend of biological men playing in women’s sports, NPR lost any amount of credibility it had left.
World Athletics Council president Sebastian Coe spoke at a press conference regarding the rule.
“The council has agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female world ranking competitions from March the 31st this year,” he said.
“However, in order to do further research into our transgender eligibility guideline, we will be establishing a working group whose remit will be to consult specifically with transgender athletes to seek views on competing in athletics to review and maybe commission additional research where there is currently limited research, and to put forward recommendations to council.”
NPR, which is a tax-payer-funded organization, published an article that said in part, “At the center of the issue is whether transgender women athletes have a physical advantage over other female competitors, even after lowering their testosterone levels. But there is limited scientific research involving elite transgender athletes — which the council also acknowledged.”
NPR argued, “World Athletics Council said that they have conducted their own research over the past decade and that they found there can be an impact in performance. Several international groups including Human Rights Watch have called the council’s evidence flawed.”
NPR asserted, “The ban is part of a growing resistance against transgender women and girls in female sports.”
NPR feels that the sport of track and field is “moving away from trans inclusion.”
If trans inclusion means the erasing of women, it cannot continue in the sports world.
NPR took to Twitter, posting, “The international governing body for track and field will ban trans women athletes from elite women’s competitions, citing a priority for fairness over inclusion despite limited scientific evidence of physical advantage.”
In a move that people in search of the truth have been eagerly awaiting, Twitter’s Community Notes flagged NPR’s tweet.
The message read, “Significant evidence from numerous studies demonstrates that trans-athletes maintain a competitive physical advantage despite gender-affirming care.”
The Community Note offered links to research studies and papers showing that NPR’s claim can easily be debunked by evidence proving trans athletes do possess a physical advantage over women.
Then the roasts ensued. Many Twitter users piled on NPR for their obviously biased, untrue tweet.
Researcher John R Lott tweeted, “How can @NPR be taken seriously? 100-meter dash – Usain Bolt’s 9.58 seconds is the men’s fastest – Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 10.49 fastest for women High Jump – Javier Sotomayor for men 8 ft 1⁄4 in – Stefka Kostadinova for women 6 ft 10 1⁄4 in Not even close.”
Media critic Joe Concha: “Here’s NPR’s unintentionally-hilarious claim that trans women athletes have no physical advantage over their female competitors. It totally explains how Lia Thomas went from being a sub-par swimmer racing against other men to winning a nat’l championship racing against women.”
Why are there separate sports for women and men if there are no physical differences?
If that were true, there would be no need for separate sports for men and women. It’s absurd.
