In one of the most absurd things to happen in quite some time at Iowa State University, three men were included in a three-person panel on the importance of allowing “transgender women” (men) to be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
Said another way, the one thing missing from a conversation about allowing men to compete in women’s sports was – a woman. Only men needed to apply to be part of the discussion, moderated by the Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program, a woman called Kelly Winfrey.
Winfrey introduced Will “Lia” Thomas as a transgender woman who made history as the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I Championship while competing on the women’s swimming team. In other words, Thomas became the first man to win a women’s NCAA Division I Championship that we know of.
More absurd, Winfrey said that Thomas gained attention for advocacy and inclusion. But the reason for the attention wasn’t complicated – for the first time that we know of, a man won an NCAA Division I Women’s National Championship. Advocacy and inclusion had little to nothing to do with Thomas’s time in the spotlight – the absurdity of the situation did.
In perhaps a bit of a Freudian slip, Winfrey opened the panel by saying she hoped the audience could leave “better able to distinguish facts from myths.”
We agree. It would be great if the 50-60 attendees who sat in the room that holds up to 200 people left able to distinguish facts from myths. Like the fact a transgender woman is indeed a man. Or that men have distinct competitive advantages in athletics compared to women. Or perhaps a really simple fact, men don’t belong in women’s sports. Period.
Thomas introduced himself as a “transgender woman” and a swimmer.
“I competed my senior year on the women’s team, finally living and competing as my authentic self,” Thomas claimed. “And that experience is one of a wide range of emotions.”
Thomas said it was “exhilarating” and “incredible” to finally do the sport “as the woman I know that I am.”
“And it was rewarding in a way I, I could barely describe,” he said. “It was just an incredible culmination of so many years of athletics and also discovery about myself.”
Thomas then played the victim card. You can watch his introduction below:
Dr. Timothy “Christina” Roberts was introduced as the medical expert on the panel. Roberts is listed as a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinia Adolescent Health Center. It’s difficult to find a staff photograph of Roberts, and we’re not sure why. However we did find on Google Scholar that “Christina” Roberts is also known as Timothy Arlen Roberts, which may explain the limited online footprints for Roberts.
Roberts said he’s been doing gender-affirming care since 2016. Roberts served in the military from 1995 until 2018. Roberts noted gender-affirming care started in the military under the Obama Administration. He helped set up a gender-affirming care program for the entire Air Force so people deployed all over the world could get consultation and guidance on their gender transition.
He then went to Children’s Mercy where he was in the adolescent medicine program and was part of the gender pathways service doing gender-affirming care for people 11-24 years old. Now Roberts is at Mount Sinai in New York, working in a clinic funded by grant funding from the state, the country and philanthropy.
Roberts closed his introduction with an awkward, odd laugh.
Keenan Crow, a lobbyist for LGBTQ group OneIowa, said he believes the debate on allowing transgender women (men) to compete in women’s sports should get away from a debate about fairness and competition and instead focus on the benefits participation in sports provides.
Crow criticized Iowa’s law protecting women’s sports for saying men cannot participate in women’s sports, claiming it excludes people from potential benefits offered by sports otherwise. He ignores, obviously, the fact that those men are more than welcome to compete in men’s sports, which would provide the potential benefits.
Roberts continued with the flawed argument, noting that “sports bans” like those in Iowa which say boys are not allowed to play girls’ sports prohibit people from being part of a time and participating in sports. Again, Roberts fails to acknowledge the simple fact that those males are allowed to compete in male sports, they just cannot infiltrate women’s sports.
Ironically, Roberts said it’s important for people to participate in sports that allow them to be on teams with people “just like” them. Of course, at the end of the day, boys are not “just like” girls.
Here are a few quick things worth pointing out.
Crow, the LGBTQ+ lobbyist, said that while the legislature has gotten more “anti-equality” as time has gone on, there are “several” Republicans who would vote for pro-LGBTQ legislation.
Winfrey corrected herself after using the word “debate” to describe the discussion.
“Debate isn’t even really the right word because I don’t think you can debate people and rights,” she said.
Students were offered extra credit for attending the event.
Now, there is little debate that Roberts was a perplexing character on the panel. The professor of pediatrics discussed the process of transitioning.
Roberts sat in his dress and joked about girls getting their period.
“Starting to bleed, from what I understand, is a horrible experience,” he said.
At one point, Roberts claimed that by the time someone is 16 years old, their brain is “about as good as its ever going to get.” And Roberts said at 13, individuals have as many neurons as they’re ever going to have.
It’s amazing how different that testimony is than the testimony that was given by Democrats during other debates, like allowing 14-year-olds to drive. During those debates, we were told how the brain isn’t fully developed until later in life. I believe the number they threw out was 25.
Interestingly, he said “Are there any other mental health problems that could account for what they’re experiencing.”
Any other? Any other? It kind of sounds like acknowledging it is a mental health issue. He did it another couple of times. Asking if there are “any other” mental health problems. Seems like that insinuates gender dysphoria itself is a mental health problem. If it isn’t, why would it be phrased as making sure there aren’t “any other” mental problems?
Roberts also made some crazy comparisons. Roberts compared the advantage men have over women in sports to advantages like:
*a child is held back a year in school and competes as a 19-year-old instead of an 18-year-old
*a child moves from one district to another
*a child from a wealthy family who gets more practice or better coaching due to financial resources
Roberts made those comparisons to a child who is a boy competing against women.
Later in the discussion, Roberts seemed to disparage women’s sports and practically mocked them.
“Name anybody else who won an event at that last NCAA competition,” he said.
Roberts pointed out that much more attention is paid to men’s sports than women’s sports. This is undoubtedly true, but it doesn’t lessen the importance of preserving women’s sports for women.
“If you really cared about female athletics, there’s so many other things you could worry about and legislate out,” Roberts said. “There’s just lots of things that are much bigger threats to women’s sports.”
Easy to say, I suppose, as a man.
This entire panel was absurd and, honestly, women should be offended. A panel intended to highlight the “exclusion” of transgender women (men) from women’s sports that literally excluded any women.
An evening of mansplaining about the importance of allowing men to compete in women’s sports — all while the Iowa State women’s volleyball team is playing a home match.
To nobody’s surprise, the Iowa State lecture series excluded a pretty key voice in this discussion — a woman.
Were these (women) men able to keep their genitals? If so, they should never be in a locker room with women who have women’s parts. Let alone, the physical make up of males and females.