 So, if I were a member of Congress and I knew that I just had a couple of weeks left before my term was over and I would not be returning to Congress, I would be doing everything in my power that during a pandemic people had food, they had shelter, they had healthcare. And if you're Tulsi Gabbard, you could be promoting some of the good things that you've championed in the past. You could be promoting your bill to basically have the United States government drop all charges against Julian Assange, which could literally say the First Amendment. Like, I don't think it's hyperbolic to say that. Having said that though, with just a few weeks remaining in Congress, this is what Tulsi Gabbard is choosing to focus on. As Dominique Mazbergen of HuffPost reports, Representative Tulsi Gabbard introduced legislation in the House on Thursday that would bar schools from receiving federal funding if they allow transgender girls and women and non-binary people to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender identities. The bill, cosponsored by Republican Representative Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma, was met with immediate outrage from transgender activists and allies who labeled the legislation blatantly transphobic. The Protect Women's Sports Act seeks to clarify that Title IX protections for female athletes are based on biological sex, Gabbard and Mullen said in a statement. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex and educational programs that receive federal financial assistance. The new bill would bar schools from receiving such funds if they permit a person whose biological sex at birth is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designed for women or girls. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate earlier this year by Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and other Republicans. Loeffler is one of two Republican senators facing competitive runoff elections in Georgia in January. Explaining her support for the bill, Gabbard, who'd previously claimed she supported LGBTQ rights, said she wants to protect Title IX's original intent, which was based on the general biological distinction between men and women athletes based on sex. Yeah, so this is, um, it's morally reprehensible. You're basically choosing to dedicate your remaining time in Congress to this, making sure that the lives of transgender high school students is worse than it already is. Like it's not bad enough that they already hate themselves. Tulsi Gabbard wants to go further and make sure that they are excluded from sports. And you know, it sucks because even though Tulsi Gabbard, she lost a lot of credibility on the left, she still has a lot of clout and credibility nationally speaking. This is someone who ran for president. And this is nothing more than bathroom panic 2.0. It's a non-issue that members of the right usually try to elevate to make you fearful of transgender people. In this instance, trans women in sports, and I'm honestly shocked at how many leftists even agree with Tulsi Gabbard here. It's honestly, it's shocking to me. So make no mistake about it, this hurts trans people. It does. I mean, let's say hypothetically speaking, this bill were to pass. Now if you are in high school and you're a trans girl and maybe your only outlet that helps you with mental health is to be an athlete, participate in sports, what this would do is deny your participation. Make it so that way by law, your gender identity is rejected. If you participated in the discourse surrounding this, if you're a trans girl in high school, you get to see a bunch of so-called leftists call you a man. How disgusting is that? Do you understand why this makes trans people hate themselves? Because you're codifying hatred into law. Now thankfully, this isn't going to pass because Tulsi Gabbard is out of Congress in a couple of weeks. So this is largely symbolic. This is her setting herself up, using this as a launching point for whatever she wants to do next in her career, probably as a Republican. But this, it just fosters hatred against the trans community and for no reason. Again, this is bathroom panic 2.0 and it doesn't even make sense because you're basically assuming that all trans women have the same exact body types. All trans women will always have a physiological and physical advantage over cisgender women when that's not true. Even cis women have different body types. Not all cis women are the same and as a result, not all trans women are the same. Like just looking at men, I am a shorter male. So in sports, of course, it would be very difficult for me to compete against an athlete who's like six foot something and much stronger than me. So we have different builds. So all this does is unnecessarily target trans people for no good reason. And all the arguments that I've heard in defense of this have been addressed in a phenomenal piece by the ACLU where they actually debunk a lot of the biggest myths surrounding trans athletes. Now when it comes to the biggest myth that I've seen, people argue that the participation of trans athletes hurts cis women. But that's actually not true. The fact is that including trans athletes benefits everyone. And yes, that includes cis women. Because quote, many who oppose the inclusion of trans athletes erroneously claim that allowing trans athletes to compete will harm cisgender women. This divide and conquer tactic gets it exactly wrong. Excluding women who are trans hurts all women. It invites gender policing that could subject any woman to invasive tests or accusations of being too masculine or too good at their sport to be a real woman. In Idaho, the ACLU represents two young women, one trans and one cis, both of whom are hurt by the law that was passed targeting trans athletes. Further, this myth reinforces stereotypes that women are weak and in need of protection. Politicians have used the protection trope time and again, including in 2016 when they tried banning trans people from public restrooms by creating the debunked bathroom predator myth. The real motive is never about protection. It's about excluding trans people from yet another public space. The arena of sports is no different. Now another myth that I've seen is that trans athletes' physiological characteristics provide an unfair advantage over cis athletes. Now the fact is that trans athletes do not have an unfair advantage in sports. That is a fact. Quote, trans athletes vary in athletic ability just like cisgender athletes. One high jumper could be taller and have longer legs than another, but the other could have perfect form and then do better, explains Andrea Yearwood, a student track athlete. One sprinter could have parents who spend so much money on personal training for their child which in turn would cause that child to run faster, she adds. In Connecticut, where cisgender girl runners have tried to block Andrea from participating in the sport she loves, the very same cis girls who have claimed that trans athletes have an unfair advantage have consistently performed as well as or better than transgender competitors. Person's genetic makeup and internal and external reproductive anatomy are not useful indicators of athletic performance according to Dr. Joshua D. Safer. For a trans woman athlete who meets NCAA standards, there is no inherent reason why her physiological characteristics related to athletic performance should be treated differently from the physiological characteristics of a non-transgender woman. Now people often times respond to this argument by sharing videos of like, trans, UFC or MMA fighters knocking out a cisgender opponent and the most popular video that I've been sent is the one of Fallon Fox. Now I don't know the details surrounding that particular situation, but to me when you just see both of these women they look similarly matched in terms of like just their weight and their height, but for some reason because one of them is trans, it's not that she just has more skill and practice more, it's specifically because she's trans, but when you look at non-trans fighting events like the Jake Paul fight for example where he knocked out his opponent, because he's cisgender nobody's saying, oh well that's because you have this unfair physical advantage, it's actually proof that he just is a better fighter. Do you understand why this is a double standard? Because if a trans woman excels at a particular sport, well it can't be because she's skilled and talented and she practiced. It's specifically because she has this unfair advantage, whereas if a cisgender athlete excels it's because that individual is just a better fighter, there's no question about it. Now ultimately, I can't read the entire article to you but I will link to it down below because I think it's really, it's illuminating. If you don't know about this, then this shed light on these common misconceptions about trans athletes, but it will end here. There is no one way for women's bodies to be. Women including women who are transgender, intersex or disabled have a range of different physical characteristics. A person's sex is made up of multiple biological characteristics and they may not all align as typically male or female in any given person, says Dr. Safer. Further, many people who are not trans can have hormones levels outside of the range considered typical of a cis person of their assigned sex. When a person does not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth, they must be able to transition socially and that includes participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. According to Dr. Deanna Adkins, excluding trans athletes can be deeply harmful and disruptive to treatment. I know from experience with my patients that it can be extremely harmful for a transgender young person to be excluded from the team consistent with their gender identity. So in other words, there is no good reason to exclude trans athletes from sports. The only reason to exclude them is to make yourself feel better. To make it feel as if you're doing something and you're protecting cis women. When in actuality, you're hurting cis women too. So I am extremely disappointed that Tulsi Gabbard did this. Like I already lost all respect for her after she started propping up, you know, these right-wing outlets like Project Veritas. And when she moved away from Medicare for all in favor of some different plan that allows private insurance, I was extremely frustrated when she came out as anti-BDS. I mean, the disappointments just keep coming. So I'm not necessarily that surprised that Tulsi Gabbard did this, even though it's disgusting that this is what she's choosing to focus her time on with just a few weeks left in Congress. But what disappointed me the most is the lack of nuance and understanding among people of the left, like you would expect them to know better and be more, you know, I don't know, empathetic and sympathetic towards trans people. But they just they seem to have their blinders on and I get it. A lot of people don't know someone who's trans, so you don't have someone there to educate you. You kind of just base things off of what you've known, what society has conditioned you to believe. But you've got to be more nuanced here. You've got to accept that trans women are women. And when you actually believe that things like this aren't controversial, of course, we should allow trans women in sports. Now, it's just sad that there's a lot more turf on the left than I previously thought. But either way, I don't care how many dislikes this video gets. I don't care if it makes me unpopular. I'm going to do what I think is right and argue for what I think is right. This is not right. This hurts trans people. And Tulsi Gabbard knows that. But she wants, you know, the people who are on the right that support her to support her in her next endeavor. I don't know if that's a gig at Fox News or if she's going to run as a Republican. I don't know. But either way, this is gross. Fuck Tulsi Gabbard.