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Neil deGrasse Tyson has the exact wrong answer to trans athletes in women's sports

(AP Photo/Fox, Patrick Eccelsine)

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is desperately trying to pretend that transgender athletes are normal and should be accepted as such.

“TRIGGERnometry” is a free speech YouTube show run by British satirist Konstantin Kisin. Kisin moved to the issue of transgender athletes during Tyson’s interview on the show. Tyson supports trans athletes, because, of course he does. He brushes off the hosts when the mention of the unfairness of men competing against women in women’s sports events came up. Tyson, the wokest of the woke, get hot under the collar when the fairness issue came up. Tyson became visably agitated.

“One of your functions over time has been to communicate scientific knowledge to the public,” Kisin said. Kisin then asked Tyson about his belief that gender exists “on a spectrum.”

Kisin was referring to Tyson stating on TikTok, “The XX, XY chromosomes are insufficient because when we wake up in the morning, we exaggerate whatever feature we want to portray the gender of our choice. Suppose no matter my chromosomes today I feel 80% female, 20% male. Now I’m going to I’m going to put on makeup. Tomorrow. I might feel 80% male; I’ll remove the makeup, and I’ll wear a muscle shirt… What business is it of yours to require that I fulfill your inability to think of gender on a spectrum?”

That TikTok received a lot of attention because to most people, it sounded absurd. Few people wake up each day and decide to be male one day and female the next. Putting on makeup does not make him a woman, any more than tossing on a muscle shirt makes him a man. Frankly, that sort of reasoning is an insult to both men and women. People living in the real world know this. Shouldn’t a scientist know this? He’s an astrophysicist.

Yes, of course he should know better. Scientific reality is that transgenderism is gender dysphoria. It is a form of mental illness. Tyson brushes off chromosomal differences between males and females, calling them “insufficient.” How is that possible? It’s the genetic makeup of a human being which determines gender.

Tyson said that biological differences between males and females in sports competitions are a “solvable problem.” Excluding men from women’s sports, though, is an “older view of the world.”

“What the trans conversation is foisting upon us is the need to find ways to slice the athletic universe such that we still have interesting, fair matches,” he said. “And is it a combination of did you go through puberty as a male and then transition? Did you have puberty blockers? What is your hormone level now… if you want to compete?”

“So it requires more creative thought rather than saying no to at all,” he continued. “It’s an unsolved problem. Yes, but it’s not unsolvable given what we know about human physiology. So why not rise to that occasion and solve it rather than take your older view of the world and force modern emergent conduct of people to fit that?”

Is the reason Tyson embraces men competing in women’s sports to be cool? That would track with his level of woke. “Saying no” is something adults do. I don’t care when the person transitioned, stop cancelling women in sports. Soon there will be no women’s sports – is that the goal of the transgender community? Erasing women seems to be the goal and that should definitely draw some noes, even hell, noes. What was the fight for Title 9 all about if now women are being shut out of competitions in order to make room for men? The whole point is that women deserve their own competitions.

The truth is that trans athletes are competing against women because they don’t win against other men. Now Tyson’s solution is to just change the whole infrastructure of competitive sports. Do it so that competitive sports provide “inclusion” and “fairness for all.” There is no fairness if men are taking opportunity away from women.

Tyson inserts ‘being modern’ into the argument. Again, that’s absurd. There is nothing modern about sounding so ignorant, especially for someone who wants respect in the scientific community.

Transgenderism has turned into the flavor of the month for many young people and that is really dangerous. Young people are feeling peer pressure to accept the unacceptable. How many lives will have to be ruined before adults step up and say no, this is not okay at all? Body mutilation is the most dangerous, especially at ages younger than legal age. Brains are not fully formed until early twenties. Parental encouragement of physical mutilation for minors should be cited as criminal behavior.

Tyson throws the Jim Crow card as he makes his argument. Why, it’s just like the days of Jim Crow when trans activists aren’t included into every aspect of life.

“So it is possible to look back on whatever you were doing and say, my gosh, that was really shortsighted and look at the solution that was proposed and implemented. That was a good idea. We moved on from that,” he said.

The Jim Crow nonsense should fall on deaf ears. No one wants to have separate water fountains or entrances for trans activists. Saying no to men participating in women’s sports is not at all on the level of the days of Jim Crow. No one is in favor of taking away basic freedoms from trans activists. Playing sports is a privilege for those who have earned a spot on a team or in the competition. It isn’t a right. Trans activists are free to live their lives, they just can’t be allowed to destroy women’s sports along the way.

I would suggest that if sports competitions are to be fair then the change that should be made is for trans athletes to compete against each other. Have a separate category. There are limits and rules in sports. Some sports are separated by weight requirements. Wrestlers compete with other wrestlers in their weight group. However, a trans athlete would still be unfair in a women’s wrestling competition. It’s more than just weight. Men have more strength, more muscle mass, more physical advantages than women in any sport, weight limits or not. That is biological science, my friend.

Tyson is a black man so he uses the Jim Crow argument. Tyson argues we are in a transitional period now. He considers the only answer to be finding solutions for ‘progressive’ change. Kisin’s co-host said women are being denied opportunities and that is unfair. That is when Tyson became agitated.

“So fix the playing field, damn it!” he shot back. “Well, don’t say it’s an unfair playing field so all of a sudden, the big issue is trans women taking the slot of a woman in an unfair playing field. Fix the playing field! And you know something? The day you fix that playing field, this conversation will look completely ridiculous. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

A majority of Americans do not support men competing against women in sports. Unlike Tyson, we will not look back at this time of opposition to normalizing trans activism in sports and regret our slowness in adapting it. The reason the conversation looks ridiculous is because it lacks common sense. Men do not magically become women by putting on a women’s swim suit or even surgically removing their penis. They are still men, though mutilated men. Many trans activist athletes have not had the surgery and that is an additional abuse women take on as men are allowed to use the women’s locker room. It’s unconscionable, especially for teenage women.

All of this has to stop now. The longer it goes on, the more it erases women in competition. What is it going to take for all athletes to stand up against political correctness and wokeism? Men and women have to speak up. Coaches have to speak up. It has to be now. Tyson’s views are the exception, not the rule.

The discussion turns to trans athletes at the 42:38 mark:

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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