I Didn't Say It ...

Pete Buttigieg, former Transportation Secretary, responding to criticism of his recent remarks about trans athletes:

“I see this issue being used to divide. I see it being used to hurt people. It’s especially hurtful for trans people and people with transgender members of their family who witness themselves or people they love being used as a political football. We’re talking about one of the smallest, as well as one of the most vulnerable minorities in this country and in the world. In order to bring people together on this, we also have to take everybody seriously, including parents who have questions. Above all... those questions should be handled by communities and by sports leagues and not by politicians.”

The exchange followed a July NPR Morning Edition interview in which Buttigieg framed the inclusion of transgender girls in sports as a matter of “fairness,” while rejecting blanket federal bans. Some Democrats, Pete supporters and LGBTQ+ advocates criticized his framing as playing into right-wing narratives.

Buttigieg’s clarification comes as the fascist regime enforces executive orders banning transgender women and girls from women's sports teams. Though the policy has national reach, NCAA President Charlie Baker testified last year that fewer than 10 transgender athletes were competing among more than 500,000 college athletes.

All this for ten athletes … focusing on that rather than the hundreds who died in the Texas floods, or the countless victims of Jeffrey Epstein and The Felon, the children shot in schools. Where the fuck are our priorities?

Sidenote: University of Washington endocrinologist Dr. Bradley Anawalt says performance gaps between cisgender and adult transgender women narrow, but don’t entirely disappear, after several years of hormone therapy. Military fitness data showed that trans women’s running times aligned with cisgender women’s after two years, while their push-up scores remained higher for the duration of a four-year study.

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Trey Cunningham, American hurdler, on how his performances have improved since coming out as gay in 2024:

“It was for me, just to be one hundred percent authentic, transparent, and not holding back any part of me. My coach was really big on this, like, ‘You have to be totally confident in yourself and whatever that means to you on that track.’ There’s something incredibly powerful in being so authentic. A lot of people have told me that they appreciate me being around because I’m authentic. I’m always going to be truthful, I’m honest. I’m shooting it like it is and I’m being me.”

Cunningham’s huge success as an out gay athlete—rising to a level he’d never been—is an incredible testament to coming out and being out in pro sports.

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Chely Wright, country music star, on coming out back in 2010:

“When I came out, I didn’t want to feel like I was having anything taken from me. It was my choice … but, it’s like, I’ll be damned if the world or the industry is going to take something from me that I earned. [But] it’s really hard. You know, from like age four, I was telling everyone in my hometown, ‘I’m gonna be a country music star!’ And then, 35 years later, going on the Today show and realizing I’m gonna [have to] give some of that back—like, give a piece of that fan base and that sweat equity back … I can tell you what I wasn’t solving for in coming out and telling my story: Getting people who didn’t like the idea of a country music singer being gay to be OK with being gay. I knew very clearly I wasn’t solving for that. The outcome that I was going for was telling the world who I was, all the pieces of me—this person of faith who toured in support of the troops and was from the Midwest, who loves the Grand Ole Opry and loves country music and loves Connie Smith and Loretta Lynn, and also happened to be gay. Beyond that, I had to let go of people liking me. …I feel really lucky and grateful and honored to have done what I did when I did it, and I hear so frequently from other people in the industry and new or emerging artists that my story and my coming out gave them a little bit of comfort and insight and maybe community. Of all the things I’ve done in my life, coming out, not just when I did but how I did, I think it’s the thing of which I’m most proud … And every time I see someone come out in country music or in the industry, I feel like that I got to be a tiny drop in this giant wave of change. It’s pretty cool to see.”

The person who steps up and out always blazes a trail for others to follow, even in the depths of country music.

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Jonathan Hertwig-Odegaard, Norwegian decathlete, on being openly gay:

“I think it’s great that you can be a role model, but at the same time I hope in the long run that it doesn’t have to be necessary, and that it gets so much publicity and attention. I think that being openly gay is not really anything new. I mean, there are no athletes who are heterosexual who need to come out about it. Among athletes, people talk about ‘it’s so brave and tough’ when people come forward. I feel that there is a bit of a wrong focus, that the responsibility should not lie with individuals. I think it is the responsibility of society at large to facilitate that people are comfortable being open about their sexuality, also as athletes. Now I’m proud and happy with who I am, and I don’t think there’s a problem, so if others do, then that’s their problem.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where your sexual orientation or gender identity didn’t matter; where you could just be you and it didn’t matter.

I doubt I’ll ever see it, but I can dream …

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Sarah McBride, Democrat Representative from Delaware and the first out transgender Congress member, blasted The Felon regime’s ban on trans military members:

“These are Americans who have served with honor, with distinction and with unshakable patriotism; brave, honorable and committed patriots who have also dared to have the courage to say out loud that they are transgender … They have deployed into combat, flown missions overseas and led troops through danger, and now this administration is telling them that despite their qualifications and their exemplary quality of service, that they can no longer serve simply because of how they express their gender. In our state, service isn’t abstract—it’s personal, and we see every single day what honor, discipline, and sacrifice looks like regardless of someone’s gender identity. These [trans] individuals met the same rigorous standards as their peers, the same physical exams, the same screenings, the same background checks, and in many cases, under intense scrutiny, they didn’t just meet those standards—they exceeded them. This decision to remove proven patriots for no justification causes, causes serious weakness to our forces. It turns away proven courage, it wastes billions in taxpayer investment—decades of hard-earned experience—and is a direct blow to readiness, because this decision isn’t about readiness. It’s not about discipline or merit … It’s about exclusion. It’s about using identity as a wedge to divide and distract. It’s a cynical ploy, not sound policy. Some step forward while hiding who they are, forced to choose between their truth and their country. Others served openly when policy briefly aligned with principle. All of them, all of them served with honor. We are not made safer by sidelining qualified patriots. We are not made stronger by narrowing the ranks of who gets to serve. And we are not made freer by telling brave Americans that their truth disqualifies them from service. This ban weakens our military. It betrays our values and it sends the cruelest possible message to some of our most dedicated citizens: that their service is unwelcome and that one identity matters more than what they’ve done, what they’ve sacrificed and what they fight for.”

These are Americans who choose to serve their country and they are treated far worse than a five-time draft dodger who got his daddy’s doctor to write a not that his feet hurt so he couldn’t go to Vietnam.

I’d take one platoon of trans servicemembers over an entire army of Felon draft dodgers and cowards.

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