CNN is trying to convince us that ensuring only women compete as women in the Olympics is a hideous injustice.
Uh, no, guys. The women’s category is for women, and the men’s is for men. We can have a discussion about creating a third category, if you like–I wouldn’t be thrilled, but I wouldn’t go nuts against it either, since the Olympics showcases people so far outside the norm (not in a bad way, but Olympic and professional athletes are freaks of nature in any case).
Some anti-woman reporting today by CNN and Amy Woodyatt. https://t.co/QZePOInghm pic.twitter.com/GaQKEOhr78
— Karen Orlando (@KarenFOrlando) September 18, 2025
They open their article with two stories of, presumably, women (although it is never explicitly said that they have the correct genetic makeup to be women) who were excluded from competing because they had far too much testosterone in their blood.
Their stories are heartbreaking because they come from horrible poverty in African countries, and they used their athletic talents to provide for their families. I am not sure how one thing relates to the other–the standards for testosterone limits for female athletes are just rules put in place to ensure fairness in the competition, and professional sports are not anti-poverty programs.
Whatever. I wish these people well, and genuinely hope they and their families do well. Just not by cheating in sports.
Instead they went with this about a runner and a test from 2019. Obviously going to be weighted against women. It was long so I skimmed. Too difficult to counter everything the press is doing in real time. pic.twitter.com/VXQgkSaFPN
— Karen Orlando (@KarenFOrlando) September 18, 2025
But the true point of the story has nothing to do with what level of testosterone female athletes should have before disqualification; it is about genetic testing, and how unfair it is because it will deny trans athletes the ability to compete against women. Even if you believe that an overly testosterone-dominant female should be allowed to compete–I am open to that, if they are not boosting it unnaturally and are genuinely female–the transition to “anybody who claims to be a woman regardless of genetic markers for male sex” is a non-sequitur and ridiculous on its face.
Track and field body WA announced earlier this year that beginning from September 1, anyone wanting to compete in the “female category” of its elite events would be required to take a “once-in-a-lifetime test” in the form of a cheek swab or blood test that will screen athletes’ genetic samples. This will determine whether they contain the SRY gene – or “a genetic surrogate for a Y chromosome” – according to the organization.
The decision comes following a World Athletics Council meeting where, along with a raft of other policy changes, the council agreed to adopt multiple recommended conditions of “eligibility in the female category,” WA confirmed in a press release.
Most people who have the SRY gene live their lives as men, but there are some exceptions.
“The SRY gene is a key gene, probably the key gene, on the Y sex chromosome that directs a developing embryo towards the male development pathway,” Alun Williams, professor of sport and exercise genomics at Manchester Metropolitan University explained.
Uhhh…seems reasonable to me. There is no real ambiguity here. If you have a gene that leads to male development, even if your genitals are not standard, you will have advantages that XX females do not. Seems like a good place to draw the line.
Variations in SRY gene expression are just one of a wide range of variations in chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy that occur naturally in human development. People with these variations are sometimes known as intersex, and have traits that may not align with typical binary definitions of female or male. These variations are sometimes called differences in sex development, or DSD.
Williams said estimates suggest that between 0.02% to 2% of the population have differences in sex development, depending on definition. With a global population of over 8 billion people, this could mean that tens of millions of people worldwide are affected.
I understand how disappointing it is for somebody who aspires to be an Olympian to be denied the opportunity, and if they are not trying to cheat the system, I have genuine sympathy for them.
Don Lemon blames Imane Khelif’s OPPONENT for putting herself in a position to fight a male in the boxing ring.
“If you put yourself in the arena to be hit and someone hits you hard, then whose fault is that?” he said.
Piers Morgan was stunned by the remark, firing back:
“Well,… pic.twitter.com/GQsDyudDAO
— Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) September 18, 2025
“If you put yourself in the arena to be hit and someone hits you hard, then whose fault is that?” he said.
Piers Morgan was stunned by the remark, firing back:
“Well, you expect to be hit by other women, not men. Well, I don’t know that. I don’t know. When men hit women, we call it violence.”
Lemon doubled down: “I’m sure whoever was in that competition understood who they were going into the ring with. And if you put yourself in that competition in the middle of a ring where punches are being thrown, then you can expect to get hit hard, whether it is a man or a woman. And that’s all I have to say about that.”
“So you would have no objection to men fighting women in a boxing ring?” Morgan pressed.
“I did not say that. I just said that’s all I have to say about that,” Lemon said.
But as the Imane Khelif case showed, it is grossly unfair to put genetically male athletes into competition with natal females. No number of violins playing for Khelif can hide the fact that he beat the crap out of women because, as a man, he could.
Per its regulations, World Athletics says that: “‘biological male’ means someone with a Y chromosome and ‘biological female’ means someone with no Y chromosome, irrespective of their legal sex and/or gender identity.”
But Williams explained: “Some people have a normally functioning SRY gene but a rare variation in one of several other genes required for it to have its usual effects, so they develop essentially as females despite having the SRY gene.”
Williams explained that – in most people – sex chromosomes, other genes, sexual organs, internal organs and external organs are aligned male or female, but that people with DSD have “some different combinations of them,” resulting in a “whole range of possibilities.”
Think about that argument for a minute–after years of trans activists telling us that genitals don’t define sex (they don’t–your genes do), suddenly genitals DO define sex.
It depends on whatever claim allows you to make your point. You start with the conclusion and work your way back.
Genetic tests are by far the fairest and least intrusive way to determine eligibility, and are no different than testing for doping or other violations of the rules. The problem here is that they don’t like the results.
As somebody who never could have, whatever training I subjected myself to, competed in the Olympics, or professional football, or the NBA (or even WNBA), I can muster a bit of sympathy for people who are disappointed that their dreams cannot come true.
But only a bit, really. Few people win the genetic lottery to make this possible, and that is life.
There are millions of kids who dream of competing in the NBA. There are fewer than 600 players, which means that by any statistical measure, even many people capable of being elite athletes never get the chance. I still sleep at night.
CNN wants us to toss out all the rules because they can tell us sad stories of people who won’t get what they want or need because their darn genes prevent it.
That’s not how the world works, nor should it.
