Step forward to step back ratio

I don’t know what it is precisely, but I do know two things. One is that women took a giant step forward with the Supreme Court decision West Virginia v. B.P.J., which ruled that states may indeed restrict women’s and girls’ sports and athletics to natal females. On the other hand, the trans push to colonize women continues apace. I hate having to bring up the topic again and again, but it’s a part of women’s lives these days and especially a part of lesbian women’s lives.

Consider the statement by Pride in London that “‘Same-sex attracted’ is just another word for Nazis. We don’t want you here.” And just who TF do you think started Pride? And started it as a celebration of same-sex attracted people getting fed up with official harassment and beginning to fight back?

(Someone’s saying there were criminal social ills on which the police were cracking down at Stonewall. Nobody believes that was the impetus. The impetus was not getting their payoffs, and getting their jollies pushing around small‑Q “queers.”)

Meanwhile, a California professor is calling for the abolition of the terms “gay” and “lesbian” in order to avoid offending the transgender community. “For Robinson, the goal isn’t to erase the history of queer [sic] struggle, but to evolve beyond the need for a ‘biological’ anchor for love. They posit that true gender liberation is impossible as long as we are required to declare a sexual ‘type.’” No, we declare our sexual “types” to attract compatible people, and to be able to tell people they’re not ours. We have to do that sometimes with straight men and transwomen … but I repeat myself.

Things to note about the Supreme Court decision is Justice Thomas’s concurrence, in which he said biological sex is fixed at birth and can’t be changed. Concurrences are not the law, but some scholars note they may signal where the law is going. There is a small number of people who have changed sex for all practical purposes, and they are getting hosed by the overreach of people who want to be the other sex without actually changing sex. It’s a tragedy too late to stop.

Transgender athlete plaintiff Becky Pepper-Jackson appears, from media coverage, to be a decently likeable young person working on being a young woman. At first glance. Until it’s pointed out how many titles and placements she’s taken from young women who have been female from the get-go. Until you read the accusations of her sexually harassing other students, female students, by telling them to “Suck my dick.” Said no woman or girl ever. It makes one glad she got shut down by the Court.

In a way, that’s sad. As her mother says, “She just wants to play the sports she loves.” Unfortunately, she can’t play the sports that she loves without getting in the way of female-born girls getting to play the sports they love under conditions of fair competition. Somewhere in there is a life lesson. Becky will always have limitations in life for not having been born female. There are people in her situation who have grown up, changed and been changed into a reasonable facsimile of female, and gone on to have decently fulfilling lives.

We all have our limitations. What matters is how we live with them, to have the best lives we possibly can.

The West Virginia decision means the lawsuit brought by San José State University volleyball players over the inclusion of transgender teammate Blaire Fleming on the women’s roster can go forward, at least against the University and the Cal State system (claims against the Mountain West Conference have been dismissed). You may recall that the plaintiffs allege they were not informed of Fleming’s biological sex, were forced to share bedrooms and changing spaces with her, and faced unfair competitive disadvantages and safety risks due to her alleged physical advantages, including spike speeds exceeding 80 mph. The assistant coach who took their side was pressured into resigning.

Also alive is the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) and the California Department of Education in July 2025, alleging their policies allowing transgender athletes to compete align with their gender identity violate Title IX. The DOJ argued that such participation discriminates against cisgender female athletes by ignoring biological differences and displacing them from podiums and scholarships. (Ya think?)

It shouldn’t have to take lawsuits in each of the states not a party to this decision to protect our sports nationwide. There is legislation, H.R.28, The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, that’s passed the House but gotten hung up in the Senate. Ironically, per the official legislative summary, “The bill does not prohibit male individuals from training or practicing with programs or activities for women or girls as long as such training or practice does not deprive any female of corresponding opportunities or benefits.” In other words, it could give the Becky Pepper-Jacksons of the world (however many there are), to take part in the sports they love—just not compete in actual competition against females.

B.J.P. has apparently acknowledged that she could compete against boys, but … surprise, surprise, they’re bigger and stronger.

And, those differences apparently begin to emerge around age 4.

We will see if Becky will come to accept the limitations on her participation gracefully. She has another year of high school coming up. She could turn into an effective positive role model should she choose to be a young lady about it. That would be a welcome relief from the unconvincing transitioners of what we might call the Wham Bam It’s Ma’am, Thank You school.

Speaking of which, I read that women identifying as trans widows frequently allege that their husbands engaged in coercive control, financial abuse, and sexual coercion to force compliance with their transition. There are many women who have made accusations of financial manipulation (draining joint accounts for clothes and medical treatment), emotional blackmail, and even physical abuse.

Critics and some former spouses argue that these narratives often stem from misunderstanding or personality disorders rather acting out a gender identity, and that the term “trans widow” is an inappropriate appropriation of bereavement. Well, they are bereaved. They’ve lost the husbands with whom they may have expected to grow old.

I can tell you about a trans widow who’s technically not a trans widow, someone who’s kicked up quite a fuss in the Daughters of the American Revolution … whose leadership acted stupidly and set up the whole brouhaha. I have gossip. More next week.