The good citizens of reddit are not happy. 'Anti-trans propaganda handed out at parkrun' stated the thread. Yep... I was one of the women handing out fair sport leaflets... here's why...
Naturally that commenter on Reddit hit the hyperbole with “You just hate trans people and this is an easy stick to beat them with…” Apart from these words sounding like they’ve come from a petulant 14 year old, it’s very untrue to say that women standing up for fairness HATE trans people. I have no hatred for anyone, but I do dislike cheating, which is what parkrun’s current policy permits. It is absolutely ludicrous that a male holds a female course record, and that all the records can be retrospectively updated to reflect the ‘femaleness’ of a man. So validating for these male women. The second part of that comment was actually true “and ensure that one more thing remains out of reach for them.” - yes, in the sense that I want women’s records to be held by women. That’s not currently out of reach for trans-identifying males, unfortunately. parkrun is letting women down.
Naturally that commenter on Reddit hit the hyperbole with “You just hate trans people and this is an easy stick to beat them with…” Apart from these words sounding like they’ve come from a petulant 14 year old, it’s very untrue to say that women standing up for fairness HATE trans people. I have no hatred for anyone, but I do dislike cheating, which is what parkrun’s current policy permits. It is absolutely ludicrous that a male holds a female course record, and that all the records can be retrospectively updated to reflect the ‘femaleness’ of a man. So validating for these male women. The second part of that comment was actually true “and ensure that one more thing remains out of reach for them.” - yes, in the sense that I want women’s records to be held by women. That’s not currently out of reach for trans-identifying males, unfortunately. parkrun is letting women down.
Thank you for keeping your head above the parapet. Crazy that's it's needed but it really is.
Spot on Jane. I genuinely don't understand what the CEO and other paid parkrun officials don't understand.
Excellent summary of what we're facing Jane.