The International Chess Federation, FIDE, has banned trans women from participating in women’s events in a new policy:
In the event that the gender was changed from a male to a female the player has no right to participate in official FIDE events for women until further FIDE’s decision is made. Such decision should be based on further analysis and shall be taken by the FIDE Council at the earliest possible time, but not longer than within 2 (two) years period.
Trans men meanwhile risk demotion:
If a player holds any of the women titles, but the gender has been changed to a man, the women titles are to be abolished. Those can be renewed if the person changes the gender back to a woman and can prove the ownership of the respective FIDE ID that holds the title. The abolished women title may be transferred into a general title of the same or lower level (e.g., WGM may be transferred into FM, WIM into CM, etc.).
If a player has changed the gender from a man into a woman, all the previous titles remain eligible.
The implication from these two policies is that women are less intelligent than men, and their titles are worth less. There’s an absurdity to this.
I had a look at FIDE’s leadership: its president is a man, 80% of its council are men, and 75% of its advisory board are men. I’m doubtful the same choices would have been made had its leadership been truly gender diverse.
There is a place for women’s events in chess, but contrary to the quotes above is not because women are less intelligent, but because in this moment in time sexism has largely excluded women from the sport (the so-called open category is only men) and this is a minor means to counter that. Trans women, who are particularly disenfranchised, should belong in such a category. Unsurprisingly, FIDE did not provide any evidence for their ban.
I previously covered the World Rugby ban on trans women, which was not based on any evidence either. We’ve seen similar bans in cycling, swimming, and for trans youth in school athletics.
The root of all these bans isn’t about fairness, as headlines would have you believe. Conservatives were looking for a proxy issue to eliminate trans people from the public after the bathroom predator trope was losing its effectiveness (though as we saw in the UK with the new ban on gender neutral washrooms, not gone). They needed to keep portraying us as threats to women and children. They found it in sports and care for trans youth, attacking trans athletes in the media and introducing laws banning medical care for trans youth as well as their participation in school sports.
The strategy worked. People who don’t know any better bought into the fear-mongering and now we’re seeing them introduce these pre-emptive bans, unwittingly entrenching the original message that organized transphobes crafted: that we do not belong.
This is in turn is feeding the anti-trans mobs we see, such as this one in my home town:
As well as these nuggets that were left by members of a local anti-trans group:
This endless barrage of characterizing trans women as interlopers has real negative implications for our safety in all spaces, not just those that make the news. It’s especially exhausting what with the non-stop attacks of the last few years both abroad and at home. I feel more fear now in public than I did five years ago.
Nearly every trans person can see through the deceptions created by conservative strategists in search of a wedge issue with which to win elections, scintillate their base, and assert control over women’s bodies. Yet the general populace buys into this concocted panic and every one before it, producing headlines and talking points and more fear, and ill tolerating of trans people who are unwilling to engage with these arguments at face value. I used to be frustrated by this, but frustration is for what one feels can be changed, and so now I feel exhaustion.
Update
I wrote this on Sunday morning. Shortly thereafter I went to a small community pride event for Vanier, where I live. For the entire duration, bigots from Save Canada, the Freedom Convoy, and the Biker Church were on the periphery harassing participants. Community members were volunteering to intercept them before they could access the main stage.
At times the bigots yelled, said we were a threat to children, held signs insinuating the same, shouted that we were sinners, would create scenes and then record videos of it, would yell that we were agents funded by the Liberal Party. They would come up with excuse after excuse to call bylaw on us, before finally falsely claiming that we assaulted one of them. Only then did the police show up, minutes before the end of the event.
The bigots had been out there for eight hours harassing this tiny celebration. Their fixation and messaging is entirely driven by this moment in time where conservative messaging continually portrays the visibility of trans women, drag performers and pride flags as a symbol of societal decline.
Meanwhile in the US, also on the same day, a shop owner was was killed for displaying a rainbow flag. The killer had previously circulated transphobic and homophobic content on social media from the likes of Jordan Peterson and Matt Walsh, and made at least two posts where he depicted burning a pride flag. This was reminiscent of Club Q. On the day of the attack, he tore torn the rainbow flag in front of the store, yelled homophobic slurs at the 66-year old shop owner, and shot her to death.
