Lies bolstered by right-wing media personalities plagued this past Olympic season. Their goal was to convince the internet that there was a liberal agenda to destroy women’s sports by allowing “biologically advantaged” transgender female athletes to compete against cisgender female athletes — even if they were factually incorrect.
The conversation regarding the participation of transgender athletes in sports has been going on for years, but in this case, the outrage was entirely misguided. This discourse began when Italian boxer Angela Carini forfeited her fight against Algerian boxer Imane Khelif after just 46 seconds. Carini fell to her knees in tears and refused to shake Khelif’s hand. Carini would go on to tell the press that she quit out of safety concerns and that she had “never felt a punch like this.”
After this dramatic display, the internet was quick to discover that the International Boxing Association had previously banned Khelif from the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship for failing a gender test. Once the information went viral, prominent right-wing voices, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling and Logan Paul maliciously attacked Khelif’s character, labeling her as a violent man who gained pleasure from beating up women. It had been decided that Carini was a victim whose hard work and dreams had been shattered by an opponent who could have killed her.
However, a quick Google search would reveal that the IBA never specified what type of gender test was done on Khelif nor published proof of the results. Another search would reveal that the IBA is a highly scrutinized organization — according to ESPN, the International Olympic Committee actually banned the IBA from the Olympics because of “concerns about its governance, competitive fairness and financial transparency.” A final search would reveal that it is quite literally illegal to change one’s gender in Khelif’s home country, Algeria, and that gender-affirming care is entirely banned.
Despite this easily accessible information, the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, was forced to publicly state that both Khelif and another boxer facing similar allegations were indeed born female and that there was no evidence to suggest that either athlete was transgender or intersex. Specifically, Bach confirmed that both athletes were born female, raised female and in possession of female passports. Khelif would still go on to win gold, but the irrevocable damage to her name and character had already been done.
Khelif is not a unique case but rather a victim of far-right news sources’ tendency to ignore or deny factual information while also bolstering the spread of misinformation. Despite the IOC confirming that she is biologically female, Carini apologizing to Khelif and Khelif’s own defense of her sex, right-wing media has not stopped labeling her a man. On Aug. 13, Khelif even filed a criminal complaint to French authorities, naming Musk and Rowling, among others, as perpetrating acts of “aggravated cyber harassment” against her.
Regardless of the outcome in Khelif’s case, one thing remains evidently clear — a culture war is brewing. Transphobic rhetoric has become so deeply ingrained into the right-wing dogma that, now, cisgender women are experiencing sexism in the form of transphobia, too. If you do not look feminine enough, you must have been assigned male at birth, and if you are too good at what you do, you must secretly be a man. This mindset both ostracizes trans women and degrades the accomplishments of cisgender women. Just because a woman can throw a strong punch, does not mean she is masculine. These instances of transphobia also have real consequences, putting women in danger. For example, on June 30, 2023, a woman named Michelle Dione Peacock was killed in a hate crime for being suspected of being transgender, even though she was born female.
It should be said that, regardless of one’s personal beliefs regarding trans women in sports, blindly labeling people as transgender is not only unproductive but harmful to both transgender and cisgender women.
However, Khelif’s story has become engulfed in conversations about gender identity in sports when it should be a conversation on the dangers of misinformation and bigotry. Those who participated in cyberbullying Khelif did not help “save women’s sports,” but rather maliciously harassed a female athlete, making what should have been one of the most joyful times of her career a living hell, setting a dangerous precedent for media consumption, suggesting that beliefs should always prevail over facts, especially from the words of trans people.
It is shameful that individuals chose to spread lies about Khelif to push an anti-trans agenda without considering the implications of their words. Political tensions will be heightened as we barrel toward election season, but we must make sure to fact-check and consider the biases of the information being thrown at us. Mindlessly reposting unverified information does more harm than good.
Jordan Ori is a junior majoring in English.
Views expressed in the opinions pages represent the opinions of the columnists. The only piece that represents the view of the Pipe Dream Editorial Board is the Staff Editorial.