We're seven days into the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and it only took six days for right-wing freaks to orchestrate an anti-trans panic out of thin air. On Thursday, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif—who is a woman—defeated her Italian opponent Angela Carini in particularly decisive fashion during the second-round match in the women’s welterweight division. Carini withdrew 46 seconds into the match after a clean hit to the face, because, simply put, Khelif is a better boxer than Carini. After the match, Carini very publicly cried and complained about being hit: "I thought about my family, I looked at my brother in the stands and I went to my corner to retire," she told reporters. "I've never been hit with such a powerful punch." On Friday, Carini semi-apologized for her overreaction, conceding, "All this controversy makes me sad. I'm sorry for my opponent, too. ... If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision." Of course, the damage was already done. Since Carini and Khelif's match, right-wingers, anti-trans influencers, and even some members of sports media took Carini's quotes and the fact that she quit the match, and ran with the completely baseless narrative that Khelif is “a biological male” and “trans woman." Many feigned outrage that “a man hit a woman,” including one Twitter user who tweeted at Jezebel that "men are pummeling women in the face at the Olympics," and why aren't we covering it. (To answer that user: Hmm, maybe because that's not what's happening??) As one Defector headline aptly put it, right-wingers have “invented a trans Olympian to get mad at.” The right particularly latched onto Khelif's suspension from the 2023 Women's World Boxing Championships by the International Boxing Association. The IBA subjected Khelif to genetic testing and claimed she had "XY chromosomes," but never made the results public, and Khelif challenged the results. Regardless, cis women with certain conditions can have XY chromosomes, which doesn't make Khelif a "man," but a woman with XY chromosomes. For what it's worth, Khelif was defeated by Irish boxer Kellie Harrington in the quarterfinals during the Tokyo Olympics—so maybe Carini should just be a better boxer?? Khelif's passport also identifies her as "female," which seems like an important fact since Algeria has strict anti-LGBTQ laws—especially anti-trans laws—and right-wingers are callously endangering her with their propaganda campaign. This is all just racist, stupid, and entirely rooted in masculinizing and dehumanizing Black women while weaponizing white women's tears. For the record, trans women are women and should absolutely be able to participate in the Olympics—that said, Khelif isn’t a trans woman; she’s just the latest victim of a heinous right-wing culture war, which has paid no mind to how their lies could seriously endanger Khelif in her home country Former President Trump, who knows a little something about being fairly defeated and throwing a highly politicized hissy-fit, referenced the fight in a Truth Social post and wrote, “I WILL KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN'S SPORTS!” Of course, someone accused of sexual misconduct, including rape, probably shouldn’t be weighing in on how to best keep women safe. But it’s no matter to the right-wing, anti-trans movement, which has no interest in actual violence against women, and is exclusively interested in policing gender expression. imagine being so much better than your shitty opponent on a purely technical level that it starts a worldwide trans panic event — zach (@zach_idiot) August 1, 2024 Riley Gaines, failed college swimmer and delusional anti-trans activist, wrote on social media that the fight shows “the Olympics glorifies men punching women in the face with the intent of knocking…
