Late last month, Townhall reported how the Miss Italy competition's official patron, Patrizia Mirigliani, announced that it would not allow male-bodied "trans women" to compete. Her remarks were met with intense backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates. But, Townhall has covered how biological males who believe they are women have competed in pageants and won, robbing deserving female competitors of awards and opportunities.
Townhall covered how Brian Nguyen (pronounced Bree-Ann), who is "trans," won a competition in New Hampshire to be titled "Miss Greater Derry 2023” and how 22-year-old Rikkie Valerie Kolle, who is also “trans” won the title of Miss Netherlands and will go on to compete for the Miss Universe title.
On Thursday, another governing body took a stand against “transgender” people competing against women. The International Chess Federation, known by its French acronym FIDE, announced that biological males who transition to live as women have “no right” to compete in women’s events until “further analysis” is made, which could take two years.
In addition, if a chess player holds a title in the women’s category and transitions to live as a man, “the women titles are to be abolished.” If a male player transitions to live as a female, the titles will remain.
“FIDE does not publicly discuss the player’s gender change. However, FIDE has the right to inform the organizers and other relevant parties on the gender change,” the governing body explained in its guidelines.
“There are no restrictions to play in the open section for a person who has changed the gender,” it added.
Predictably, pro-transgender advocates slammed the policy. Yosha Iglesias, a FIDE master and chess coach, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that FIDE made it sound like transgenders are “the biggest threat to women in chess.” Iglesias called the new rules “anti-trans regulations.”
So FIDE just published (yesterday) a list of anti-trans regulations, like it was "the biggest threat of women in chess".
— Yosha Iglesias (@IglesiasYosha) August 15, 2023
Can someone tell me what qualifies as an official FIDE event? Will I be allowed to play the French Championship in 3 days? The European Club Cup in September? pic.twitter.com/tGBbVhgnkY
In a statement posted on X, the Center for Trans Equality claimed that the “insulting” policy “relies on ignorant anti-trans ideas.”
Really? Chess?
— National Center for Transgender Equality (@TransEquality) August 16, 2023
This is so insulting to cis women, to trans women, and to the game itself. It assumes that cis women couldn’t be competitive against cis men - and relies on ignorant anti-trans ideas. https://t.co/vbvJp346QA
The Washington Post reported that the policy was approved at a meeting earlier this month and will go into effect next week.