John Orlando 🇺🇸🇮🇹

The Case for Khelif and Lin as Male Boxers in Female Boxing: A Rebuttal of Left-Wing Propaganda Robert A. J. Gagnon Some left-wing news outlets (e.g., USA Today, NBC News), largely reliant on “LGBTQ” propaganda coming out of “GLAAD” or other such groups, are promoting the fiction that the two controversial boxers, one Algerian (Imane Khelif), the other Taiwanese (Lin Yu-Ting), are females. These media outlets seek to cast doubt about the boxers having XY chromosomes, then argue that, even if they are XY, they are still females with a DSD (disorder of sexual development) known as “Swyer syndrome.” This is a tendentious narrative. Consider the following six salient points: First, it is almost certain that in the 2023 Women’s Boxing Championships they were disqualified by the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA) because it was determined through testing they have XY chromosomes. Various lines of evidence confirm this: · On March 25, 2023, the IBA President Umar Kremlev said that Khelif and Lin had XY chromosomes. · The IBA continues to stand by its 2023 decision, saying the disqualification of the athletes was based on “two trustworthy tests conducted on both athletes in two independent laboratories,” and denying that Khelif and Lin were tested for testosterone levels. · Just yesterday the European vice president of World Boxing and former secretary-general of the International Boxing Association, said: “The problem was not with the level of Khelif’s testosterone, because that can be adjusted nowadays, but with the result of the gender test, which clearly revealed that the Algerian boxer is biologically male.” · The two boxers were disqualified them for not conforming to IBA guidelines, which calls for a chromosomal test, not a hormone test, and which defines "woman" as "an individual with XX chromosomes." Obviously, then, they were ruled out for not having XX chromosomes. · The disqualified boxers could clear up the matter by giving their consent to have the laboratories release the results of the gender tests, but they have not done so. · Both boxers had a chance to appeal their disqualification to an independent body; neither chose to carry that appeal forward to completion. Lin did not challenge the disqualification. Khelif challenged the disqualification but withdrew the appeal before it could proceed through the court. Ask yourself why neither completed an appeals process. After all, Khelif lost his gold medal in the 2023 African Games. Second, while some claim to discredit the IBA tests (even though done by two independent labs), it is self-evident that the IBA did not disqualify these boxers in 2023 because they had beaten Russian female boxers. On the contrary, neither faced Russian boxers. Moreover, Russian female boxes were awarded only 3 medals of any rank in the competition. So there is zero evidence that the Russians were conspiring to award their own boxers. The IBA had no “corrupt” motivation for disqualifying these two boxers, and only these two boxers. The sole motivation for disqualifying them appears to been what the IBA president said it was: failed gender tests that indicated XY chromosomes. Third, the IOC’s clearance of the two boxers for the Olympics means nothing. When the IOC cancelled the services of the IBA, it formed its on ad hoc body which refuses to give the boxers a gender test, instead relying exclusively (and absurdly) on the gender listed on the boxers’ passports and how the boxers have identified themselves during their lifetime. According to IOC President Thomas Bach (doubling as a propaganda czar for “LGBTQIA+” misinformation), “We have two boxers who were born as women, have been raised as women, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as a woman. And this is the clear definition of a woman.” No, it’s the clear definition of ideology over science and biology. Fourth, the left-wing media just assumes that this is a case of “Swyer syndrome,” where a person (presumed to be female) with XY chromosomes develops a female vagina, uterus, and fallopian tubes because (for some) the gene on the Y chromosome responsible for male sexual differentiation is defective and thus unable to override the default X chromosome. However, rather than ovaries (or testes) developing, all that is left are “gonadal streaks” (scar tissue without function). The result is that no sex hormones are produced and the child does not experience puberty (apart from hormone replacement therapy). The problem with identifying Swyer syndrome as the DSD of the two boxers is that it does not result in what looks like a masculinized woman, but rather (if no hormone therapy is given) in appearance as a pre-pubertal female, without breasts or underarm and public hair (and no menstrual cycle). Hence, a more likely suggestion is that this is a case of a male (XY chromosomes, internal testes, male-typical levels of testosterone) with a DSD known as 5-alpha reductase deficiency (5-ARD). Such persons are usually born with female-like genitalia (less often ambiguous genitalia or deficient male genitalia like a micro-penis). Because of a gene defect, they don’t produce an enzyme known as 5-alpha reductase, which is needed to convert testosterone into a more potent androgen, dihydro-testosterone (DHT), which in turn is necessary for the formation of male external genitalia and facial hair. Nevertheless, despite the absence of DHT, such persons still go through male puberty, which gives them an unfair advantage over females in sports as regard strength and speed that comes with male muscle development. The existence of testes rather than ovaries determines the classification of such persons as male rather than female. This DSD proposal (5-ARD) better corresponds to the great advantage that Khelif and Lin have exhibited over their female opponents. Fifth, the IOC is partly right about one thing: This appears to be more of a case of an “intersex” condition than transgenderism, at least prior to 2023. At least Khelif appears to have been raised in Algeria as a girl by his parents. He has probably thought of himself as a girl his whole life. At the start there was no conscious attempt at deception. On the other hand, by continuing to pose as a girl after learning that he is a biological male in 2023, he is adopting the role of a “transgender female,” whether or not he admits it. Sixth, the bottom line is that the two boxes should be presumed male with an unfair advantage over female boxers. Indeed, in the sport of boxing their advantage is not only unfair; it’s downright dangerous to the genuine women that they are fighting. So they should be disqualified from the Olympics.