Vera Figner:

‘About her gender’? That’s wrong. They’re claims about Khelif’s sex, not his gender. The women’s sports category is based on bodies not identity. And ‘false’? Well yeah, there have been some false claims made. Like that he’s a woman. That’s not what Jeremy means though, is it? 

Vera Figner:

‘Banned from competition’? That’s wrong. The IBA banned Khelif from the women’s category competition, not competition in general. Just like they would’ve banned him from the flyweight division if he’d tried to compete there. 

Vera Figner:

‘Now’? Meaning she didn’t feel sad for him before? Meaning Kristy Harris just voted for the ban because she was feeling mean? As if you couldn’t feel sad for an individual who was raised a girl and was probably shocked and confused when male puberty kicked in, at the same time as you voted to impose a ban that was in the best interests of women’s sport?

Emma Peel:

Oh, mate, it’s Jeremy Fernandez. He’s got form. He moonlights for the ACON’S Pride outfit, which lobbies to get Y-chromosome people – men, that is – into women’s sport, and women’s spaces in general.

Vera Figner:

‘Gender’. Sex, Tom, not gender. 

Emma Peel:

This is possibly the first wheeling-out of the ‘brave-triumph-over-adversity’ narrative, which I’m sure we’ll be hearing more of before the week is out. 

Vera Figner:

Has JK Rowling ever claimed that Khelif is transgender? 

Emma Peel:

Not as far as I know. She’s called him a ‘male’ and a ‘man’. And re-tweeted Suzanne Moore’s reference to ‘someone with a DSD’. 

Vera Figner:

And what do you think Maddocks means by ‘the likes of’ JK Rowling? 

Emma Peel:

Radical feminists. 

Vera Figner:

Banned term at the ABC? 

Emma Peel:

Probablement.

Vera Figner:

And what’s this about the claim being ‘without evidence’? What are the IBA test results if not evidence? Oh, here goes:

Vera Figner:

Right. So after saying there’s no evidence, he then goes on to refer to the IBA testing. So there is evidence. 

Emma Peel:

And about his statement that the IOC has dismissed the IBA testing as ‘illegitimate’: Actually, the IOC has never rejected the findings of the IBA tests. The IOC talks about the tests being ‘taken arbitrarily’ and ‘on the spot’ and ‘for no reason’: What they’re impugning is the motive behind the application of the tests. And the timing. Not the validity of what was found by the tests. If you look closely at the IOC’s statements, it looks a lot like that they accept that Khelif and Lin may well be XY DSD. But a Y chromosome isn’t a criterion of maleness for the IOC. The IOC says a person’s a woman if the person’s passport says ‘F’. 

Vera Figner:

Emma, ma chérie, did you hear what I heard?

Vera Figner:

Yeah, the IBA, in their statement on 31 July, didn’t say this explicitly, citing confidentiality. Same when Chris Roberts, IBA CEO, spoke at the media conference in Paris two days ago (5^th August), where he said they weren’t able to disclose the results of the tests and invited the journos to ‘read between the lines’. 

Emma Peel:

This might well be the first time an IBA board member has actually been recorded saying ‘XY’ to camera about the IBA test results. 

Vera Figner:

So what we’ve got here is practically a scoop for the ABC – and Jez and Tom were too ideologically blinded to recognise it as such. Instead they made the segment a beat-up about Harris ‘now’ being ‘sad’. 

Emma Peel:
Oh, Aunty! Comme c’est gênant!