73
RantTrans allies saying they can't understand how trans athletes became such a big issue
This gets repeated so often: "I can't believe the media is giving trans athletes so much attention. It only affects a tiny percentage of people. Why is it such a big deal? Why aren't we focusing on [insert whataboutery here] instead?"
Firstly, part of the reason it's such a big deal is that it's so blatantly ridiculous. Type "trans athlete podium" into Google Images - the results are like something out of a bad comedy film. The general public can't believe something so laughable is happening in the twenty-first century. Most people don't follow wheelchair tennis - but if an able-bodied man were allowed to enter and ended up standing on top of the podium, smiling proudly as he held up his gold Paralympic medal, with men in wheelchairs on either side of him... the photo would make the front page of every newspaper, because people would be shocked at how unfair (and hilarious) it was. Crufts has absolutely no impact on most people's lives, but if a cat won Best in Show it'd be a massive news story purely for being so farcical.
Secondly, trans athletes have peaked a lot of people. Prisons and locker rooms are behind closed doors; sport has spectators. The photos of trans athletes, and the stats showing how much their rankings have improved since they began competing against women, have woken people up to what's really going on. Many people thought trans rights were about #BeKind, about respecting preferred pronouns - they didn't realise that authorities are pretending men are literally women. The issue has become so big because it has implications for acceptance of gender identity in general.
Thirdly - if this is such an unimportant issue, why aren't trans athletes the ones who should shrug and let it go? Trans allies who say "this is such a trivial issue" never follow it up with "trans women should just go back to competing against men, it's not worth arguing over".