Vice News: We can’t debate issues because it makes people sad
January 18, 2022
Vice News has come up with a new angle to stop the discussion of transgender people competing in sports divisions outside their assigned birth sex.
In an article that goes after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), Vice said that we must not debate the issue of transgender sports participation because it’s likely to lead to more mental health problems among transgender teens.
As background, Noem is running ads in South Dakota that feature her policies that protect biological women from having to compete in sports against transwomen who were born as males.
The issue takes on added importance because Lia Thomas, a 22-year-old student at the University of Pennsylvania, who was born male, has been smashing women’s records as she competes against women who have not had the benefit of decades of testosterone that helps build muscle and mass that regularly allows male athletes to outperform women athletes.
Some states have subsequently taken steps to protect biological women from this competition that even has liberals questioning if trans people should have separate categories for competition.
“As Thomas rewrites Penn’s women’s swimming record books, the NCAA must question if she is undermining the spirit if not the letter of the law meant to safeguard women’s sports,,” said the editorial board of the liberal New York Daily News. “ She deserves to be treated fairly — but so do all the women against whom she competes.”
Vice claims that the mere mention of transgender policies has a negative effect on the health of trans youth.
“Studies have found, however, that trans people’s mental health is in danger due to these controversies,” said Vice News. “A recent poll by the Trevor Project, which aims to prevent suicides among LGBTQ youth, found that two-thirds of LGBTQ youth overall say that the recent legislative debates about trans people’s rights have negatively impacted their mental health.”
Yes, and inflation and war with Russia and the pandemic all make some people sad as well when mentioned in the news.
But that doesn’t mean that we stop talking about these issues.
Much of the controversy that surrounds liberal policies is due to the fact that liberals want to skip the debate that is critical to developing an understanding in a free society about what polices should be followed and developing support for their implementation.
The issue of trans people participating in sports is one such area.
Many people warned that people born as males would have an advantage in sports against people who were born female.
The of the majority of Americans — 62%, according to Gallup — don’t support transgender athletic competition outside their birth sex.
But rather than discuss what might be a rational solution to the dilemma, activists, like the ones at Vice News have pushed ahead with policies that now leave people outraged that Thomas is breaking records while women who have worked their whole lives in a sport are suddenly no longer premier athletes by comparison to someone born male.