Sports

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Rainbow flags may be confiscated to ‘protect’ World Cup fans, Qatar official says

Rainbow flags could be taken from fans at the World Cup in Qatar to protect them from being attacked for promoting gay rights, a senior leader overseeing security for the tournament told The Associated Press.

Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari insisted that LGBTQ couples would be welcomed and accepted in Qatar for the Nov. 21-Dec. 18 FIFA showpiece despite same-sex relations remaining criminalized in the conservative Gulf nation.

But Al Ansari is against the overt promotion of LGBTQ freedoms as symbolized by the rainbow flag that FIFA and World Cup organizers had previously said would be welcome across Qatar’s eight stadiums.

“If he (a fan) raised the rainbow flag and I took it from him, it’s not because I really want to, really, take it, to really insult him, but to protect him,” Al Ansari told the AP. “Because if it’s not me, somebody else around him might attack (him) … I cannot guarantee the behavior of the whole people. And I will tell him: ‘Please, no need to really raise that flag at this point.’”

Al Ansari is director of the Department of International Cooperation and Chairman of the National Counterterrorism Committee at the Ministry of Interior where he discussed World Cup planning for an hour with the AP.

“You want to demonstrate your view about the (LGBTQ) situation, demonstrate it in a society where it will be accepted,” he said. “We realize that this man got the ticket, comes here to watch the game, not to demonstrate, a political (act) or something which is in his mind.

“Watch the game. That’s good. But don’t really come in and insult the whole society because of this.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said this week in Doha that “everyone will see that everyone is welcome here in Qatar, even if we speak about LGBTQ.”

Al Ansari said he is not telling LGBTQ fans to stay away from Qatar or warning them of facing prosecution.

“Reserve the room together, sleep together — this is something that’s not in our concern,” he said. “We are here to manage the tournament. Let’s not go beyond, the individual personal things which might be happening between these people … this is actually the concept.

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“Here we cannot change the laws. You cannot change the religion for 28 days of World Cup.”

TRANSGENDER KIDSAriana Grande pledges to match up to $1.5 million to fight anti-trans bills

When it was pointed out that visiting fans and teams could take offense to the comments, Al Ansari said he did not view himself as being discriminatory.

“I am risking … a minority view against a majority,” he said. “We have to be close to the problem before it erupts and gets out of control. … If somebody attacks you, then I have to get involved and it will be too late.”

FIFA chief social responsibility and education officer Joyce Cook told the AP in 2020 that “rainbow flags, T-shirts will all be welcome in the stadium — that’s a given. They understand very well that is our stance.” World Cup chief executive Nasser Al-Khater also said “we will respect” FIFA guidelines on allowing rainbow flags.

But Al Ansari’s comments about the confiscation of fans’ rainbow flags have created confusion for activists, including Chris Paouros, a member of the English Football Association’s inclusion advisory board and trustee with the anti-discrimination group, Kick It Out, which want a safe and inclusive tournament.

“This inconsistency and the continued lack of detail in terms of how that will be provided beyond the rhetoric of ‘everyone is welcome’ is concerning to say the least,” Paouros said.

The FARE network, which monitors games for discrimination, called for the freedoms of fans to be respected at the World Cup.

“The idea that the flag, which is now a recognized universal symbol of diversity and equality, will be removed from people to protect them will not be considered acceptable, and will be seen as a pretext,” FARE executive director Piara Powar said. “I have been to Qatar on numerous occasions and do not expect the local Qatari population or fans visiting for the World Cup to be attacked for wearing the rainbow flag. The bigger danger comes from state actions.”

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Utah Legislature overrides governor’s veto of transgender sports ban bill

Utah state lawmakers on Friday overrode their Republican governor’s veto of a bill that would ban transgender students from playing girls’ sports, ensuring the controversial piece of legislation will go into effect.

During a special session called specifically to consider a veto override, both Republican-controlled chambers of the state Legislature met the two-thirds threshold to revive the bill.

The measure passed 21-8 in the Senate and 56-18 in the House. Ten Republicans in Utah’s state House and five in the state Senate who had previously voted against the bill changed their votes to support the bill during the override session. Both chambers voted on Friday without additional debate.

The legislation is slated to go into effect July 1.

Under the forthcoming law, transgender girls will be prohibited from playing on school sports teams aligning with their gender identity. The bill’s language bars “a student of the male sex from competing against another school on a team designated for female students.” It defines “sex” as the “biological, physical condition of being male or female, determined by an individual’s genetics and anatomy at birth.”

Lawmakers passed the bill earlier this month in the final hours of their legislative session.

The veto override vote came just days after Republican Gov. Spencer Cox penned a heartfelt letter to legislators in which he said he’d been moved by data showing that including transgender youth in sports could reduce suicide rates within the group.

“I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live. And all the research shows that even a little acceptance and connection can reduce suicidality significantly,” Cox wrote.

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US basketball star will be detained in Russia for months, state media confirms

US basketball icon Brittney Griner’s detention has been extended for another two months, according to a state news agency. 

The Olympic gold medallist and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star has been held in Moscow since February when customs officials allegedly found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. 

News of Griner’s arrest didn’t make headlines until early March, and Russian state TV recently released a photograph of the out athlete in custody holding up a piece of paper. 

Amid concerns for the top athlete’s safety and calls for her return home, a Russian court has ruled that Griner’s detention will be extended until 19 May. 

Major Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported that the Khimkinsky court in the Moscow region had “granted the request of the investigation” and extended Griner’s custody for an additional two months. 

The WNBA star faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty by the Russian court. 

Brittney Griner wears a purple and orange Phoenix Mercury jersey during a basketball game
Brittney Griner #42 of the Phoenix Mercury is seen during the game against the Indiana Fever on 6 September 2021. (Getty/Michael Hickey)

Ekaterina Kalugina – a member of the Public Monitoring Commission, which is a semi-official body that can access Russian prisons – told TASS that the basketball star was sharing a single cell with two other women, who had no previous convictions. 

According to Kalugina, Griner’s main issue with her imprisonment was that the prison beds are too small for her tall frame. 

Griner is among a dozen WNBA stars who played in Russia or Ukraine this past season, with Griner playing professional basketball in Russia for the last seven years. 

All except Griner have successfully left since Russia invaded Ukraine. 

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has joined the growing number of people calling for Griner’s release, tweeting “Free Brittney” on Wednesday (16 March). 

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that the league is working with other agencies to bring the Phoenix Mercury star centre home, according to the Associated Press. 

“Everyone’s getting the strategy of say less and push more privately behind the scenes,” Engelbert said. 

“It’s the strategy you get from the State Department and administration. It’s our number one priority in talking with her agent and strategists.”

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the government agency is “doing everything we can to support Brittney Griner” and her loved ones as well as to “work with them to do everything we can, to see that she is treated appropriately and to seek her release”. 

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Russia releases video of detained US basketballer Brittney Griner amid warning she could be jailed

Brittney Griner remains in custody in Russia, with the country’s state-owned media releasing new images of the WNBA star.

News broke over the weekend that Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medallist, was arrested in February after customs officials allegedly detected hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow.

Amid growing concern for her wellbeing and continued calls for her release, Russian state TV broadcast a photograph of the out athlete in custody holding up a piece of paper.

The image, which was released on Tuesday (8 March), was too blurred to be able to make out what was written on the paper.

The Russian Federal Customs Services released a statement claiming that officials detained Brittney Griner in February for possession of vape cartridges that contained hashish oil.

It also released a video that showed airport security workers searching the luggage of a passenger, who was later identified as Griner.

The customs service said a criminal case has been opened, and Griner could face up to 10 years in a Russian prison if convicted.

Brittney Griner had been playing for the Moscow team UMMC Ekaterinburg and was reportedly earning $1.5 million (£1.1 million) for the off-season – six times her WNBA salary with the Phoenix Mercury.

The exact date of her arrest remains unclear and it is still unknown where the star is now.

Concern for the sports star continues to grow as she remains detained, with a former Pentagon official telling Yahoo Sports she feared Putin could use the LGBT+ icon as a “high profile hostage” during the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“If we want her out of jail, Russia is going to have some terms,” said Evelyn Farkas, who served as the US deputy assistant secretary of defence for Russia and Ukraine from 2012 to 2015. “It could be a prisoner swap. They also could use it as an implicit threat or blackmail to get us to do something or not do something. Either way, they find it useful.”

Texas congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is among those calling for Griner’s swift release.

“We know that there were some issues dealing with vape cartridges and other items but let me be very clear,” said Lee, who represents Griner’s hometown of Houston, Texas, in the House of Representatives. “Brittney Griner is a United States citizen, she was a guest in Russia … and I will be demanding her release.”

Lee added that Russia’s actions in Ukraine undermined its authority, saying: “I don’t want to disregard a sovereign nation but Putin has disregarded sovereign nations his entire service in this world.

“Anyone that is killing and attacking and destroying Ukraine, a neighbouring country that is not bothering them, has no right to hold Ms Griner. Period.”

According to the Associated Press, Griner has played professional basketball in Russia for the last seven years.

She played for her Russian team the UMMC Ekaterinburg on 29 January before the league had a two-week break in early February.

Over a dozen WNBA players have played in Russia and Ukraine this winter, and the WNBA confirmed that all players besides Griner had left both countries.

News of Brittney Griner’s detainment comes as the US placed sanctions on Russia after Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine last month.

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Out basketball star Brittney Griner detained in Russia

Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) icon Brittney Griner has reportedly been taken into custody in Russia on drug charges. 

Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested after customs officials allegedly detected hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow, the New York Times reported. 

The Russian Federal Customs Services released a statement that officials detained the player in February for possession of vape cartridges that contained the oil found in her luggage. It also released a video that showed airport security workers searching the luggage of a passenger, who was later identified as Griner.

The customs service said a criminal case has been opened, and Griner could face up to 10 years in a Russian prison if convicted.

Griner’s agent Lindsay Colas told the Guardian that they are aware of the “situation” with the Phoenix Mercury player in Russia. Colas said the agency is in “close contact with her, her legal representation in Russia, her family, her teams, and the WNBA and NBA”. 

“As this is an ongoing legal matter, we are not able to comment further on the specifics of her case but can confirm that as we work to get her home, her mental and physical health remain our primary concern,” Colas said. 

The WNBA said that Griner has the league’s “full support”, and its “main priority” is her “swift and safe return” to the USA. 

The Phoenix Griner said on Twitter that the team is “aware of” and is “closely monitoring” Griner’s situation in Russia. 

“We remain in constant contact with her family, her representation, the WNBA and NBA,” the team said. “We love and support Brittney and at this time our main concern is her safety, physical and mental health, and her safe return home.” 

According to the Associated Press, Brittney Griner has played professional basketball in Russia for the last seven years. She played for her Russian team the UMMC Ekaterinburg on 29 January before the league had a two-week break in early February. 

Over a dozen WNBA players have played in Russia and Ukraine this winter, and the WNBA confirmed that all players besides Griner had left both countries. 

Griner’s wife Cherelle thanked those who had reached out “regarding my wife’s safe return from Russia” in an Instagram post on Saturday (5 March). 

“Your prayers and support are greatly appreciated,” Cherelle wrote. “I love my wife wholeheartedly, so this message comes during one of the weakest moments of my life.”

She asked fans to honour the family’s privacy as they continue to work to get Griner home. 

News of Brittney Griner’s detainment comes as Russian forces continue their deadly invasion of Ukraine. 

The Ukrainian military said it had fought “fierce battles to maintain certain borders” against Russian forces, the Guardian reported. It claimed there was an “extremely low morale and psychological state” among Russian troops because of the Ukrainian resistance. 

The US embassy in Moscow released a security alert on 27 February that said an “increasing number of airlines” have been cancelling flights in and out of Russia. The embassy advised that US citizens should leave Russia “immediately via commercial options still available”. 

On Friday (5 March), the US embassy in Moscow warned citizens not to travel to the country “due to the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine, the potential for harassment against US citizens by Russian government security officials” and the embassy’s limited ability to help US citizens in the country. 

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A Revolution for Women in Baseball

The Yankees were late on introducing an African-American player to their roster, adding Hall of Famer Elston Howard to the team in 1955, eight years after Jackie Robinson starred for the Brooklyn Dodgers.  The Yankees seem determined not to repeat that bad history.  Last week, they announced that Rachel Balkovec will become the first woman to manage a team in minor league baseball when she takes the helm of the Tampa Tarpons this spring. 

It has been just over ten years since Justin Siegal threw batting practice to the Cleveland Guardians and five since she was the first woman to coach a MLB squad with the Oakland Athletics.  Two years ago, Kim Ng became the first female General Manager of any of the four major professional sports when the Marlins hired her to run their team.  In the two years since then, the dam has burst.  Women have been hired to important on-field positions with professional baseball at an impressive clip.  As baseball has lagged behind other professional sports in bringing women into the game, the current pace of hires indicates that baseball’s embrace of analytics and objective measures have finally penetrated the walls of one of the most enduring old boys clubs in the U.S. and given talented women opportunities they have long been denied.

Ten women will be coaching with major or minor league teams in 2022.  In 2021, Bianca Smith became the first African-American woman to coach in the minors when the Red Sox hired her. Alyssa Nakken became the first woman in uniform during a Major League Baseball game when she coached first base for the Giants in a July 2020 exhibition against the Oakland A’s.  Her jersey now belongs to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  Cuban-American Veronica Alvarez is not only the coach of the U.S. Women’s National Baseball team, she also served as a spring training coach for the Oakland A’s.

The proliferation of women in baseball is not an accident.  More girls than ever are playing baseball.  Here, in the DC area, 160 girls participated with D.C. Girls Baseball in 2021.  Baseball for All, an organization that supports and promotes girls in baseball, held a tournament last summer that drew nearly 600 girls who play baseball.  There are more women than ever on collegiate baseball rosters.  Major League Baseball has also devoted significant resources to girls and women in baseball, running several development camps for girls in baseball.  Six of the women now coaching professional baseball participated in MLB’s Take the Field initiative, which is designed to help place women into baseball positions. To top it all off, the classic film about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, A League of Their Own, is getting a reboot on Amazon Prime this year.

The pace of hiring is exhilarating.  Unfortunately, every report of a woman being hired is followed by predictable hateful commentary on social media.  Many cannot imagine that a woman may be hired for a baseball position on merit and resort to making sexist and derogatory comments.  As women in baseball, the coaches are used to that vitriol and have developed thick skin and sophisticated defense mechanisms.  However, also reading are thousands of girls who are inspired by the achievements of these women and they are, sadly, learning that to achieve in baseball means enduring the sexist taunts, gross come-ons, and hurtful comments.

Baseball has a long way to go.  Other leagues have women officiating games, so it should be reasonable to expect that baseball will have women umpires in the near future.  The possibility of women playing professional baseball is tantalizingly close as 17 year old Genevieve Beacom made history last week as the first women to play Australian professional baseball, when she threw a scoreless inning against the Adelaide Giants.

We are watching a revolution in baseball unfold before our eyes. 

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At least 6 out athletes are representing the United States at the 2022 Winter Olympics

The 2022 Winter Olympics start this week, and there will be a minimum of 34 athletes competing in nine different sports over the three week-long festivities in Beijing, China that are part of the LGBTQ community. That’s the most ever in Winter Olympics history, beating the 15 out athletes recorded at the 2018 Games.

Team USA will have six out athletes among their 222 named squad members, including three on the figure skating team. They will send the second most out athletes to the Winter Olympics, following Canada with 10.

The athletes are included in an ongoing list being compiled by LGBTQ sports site Outsports, which reported at the end of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo just months ago that there were 186 out athletes that participated in those Games.

Out of the 34 known to be part of the LGBTQ community and competing in Beijing starting this week, 11 are men — the most, since there hadn’t been any men that competed while out at the Winter Olympics prior to Gus Kenworthy, Adam Rippon, and Eric Radford in 2018. 22 of the out competitors are women, and one — Timothy LeDuc — is non-binary.

Kenworthy and Radford are returning for their second straight Games while out, in addition to out athletes Brittany Bowe, Belle Brockhoff, Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, Kim Meylemans, Sarka Pancochova,  and Ireen Wüst, who are also returning for yet another Olympics. Rippon and Hendrikx — who competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada — are returning as coaches.

Team USA’s out athletes will include LeDuc, Jason Brown, and reserve member Amber Glenn on the figure skating squad. Alex Carpenter will compete in ice hockey, Andrew Blaser in skeleton ice skating, and Bowe in speedskating.

Bowe became the first out athlete to earn a roster spot to compete for Team USA in the Olympics’ 109 scheduled events in the upcoming Games. She will compete in the 500 and 1000-meter ice speed skating competitions, after giving up the 500-meter ice speed skating spot she initially qualified for in favor of her friend and teammate, Erin Jackson. Now they will both race in the 500-meter for Team USA.

The Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing from February 2 to February 20, 2022, with the opening ceremony being held on February 4 and the closing on February 20. The first medals for the competitions in the 15 disciplines scheduled for the Olympics will be awarded on February 5. Citing the pandemic, organizers plan for audiences to only consist of invited individuals chosen by Olympic organizers, instead of ticket-buying spectators.

Multiple human rights activists and advocacy groups are against holding the upcoming Olympics and other sports events in anti-LGBTQ areas or countries with questionable human rights records. This also includes and the FIFA World Cup scheduled to be held in Qatar later this year and the Gay Games scheduled to be held in Hong Kong in 2023.

Officially, the United States government has enacted a diplomatic boycott of China for the Olympics, meaning they will not send any non-athlete representatives of the country to appear at the Games. Although athletes are allowed to compete as normal, China’s foreign ministry and Chinese media are already accusing Team USA athletes of planning to “sabotage” the Winter Olympics by going as far to “even refuse to take part” in events — proving that political issues will remain an issue at these Games as they did at previous ones.

China considers LGBTQ activists to be political dissidents and subjects them to surveillance, harassment and imprisonment. The country lacks marriage equality as well as LGBTQ non-discrimination protections.

At the Summer Olympics held last year in Tokyo, the United States finished with the most medals in the end, but “Team LGBTQ,” as the out athletes competing have been dubbed, earned 56 medals between them. That would have put them in sixth as an official Olympic Team.

That means Team LGBTQ had more medals than 200 Olympic squads that went to Tokyo. That was despite the exclusion of several out athletes from certain sports that excluded several athletes that largely excluded gender diverse athletes or those with differences in sex development (DSD).

In November, the International Olympic Committee released new guidelines for transgender participation in their sports that activists and athletes alike are hailing as a massive victory for trans equality.

Those principles – developed after two years of consultations with over 250 athletes and other “concerned stakeholders” – include inclusion, prevention of harm, non-discrimination, right to privacy, and – perhaps most notably – no presumption of advantage. However, they are not binding across the entire Olympic body.

“No athlete should be precluded from competing or excluded from competition on the exclusive ground of an unverified, alleged, or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status,” it says, adding that no athlete should be deemed as having an unfair advantage unless “robust and peer reviewed research” finds otherwise.

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Beijing Olympics Begin Amid Atrocity Crimes

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympicswill open amid atrocity crimes and other grave human rights violations by the Chinese government, 243 nongovernmental organizations from around the world said today. The groups urged governments to join a diplomatic boycott of the Games, slated to begin February 4, 2022, and for athletes and sponsors not to legitimize government abuses.

“It’s not possible for the Olympic Games to be a ‘force for good,’ as the International Olympic Committee claims, while the host government is committing grave crimes in violation of international law,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.

Under President Xi Jinping, Chinese authorities have been committing mass abuses against Uyghurs, Tibetans, ethnic groups, and religious believers from all independent faith groups. They have eliminated independent civil society by persecuting human rights activists, feminists, lawyers, journalists, and others. The government has eviscerated a once-vibrant civil society in Hong Kong, expanded tech-enabled surveillance to significantly curtail the rights to expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and allowed the use of forced labor, in violation of international law.

Chinese authorities also continue to threaten members of diaspora communities, public figures, and companies beyond China’s borders through a sophisticated campaign of transnational repression.

“That the Winter Olympics is held in Beijing sends a signal to the world that Xi Jinping’s government is normal,” said Renee Xia, Director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “When the world rationalizes away such an abusive situation, it makes it harder for victims to stand up against injustice.”

Since the Chinese government was awarded the 2022 Winter Games in 2015, nongovernmental organizations and media outlets have documented numerous serious human rights violations by Chinese authorities. Those include:

  • Arbitrary detention, torture, and forced labor of millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic groups in Xinjiang (the Uyghur region);
  • Decimation of independent media, democratic institutions, and rule of law in Hong Kong;
  • High-tech surveillance systems enabling authorities to track and unjustly prosecute peaceful conduct, including criticism shared through apps, such as WeChat;
  • Prosecution of people exercising rights to free expression, peaceful assembly, and association on behalf of vulnerable populations, including the lawyers Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, the citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, the Tibetan monk and writer Go Sherab Gyatso, and public health activists known as the Changsha Funeng group; and
  • Arbitrary detention, torture, and forcible disappearance of human rights defenders, including Gao Zhisheng and Guo Feixiong.


“The spectacle of the Olympics cannot cover up genocide,” said Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project. “It’s hard to understand why anyone feels it’s even possible to celebrate international friendship and ‘Olympic values’ in Beijing this year.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that its human rights obligations, announced in 2017, do not apply to the 2022 Winter Games. The IOC has not met its responsibilities under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by carrying out human rights due diligence despite the well-documented abuses in China, the groups said.

In other respects, the IOC has shown that its stated commitment to human rights means little. IOC President Thomas Bach participated in a Chinese government propaganda campaign to whitewash the sexual assault allegations brought by three-time Olympian Peng Shuai. The IOC has been unwilling to meet with the End Uyghur Forced Labor (EUFL) coalition, and has sported uniforms made by a company credibly alleged to use forced labor.

“The IOC claims that sport and politics do not mix, but the Chinese government was the one that used the 2008 Beijing Olympics to serve its political interests,” said Bhuchung K. Tsering, interim president of the International Campaign for Tibet. “Tibetans in Tibet then took the risk to tell the world about this, but the IOC didn’t pay heed. The upcoming Beijing Olympics is a unique opportunity for the IOC and governments to empower their athletes and press Chinese authorities to abide by international norms.”

The top corporate sponsors of the Games – Airbnb, Alibaba, Allianz, Atos, Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung, Toyota, and Visa – have also not fulfilled their human rights due diligence responsibilities. The companies have not provided meaningful public responses to concerns that their sponsorship creates or contributes to human rights violations, or whether they have acted to mitigate those violations. Sponsors should immediately disclose their human rights due diligence strategies, or explain their failure to carry out such assessments, the groups said

Several governments, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games in response to the Chinese government’s human rights abuses. They will send no senior officials – a longstanding Olympic tradition – to the opening or closing ceremonies. All governments, whether joining the diplomatic boycott or not, should use the opportunity to not only support the athletes participating in the Games, but also demonstrate concrete support for human rights defenders across China.

“We urge governments to send messages of support to human rights defenders in prison or detention who are paying a great price for advocating reform, defending the rights of others, or simply discussing ways to strengthen civil society in China,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China.

Those participating in the Beijing Olympics face a host of human rights risks, the groups said. IOC rules prohibit athletes from publicly expressing their views on human rights in China on the Olympic podium, and Chinese authorities’ retaliation against critics creates a chill for athletes worldwide. The Chinese government’s willingness to arbitrarily detain foreigners for peaceful criticism, such as the Swedish publisher Gui Minhai, further limits free speech. Olympic athletes, coaches, and other support staff are also likely to be subjected to pervasive state surveillance, particularly through monitoring of digital communications.

“Athletes upholding Olympic ideals should not have to face omnipresent surveillance, repression of free speech or belief, and an insecure human rights environment to participate in the Games,” said Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid.

Spectators around the world watching the Winter Games can play a positive role by educating themselves about the human rights environment inside China, and can take actions ranging from purchasing products not made with forced labor to encouraging their own governments to pursue accountability for Chinese government officials responsible for the worst international crimes. People can urge companies to sign the EUFL coalition’s Call to Action.

“The stark reality of the Chinese government’s atrocity crimes and ongoing impunity should compel the IOC, sponsors, and others associated with the Olympics to question whether these Games are legitimizing and prolonging grave abuses,” said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress. “No one should want another Olympics like this.”

Nongovernmental Organization Signatories:

  1. 6.12 Manchester Working Group
  2. ACAT Belgium
  3. Adas Israel Social Action Committee
  4. Alberta Uyghur Association
  5. All Citizenship Compact
  6. Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy
  7. ALTSEAN-Burma
  8. American Alliance for Automotive Corporate Social Responsibility
  9. Amigos del Tibet Chile
  10. Anti-China Expansion Movement                                
  11. Anti-Slavery International
  12. Army of Survivors
  13. ARTICLE 19
  14. Asociación Cultural Tibetano-Costerricense
  15. ASSEMBLY FOR DEMOCRACY IN VIETNAM
  16. Athenai Institute
  17. Athlete Activist
  18. Athlete Ally
  19. Australia Tibet Council
  20. Australian Centre for International Justice
  21. Australian East Turkestan Association
  22. Australian Uyghur Association
  23. Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association
  24. Austria Uyghur Association
  25. Bauhinias For Freedom
  26. Bay Area Friends of Tibet
  27. Be Slavery Free
  28. Belgium Uyghur Association
  29. [Redacted For Anonymity]
  30. Bloc 8406 International
  31. Blue Crescent Humanitarian Aid Association
  32. Campaign For Uyghurs
  33. Captive Nations Coalition of the Committee on Present Danger: China
  34. China Against the Death Penalty
  35. China Human Rights Defenders
  36. ChinaAid
  37. Chinese Democracy And Human Rights Alliance
  38. Christian Coalition for Uyghur Freedom
  39. Church of Scientology National Affairs Office
  40. Citizen Power Initiatives for China
  41. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
  42. Comitato Lady Lawyer Village
  43. Comité de Apoyo al Tíbet CAT
  44. Congregation Beth Ora
  45. Consortium for Intersectional Justice
  46. Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience
  47. Corporate Accountability Lab
  48. CSW
  49. Czech Support Tibet
  50. Dawn of HongKong
  51. Den norske uyghur komiteen
  52. Dialogue China
  53. Dominican Sisters Grand Rapids
  54. Dutch Uyghur Human Rights Foundation
  55. East Turkestan Press and Media Association
  56. East Turkestan Union of Muslim Scholars
  57. East Turkistan Association in Finland
  58. East Turkistan Association of Canada
  59.  [Redacted For Anonymity]
  60. East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association
  61. East Turkistan Entrepreneur Tradesmen and Industrialists Businessmen Association
  62. East Turkistan Human Rights Watch Association
  63. East Turkistan New Generation Movement
  64. East Turkistan Nuzugum Culture and Family Association
  65. East Turkistan Sports and Development Association
  66. East Turkistan Union in Europe
  67. Eastern Turkistan Foundation
  68. Emgage Action
  69. Equality League
  70. European East Turkistan Education Association
  71. Family Research Council
  72. FIDH – International Federation for Human Rights
  73. FIDU – Italian Federation for Human Rights
  74. [Redacted For Anonymity]
  75. Finnish Uyghur Culture Center
  76. Football Supporters Europe
  77. Frankfurt Stand With Hong Kong
  78. Free Tibet
  79. Free Uyghur Now
  80. Freedom House
  81. Freedom Ummah
  82. Friends of Hong Kong Calgary
  83. Friends of Tibet Bulgaria
  84. Front Line Defenders
  85. [Redacted For Anonymity]
  86. Germany Stands with Hong Kong
  87. Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities
  88. Global Athlete
  89. Global Peace Mission (GPM) Malaysia
  90. Grupo de Apoio ao Tibete-Portugal
  91. Havurat Shalom
  92. [Redacted For Anonymity]
  93. Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
  94. Hong Kong Committee in Norway
  95. Hong Kong Democracy Council
  96. Hong Kong Watch
  97. Hong Kongers in San Francisco Bay Area
  98. Hongkonger in Deutschland e.V.
  99. HOPE not hate
  100. Human Rights Foundation
  101. Human Rights in China
  102. Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa
  103. Human Rights Watch
  104. Human Rights Without Frontiers
  105. Human Trafficking Search                             
  106. Humanitarian China
  107. Ilham Tohti Initiative
  108. Indonesia Save Uyghur
  109. International Campaign for Tibet
  110. International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse In China (ETAC)
  111. International Pen Uyghur Center
  112. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
  113. International Society for Human Rights
  114. International Support for Uyghurs
  115. International Tibet Network
  116. International Union of East Turkistan Organizations
  117. International Uyghur Human Right and Democracy Foundation
  118. Isa Yusup Alptekin Foundation
  119. Islamic Community Milli Gorus
  120. Islamic Information Services Foundation
  121. Japan Uyghur Association
  122. Jewish Community Relations Council/American Jewish Committee Detroit
  123. Jewish Movement for Uyghur Freedom
  124. Jewish World Watch
  125. Judicial Reform Foundation
  126. Justice For All
  127. Justice for Uyghurs
  128. Lady Lawyer Foundation
  129. Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice
  130. [Redacted For Anonymity]
  131. LICADHO
  132. Louise Xin Group
  133. LUNGTA – Actief voor Tibet
  134. Malaysia Consultative Council of Islamic Organization (MAPIM)
  135. Malaysia4Uyghur
  136. Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations
  137. Minaret Foundation
  138. Minh Van Foundation                    
  139. Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
  140. Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM)
  141. National Clergy Council
  142. Netherlands for Hong Kong
  143. Norwegian Uyghur Committee
  144. Omer Uygur Foundation
  145. Overseas Liaison Office Representative for The Interfaith Council in Vietnam
  146. Peace Catalyst International
  147. Perth Anti-CCP Association
  148. Power of Sport Lab / Athletes for Human Rights
  149. People for Successful Corean Reunification (PSCORE)
  150. Religious Freedom Institute
  151. René Cassin, the Jewish voice for human rights
  152. Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
  153. Santa Barbara Friends of Tibet
  154. Satuq Bugrakhan Foundation of Science and Civilization
  155. Silk Road Peace Project
  156. SoCal Students for Uyghur Justice
  157. Society for Threatened Peoples
  158. Society Union of Uyghur National Association
  159. Stand with [email protected]
  160. Stand with Hong Kong Vienna
  161. STANDNOW
  162. Stefanus Alliance International
  163. [Redacted for Anonymity]
  164. Stop Uyghur Genocide UK
  165. Stop Uyghur Genocide Australia
  166. Stop Uyghur Genocide Canada
  167. Students for a Free Tibet – Denmark
  168. Students for Free Tibet – Japan
  169. Students For Liberty – Myanmar
  170. Sweden Uyghur Education Union
  171. Swedish Tibet Committee
  172. Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association
  173. Switzerland East Turkestan Association
  174. Sydney Uyghur Association
  175. Taiwan Association for China Human Rights
  176. Taiwan Association for Human Rights
  177. Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada
  178. Temple Shalom
  179. Thailand and Hong Kong Together
  180. The Army of Survivors
  181. The Community Human Rights Promotion and Protection Association (ACPDH)
  182. The Norwegian Tibet Committee
  183. THE TAIWAN UNITED NATIONS ALLIANCE (TAIUNA)
  184. The Tibet Support Committee, Denmark
  185. The Viet Democratic Side’s International Forum        
  186. Tibet Action Institute
  187. Tibet Initiative Deutschland e.V.
  188. Tibet Justice Center
  189. Tibet Mx
  190. Tibet Solidarity
  191. Tibet Support Group Ireland
  192. Tibetan Community in Britain
  193. Tibetan Parliament in Exile
  194. Tibetan Youth Association in Europe
  195. Transparency International Deutschland e.V.
  196. Tso Pema Non-Profit
  197. Uigur Society of the Kyrgyz Republic
  198. Uigurische Gemeinde Österreich
  199. Umer Uyghur Trust
  200. Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam                         
  201. United Council of Vietnamese Homeland and Overseas
  202. universitet Sulayman Demirel
  203. Uyghur Academy Australia
  204. Uyghur Academy Canada
  205. Uyghur Academy Europe
  206. Uyghur Academy Foundation
  207. Uyghur Academy Japan
  208. Uyghur Academy USA
  209. Uyghur American Association
  210. Uyghur Association of Victoria
  211. Uyghur Center for Human Rights and Democracy
  212. Uyghur Cultural and Education Union in Germany
  213. Uyghur Education Union
  214. Uyghur Human Rights Project
  215. Uyghur Projects Foundation
  216. Uyghur Refugee Relief Fund
  217. Uyghur Research Institute
  218. Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project
  219. Uyghur Science and Civilization Research Foundation
  220. Uyghur Support Group Netherlands
  221. Uyghur Transitional Justice Database
  222. Uyghur U.K. Association
  223. Uyghur Youth Union in Kazakhstan
  224. Uzbekistan Uyghur Culture Center
  225. Verein der Tibeter in Deutschland
  226. Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
  227. Victoria Uyghur Association
  228. Vietnamese Community of Pomona Valley                   
  229. Visual Artists Guild
  230. We The Hongkongers
  231. [Redacted For Anonymity]
  232. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
  233. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
  234. World Uyghur Congress Foundation
  235. (美国)民主中国阵线
  236. 加拿大价值守护者联盟
  237. 台灣聯合國協進會
  238. 民主中華傳媒
  239. 民主黨洛杉磯委員會
  240. 洛杉矶中国民主平台
  241. 自由中國
  242. 自由雕塑公園
  243. 華人基督徒公義團契

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Michael Phelps’ trans ex-girlfriend says she was hurt when he whined about trans athletes on CNN

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U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps’s transgender alleged ex-girlfriend is calling him a “hypocrite” for comments he made that implied that transgender women and girls participating in sports are not fair.

Taylor Lianne Chandler clapped back at comments the 23-time Olympic gold medalist made about University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas earlier this month.

Related: Trans woman athlete gets conservative backlash for setting Ivy League swimming recordsADVERTISING

In an interview with CNN, Phelps, 36, was asked about the 22-year-old swimmer, who has been getting attention in the media for winning some swimming competitions.

“I can talk from the standpoint of doping,” Phelps said. “This leads back to organizing committees again, because it has to be a level playing field.”

No one is accusing Thomas of doping.

“That’s something we all need. Because that’s what sports are,” he continued. “I believe we should all feel comfortable with who we are in our own skin, but I think sports should all be played on an even playing field.”

“He doesn’t fully understand the science, advantages or disadvantages,” Chandler told Radar in an interview published yesterday.

Then she dug in, saying that Phelps is “a hypocrite for saying it should be a level playing field” considering that there was never really a level playing field for his competitors due to the genetic advantages he had.

“He is genetically superior with his 6’7″ wingspan, double-jointed ankles and huge feet,” she explained. “His chemical composition allows him to breathe in and fill his lungs and hold his breath longer.”

“Even he says that he never competed on a level playing field, inferring doping, and they still could not beat him,” Chandler added, saying that Phelps’s comments about doping “hurt the most.”

“That is harsh,” she said. “In that moment of watching and hearing him say those things, it felt like a literal slap in the face.”

“I felt like I was good enough to love, lay with and be with, but not be respected or allowed in the women’s sport of swimming – like I was not a woman, but rather an alien or God-knows-what. It can’t be a woman’s sport if it doesn’t include all women, period.”

She also said that she realized Phelps might have been “caught off guard” by the question, but she still wishes he had said “that he would have said he supports trans youth in sports, especially trans girls.”

Chandler also called out the media for focusing on the limited number of trans women who are winning in sports while ignoring the struggles trans women face more generally.

“People against women in trans sports have like five examples to choose from,” she said. “It’s not like trans women are dominating any sport overall. It is a pocket here and there around the country that the press jumps on to make it seem like it is a world pandemic.”

According to a 2015 interview in The Mirror, Chandler said that she and Phelps met on Tinder. Phelps has never publicly discussed their relationship.

The Ivy League, in which Thomas competes, has stood up for her, saying that she and the University of Pennsylvania have been following NCAA guidelines for transgender student-athletes.

Last year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order saying that Title IX, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education, also bans anti-LGBTQ discrimination because it’s impossible to discriminate against LGBTQ people without taking sex into account. Schools that receive federal funds – like the University of Pennsylvania – would be running afoul of federal law if they denied the educational opportunity that is school sports to transgender students.

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South Dakota governor signs 2022’s first trans athlete ban into law

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem signed a bill Thursday that bans transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams, making the state the first this year — and the 10th nationwide — to enact such a bill into law.

“This bill has been an important priority for a lot of the people behind me,” Noem said as she signed the bill at a news conference, “and I appreciate all of their hard work in making sure that girls will always have the opportunity to play in girls sports in South Dakota and have an opportunity for a level playing field, for fairness, that gives them the chance to experience success.”

Noem vetoed a similar bill in March because she said the legislation wouldn’t survive legal challenges. Later that month, she issued two executive orders that restricted participation on female sports teams to those assigned female at birth. 

Transgender inclusion on sports teams has become one of many culture war issues that LGBTQ advocates say conservative officials are using to fire up their base ahead of the midterm elections.

Proponents of trans sports bans, including Noem, argue that they are protecting fairness in women’s sports. Most of the bills ban trans athletes from playing on the sports teams of their gender identity in public K-12 schools, some private schools and in colleges and universities.

South Dakota’s law applies to all state-accredited schools, which generally includes both public and private schools, according to a spokesperson for the governor. If a student, accredited school, school district or institution of higher education “suffers direct or indirect harm” as a result of the law being violated, the law allows them to sue the school, association, government entity or other body that caused the alleged harm. 

Supporters of the bans argue that trans girls and women have inherent advantages over cisgender girls and women, who identify with their sex assigned at birth.

But trans advocates say the bans are a solution in search of a problem. For example, last year, The Associated Press reached out to two dozen state lawmakers considering trans athletes bans and only a few could provide examples of trans inclusion causing a problem on sports teams.

Recently, though, many proponents of the bans have pointed to Lia Thomas, a trans University of Pennsylvania swimmer who swam the fastest times in the nation this season in the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle at a meet in December and qualified for the NCAA championships. 

For trans advocates and athletes, the issue is about more than just sports: It’s about their right to exist and still have access to the same opportunities that cisgender people do. 

Kris Wilka, a 14-year-old trans boy who lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said during a news conference last year that “it wasn’t really until sports that I could be myself, because I could just be one of the dudes.” 

He said he had to transfer schools after his middle school wouldn’t allow him to play football because he’s trans.

“Sports is my life,” he said. “My world revolves around football, and I don’t know if I would be able to function without it.”

South Dakota’s law will bar him from playing on the football team once it takes effect.

Lawmakers in some states aren’t just targeting trans inclusion on sports teams. Last year, over 20 states also weighed legislation that would ban trans minors from accessing gender-affirming medical care such as hormones and puberty blockers. Two states — Arkansasand Tennessee — passed such legislation into law, though a judge blocked Arkansas’ law from taking effect in July. So far this year, at least 10 states are considering similar legislation.

The South Dakota House on Tuesday also passed a bill that bars transgender students from using the bathrooms and other sex-segregated school facilities that align with their gender identity. 

Advocates say the rhetoric surrounding the bills is dehumanizing to trans people. For example, during a committee debate last week on South Dakota’s trans athlete ban, the governor’s chief of staff, Mark Miller, defended the bill and likened trans inclusion in sports to terrorism.

“By putting it in law, we are ensuring that what we’re seeing all over the country does not happen in South Dakota,” he said. “It’s sort of like terrorism: You want to keep it over there, not let it get to here.” 

Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said the “inflammatory rhetoric shows just how untethered Noem and legislators are from the realm of science, evidence, or reality.” 

“Governor Noem seeks to become the face of discrimination and fear-mongering by putting a target on the backs of vulnerable children who already fear for their safety and well-being,” Oakley said in a statement.

She added that South Dakota’s trans athlete ban and bathroom bill “will harm transgender kids, adding to a dangerous wave of violence against transgender and gender non-binary people across the country that is being fueled by misinformation, discriminatory laws, and divisive political talking points.”

Last year was the deadliest on record for transgender people, with at least 53 trans or gender-nonconforming people violently killed, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which has been tracking the violence since 2013.

In addition to fueling anti-trans violence, advocates say the wave of anti-trans legislation is affecting LGBTQ youths’ mental health. A 2021 survey by the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that two-thirds of LGBTQ youth said recent debates “about state laws restricting the rights of transgender people has impacted their mental health negatively.” More than 4 in 5, or 85 percent, of trans and nonbinary youth said the bills had negatively impacted their mental health. 

South Dakota’s law could face legal challenges. 

In July, a federal judge blocked West Virginia’s trans athlete ban from taking effect, pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, an 11-year-old who wanted to try out for her school’s girls cross-country team.

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