Stick to fiction, Ms. Rowling      

As big a fan of J.K. Rowling’s writing as I am, I am far to the obverse regarding her apparent need to play the gender hate card. After Algerian boxer Imane Khelif floored her Italian opponent, Angela Carini, Ms. Rowling apparently decided that she (Ms. Khelif) was really a male. The quote is, "Watch this (referring to video of the fight), then explain why you're OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment. This isn't sport. From the bullying cheat in red all the way up to the organizers who allowed this to happen, this is men reveling in their power over women."

        First off, Ms. Khelif is an anatomical female. Period. She is not a man. and having been raised in Algeria, would have had no reason or no diagnosis to cause anyone to believe the contrary. Ms. Rowling is well known for her opposition to all things transgender, but this isn’t even that. If Ms. Khelif had demolished all her previous opponents in seconds, there might be cause to question the reason but, in fact, her amateur record is thirty-seven wins against 9 losses. Are we to assume that those nine winning opponents were either “juiced” or secretly male?

 Ask Amy Broadhurst, who unlike J.K. Rowling, actually knows something about boxing. Broadhurst, an Irish woman, and professional boxer, defeated Khelif for the world championship two years ago. At those world championships, Khelif and a Chinese female boxer came under scrutiny by the IBA, which sanctioned the bouts. In both cases, there were hazy comments regarding chromosomes, but not testosterone levels which would be affected. The International Olympic Committee has chosen to ignore whatever those findings might (or might not) have implied. Furthermore, this is neither Khelif nor Yun-ting’s first Olympics. Both boxers competed in the Tokyo 2020 Games, where they were knocked out in the quarterfinals and round of sixteen, respectively. Casting hatred at Ms. Khelif, as too many have done, is simply wrong. Period. It seems to me that the real issue is that Ms. Carini failed to protect herself, as boxers are trained to do, and took a direct punch flush on her nose, possibly breaking it. Her reaction, dropping and crying, while refusing to continue says more about her than her opponent.

Ms. Broadurst had this to say: “Have a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif. Personally, I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat.’ I think it’s the way she was born & that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been beaten by nine females before says it all.”