Ken
Paxton
Texas
AG
Ken
Paxton
emerged
from
under
his
bridge
to
file
another
performative
trollsuit
yesterday.
This
time
his
target
is
the
NCAA,
which
he
accuses
of
violating
Texas’s
consumer
protection
statute
by
selling
tickets
to
women’s
sporting
events
with
transgender
participants.
As
Lisa
Needham
pointed
out
in
Public
Notice,
this
is
a
solution
to
a
non-problem.
It’s
already
illegal
for
trans
athletes
to
participate
in
collegiate
athletics
in
Texas.
And
last
month
NCAA
President
Charlie
Baker
told
a
Senate
Judiciary
Committee
panel
that,
of
the
roughly
510,000
student
athletes
participating
in
collegiate
sports
today,
only
ten
are
trans.
But
Paxton’s
got
a
culture
war
to
fight,
so
he
marched
into
the
District
Court
of
Lubbock
County
and
filed
this
dumbshit
suit
premised
on
the
theory
that
transgender
people
simply
do
not
exist,
and
so
Texas
has
the
right
to
demand
that
the
NCAA
bar
trans
athletes
nationwide,
or
at
least
out
them
and
stop
calling
events
where
they
play
“women’s”
sport.
Paxton
begins
by
arguing
that
sex
is
binary,
and
it
was
ever
thus.
Most
consumers
know
that
a
“woman”
means
an
adult
human
female.
“Sex
is
an
immutable
characteristic
determined
solely
by
birth.”
Gibson
v.
Collier,
920
F.3d
212,-
217
n.
2
(5th
Cir.
2019)
(cleaned
up)
(quoting
Frontiero
v.
Richardson,
411
U.S.
677,
686
(1973)
(plurality
op.)).
This
definition
of
sex
is
ubiquitous
and
has
been
the
same
throughout
human
history.
And,
most
importantly,
it
is
how
Texas
consumers
understand
the
word.
He
then
goes
on
to
immediately
contradict
himself
by
citing
several
professional
athletes
who
identified
as
female
their
entire
lives,
but
whom
the
Texas
AG,
in
his
infinite
wisdom,
has
decided
are
really
men.
He
starts
with
Caster
Semenya,
whom
he
describes
as
“a
male
with
disorders
of
sex
development
(‘DSD’),
despite
displaying
some
physical
traits
of
a
female.”
Semenya
is
an
intersex
runner
with
female
characteristics
who
was
raised
from
birth
as
a
girl
and
would
qualify
as
female
under
the
very
language
Paxton
cites
from
the
5th
Circuit.
He
moves
on
to
Indian
runner
Dutee
Chand,
whom
he
refers
to
with
male
pronouns,
despite
the
fact
that
she
has
undergone
invasive
and
humiliating
testing
to
prove
that
she
is
a
cisgender
woman
whose
body
produces
high
levels
of
testosterone,
a
condition
know
as
hyperandrogenism.
And
then
to
Algerian
boxer
Imane
Khelif,
whom
the
Russian-led
International
Boxing
Association
(IBA)
disqualified
due
to
some
unspecified
testing
three
days
after
Khelif
beat
Russian
boxer
Azalia
Amineva,
restoring
Amineva’s
perfect
record.
The
IBA
first
suggested
that
it
had
performed
chromosomal
testing
when
it
disqualified
Khelif
and
Taiwanese
boxer
Lin
Yu-ting,
before
backtracking
and
saying
that
the
women
“did
not
undergo
a
testosterone
examination
but
were
subject
to
a
separate
and
recognized
test,
whereby
the
specifics
remain
confidential.”
In
2023,
the
International
Olympic
Committee stripped
IBA
of
its
recognition
as
the
global
body
for
boxing,
and
Khelif
and
Lin
went
on
to
win
gold
medals
in
the
Paris
Olympics
this
summer.
Nevertheless,
Paxton
refers
to
Khelif
as
“a
male
with
DSD”
who
“fought
against
another
male
boxer
with
DSD,
Lin
YuTing,
in
the
final
round
of
the
women’s
boxing
competition
at
the
2024
Olympics.”
This
cites
to
a
Fox
News
story
which
states
as
fact
that
Lin
has
male
chromosomes,
based
solely
on
the
IBA’s
disputed
allegations.
There
is
no
citation
for
Paxton’s
claim
that
“The
IOC’s
actions,
like
those
of
the
NCAA,
ultimately
left
consumers
confused,
angry,
and
feeling
cheated
after
they
purchased
goods
and
services
associated
with
women’s
boxing
thinking
they
were
supporting
women’s
competition,
only
to
witness
men
fighting
women
and,
ultimately,
two
men
fighting
each
other
over
the
gold
medal.”
Nor
could
there
be,
because
it
never
happened.
Gross
misgendering
aside,
Khelif
won
gold
as
a
welterweight,
and
Lin
took
the
top
prize
in
the
featherweight
category.
They
didn’t
fight
each
other
in
Paris.
This
mixup
is
illustrative
of
more
than
just
shoddy
lawyering,
though.
It
undercuts
Paxton’s
whole
premise
that
sex
is
obvious
and
immutable
from
birth.
Every
single
one
of
these
athletes
has
lived
her
entire
life
as
female
and
has
female
secondary
sexual
characteristics.
Paxton
points
to
Chand
and
Semenya’s
exclusion
from
their
sport
due
to
testosterone
levels
as
evidence
that
they
are
men.
This
would
appear
to
concede
the
point
that
gender
is
not
fixed,
since
hormone
levels
can
be
easily
altered
through
medication.
Would
Paxton
claim
that
a
male-presenting
person
with
high
levels
of
estrogen
(thanks
to
either
biology
or
injections)
was
really
a
woman?
The
International
Amateur
Athletics
Federation
(IAAF)
tried
to
thread
the
needle,
decreeing
that
Semenya
and
Chand
could
participate
as
women
if
they’d
agreed
to
take
testosterone
suppressants.
Both
athletes
refused
to
alter
their
bodies,
opting
instead
to
retire
from
running.
But
Paxton
seems
incapable
of
nuance,
much
less
appreciating
the
inherent
contradictory
nature
of
his
position.
Or
maybe
he
just
doesn’t
give
a
shit,
because
he’s
got
to
hit
his
quotient
of
garbage
lawsuits,
and
he
won’t
be
able
to
sue
Joe
Biden
in
two
weeks.
Trolls
gotta
troll,
y’all.
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.