Melania Trump reveals stance on transgender athletes in women’s sports – after rift with Donald on abortion
By Joe Sommerlad,
18 hours ago
Melania Trump has revealed her opinion on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports – a topic that her husband Donald Trump and other Republicans have turned into a major political battleground in recent years.
The former first lady’s new memoir Melania was released on Tuesday, having already hit headlines for its revelation of a clear rift between Melania and the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump when it comes to abortion rights.
In stark contrast to her husband, Melania writes that abortion access is a “fundamental right” and acknowledges that they have political differences.
“Our differences create a more fascinating, creative, and innovative world,” the former model writes.
But, when it comes to transgender athletes, Melania appears to take a similar – and conservative – stance to her husband.
“Today, some groups attempt to impose their ideologies on everyone, deepening the divisions in our society. One example is the ongoing debate over trans inclusion in sports, specifically when male-born athletes who identify as female compete against women,” she writes.
“Male bodies generally have physical advantages – muscle strength, height, bone density, and lung capacity – that can affect fairness in competition, even at the high school level.”
She continues: “Some argue that the number of trans-athletes is low, but even one can upset the balance in a female league or tournament due to these physical advantages.
“High school athletes often dedicate years to training with the hope of being recruited by universities. Seeing that dream collapse is an unnecessary and avoidable consequence.
“This issue also has broader implications, including the loss of future earning potential as professional athletes and a potential setback for equal pay in sports.”
Foreseeing likely criticism, Melania insists she supports LGBT+ rights.
“As many of you may know, I fully support the LGBTQIA+ community. But we must also ensure that our female athletes are protected and respected,” she writes.
Trump himself once praised the inclusion of transgender contestants in his beauty pageants and even pledged to “defeat the cult of gender ideology” but has more recently taken to condemning the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports and has repeatedly made transphobic statements at his rallies.
This summer, he attacked Olympic gold medalist boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Li Yu-ting of Taiwan, falsely claiming of the competitors: “They were men. They transitioned to women.” The two female boxers faced a slew of hate.
He also promised to keep the “transgender insanity the hell out of our schools” at rallies in Wisconsin and Nevada last month and has taken to engaging in absurd scaremongering, without evidence of its ever actually happening, over the prospect of children being forced to undergo sex-change surgery against their will.
Who really cares what the reclusive lady who lives in an ivory tower thinks, eats or believes!! She ghosts her own husband if you can call him that! No marriage there they avoid each other!
Cruella
4h ago
Lots of green with envy here. It's a really ugly color.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.