CNN reported Tuesday “it’s not possible to know a person’s gender identity at birth, and there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth.”
What the hell? https://t.co/qNEDNGYbMh
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) March 31, 2021
The article, which highlighted executive orders from South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem that bar male athletes from competition in women’s sports without an enforcement mechanism, is advertised by the network as “news” written by CNN breaking news reporter Devan Cole, rather than opinion.
“Though the two executive orders signed by Noem do not explicitly mention transgender athletes, they reference the supposed harms of the participation of ‘males’ in women’s athletics,” Cole wrote, describing them as “an echo of the transphobic claim, cited in other similar legislative initiatives, that transgender women are not women.”
The orders, Cole continued, “also reference ‘biological sex,’ a disputed term that refers to the sex as listed on students’ original birth certificates.”
Male and female distinctions then, according to CNN, are a mirage of the imagination.
The same network ran ads encouraging viewers to identify certain fruits as they appear, in which apples and bananas were metaphorical symbols for facts. The transcript and the ad are below:
This is an apple. Some people might try to tell you that it’s a banana. They might scream banana, banana, banana, over and over again. They might put ‘BANANA’ in all caps. You might even start to believe that this is a banana. But it’s not. This is an apple.
Remember when the propaganda outlet CNN ran an ad campaign about "facts" called "this is an apple, this is a banana"? Maybe they should work on "this is a penis, this is a vagina." https://t.co/RiaQYM8es8
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) March 31, 2021
Noem signed the executive orders Monday to prohibit male competition in women’s sports in K-12 schools and institutions of higher education after spoiling her GOP star power this month when, at the behest of woke corporate interests, she vetoed legislation to accomplish that permanently, with opportunities for enforcement the executive orders do not have. While Noem passed off on a “style and form” veto to send the bill back to the Republican-controlled statehouse, lawmakers overwhelming rejected the governor’s demanded changes, which gut the bill.
Noem’s executive orders however, appear to lack the same legal teeth as laws passed by legislators. Scholars at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a First Amendment legal non-profit which has led the fight on protecting the integrity of women’s sports, condemned Noem’s orders as “a suggestion.”
Instead of signing a law to protect female collegiate athletes in South Dakota, @govkristinoem issued a suggestion. We must do better to protect women's sports. Let's keep fighting to #SaveWomensSports https://t.co/fAWncg0aLs https://t.co/lfp8y7647a pic.twitter.com/J1eX93IeBp
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) March 30, 2021
University of South Dakota Political Science Professor Michael Card cast doubt on the governor’s orders, enforced through the state secretary of education, possessing the same authority as statehouse legislation.
“It’s not clear that the Secretary of Education can do much in that respect,” Card told KELO-TV, a local South Dakota outlet. “Except, on a year by year basis, the school board can make that delegation, but it’s not clear the Secretary of Education can do that, again I’m not an attorney but that’s what the statute seems to read.”
