A 🧵
It’s the end of a 43-year love affair which started in 1971 with ballet shoes & school uniform
@JohnLewisRetail
and ended in 2024 with mixed changing rooms, bondage gear and fetishes. Britain’s favourite retailer and I have split up.
@zarahsultana
Almost 60 British women have won medals for
@teamGB
Not once have you applauded them in your timeline. Your tweet is more revealing than you know. Shame on you.
#SaveWomensSports
Hi
@keirstarmer
I’m a rower and a rowing coach and I’ve seen at first hand the impact of trans policies that allow biological males to compete in the female category. TEN British Indoor and THREE World Indoor WOMEN’S records are held by biological males.
#WhyWontYouListenKeir
‘Why has this scandal only come up in the last week,’ asks a journalist at the boxing press conference. Well partly because the sports journalists who could have investigated the disqualifications in 2023 didn’t follow up the story. 1/
The parents of ONE boy ruining sport for hundreds of girls, backed by a misogynist governing body that won’t stand up for females. I am sick of it.
#SaveWomensSport
Blood pressure warning. F*****g INFURIATING. FA not fit for purpose.
Top girls' football league faces being shut down by the Football Association for refusing to allow … via
Women of WRN Afghanistan stand with all women being disadvantaged by males in their sports. We are XX not XY. Men will use their strength to try to keep us down but women will always fight on
@WomensRightsNet
#XX
#SaveWomensSport
Women being erased:
@WelshRowing
can’t bring themselves to use the word woman so use three words instead ‘individuals who menstruate’ 🤦🏻♀️ I can hear it now: Coach shouting ‘could the individuals who menstruate please get in the boat’ Shame on you
@sportwales
@dsw_news
I need a lie down. There’s been an outbreak of common sense from our leaders…
* Sex offenders won’t be able to change name / ‘sex’
* No males on female hospital wards
* Gender woo erased from NHS info
What next? (Please let it be all sports single sex from grassroots up 🙏)
Great to see women’s health being taken seriously by
@BritishRowing
But ‘athletes that bleed’… ? Looking forward to the follow-up article on ‘athletes that ejaculate’. I’m sure it’s coming…
@CarilynJohnson
Mother of three boys here, reporting for duty in the Fight for Women’s Sports. You don’t have to have daughters to see the need for single-sex sport.
#SaveWomensSports
Congratulations to Kim O’Brien. Highest placed women in the European Women’s Champs. Shameful for the pool authorities that she chose to forfeit her place in the final because she’d have had to play a male competitor in the final.
#SaveWomensSports
Unbelievably the British JuJitsu Association has just updated its policy to continue allowing contact competition between males and females. And still links to the discredited Mermaids. What a shocker.
🚨🚨 Breaking: several male fighters have been brutalizing women in the combat sport of Jiu Jitsu‼️
@joerogan
Safety of female athletes MUST be prioritized over the preferences of men‼️ Save Women's Jiu Jitsu➡️
Hey
@WorldRowing
2.5nmol/l isn’t looking so clever now that
@WorldAthletics
have had the courage to Protect the Female Category. I hope very much that you are re-examining your policies and consciences to do the right thing for your female rowers.
The power of X and the brilliant
@Martina
Last week I tweeted about the outrageous policy of allowing males to compete in female Ju Jitsu. And today this… thanks to
@Martina
There are still 60+ sports in the UK that allow males in female categories. One sport at a time 🧗♀️
Where do these blokes think Olympians come from? EVERY athlete starts at grassroots level. Stifle the talent at grassroots with misguided and discriminatory policies and you will eventually wipe out women’s sport. Fairness and safety matter from the ground up.
#SaveWomensSport
Coe says female Olympians would never win gold medals again if they had to compete against trans women, but defends a more 'liberal' approach in the grass roots.
Allowing men in any female category is illiberal. Protecting all female sport is liberal.
Absolutely the most brilliant news. Well done to every rower who voiced their opinion to
@BritishRowing
and thank you to the Board for listening to your members and changing the rules so that women and girls now have fair rowing. Now,
@WorldRowing
, it’s your turn…
Exclusive: British Rowing is expected to announce tomorrow a dramatic abandoning of its controversial transgender policy, restricting the women's category solely to those born female
Thank you
@BBCWomansHour
for covering Women in Sport. As a coach of women and girls I’ve seen the fall out from policies that put inclusion over fairness. Girls drop out of sport. Why don’t women and girls deserve the fairness that males enjoy? We are limiting girls’ potential.
@SeneddWales
At least 80 women have been killed in the UK this year (stats from
@CountDeadWomen
). When is Women’s Day of Remembrance? Asking for a murdered friend.
Unbelievably the British JuJitsu Association has just updated its policy to continue allowing contact competition between males and females. And still links to the discredited Mermaids. What a shocker.
Calling all rowers who are members of British Rowing- we have been allowed an anonymous vote on Women’s Rowing. Deadline is 5pm Friday 5th May. Check your emails.
#SaveWomensSport
Very belatedly the MSM has suddenly discovered safety is an issue in women’s boxing.
@ReduxxMag
Stand Up and take a bow. You have bossed this and the world’s media is playing catch-up
🚨HAPPENING NOW🚨
The International Boxing Association is holding a press conference in Paris to address the issues surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting.
Dr. Ioannis Filippatos, the former Chair of IBA Medical Committee and an OB/GYN with
One of the most depressing aspects of the Gender Recognition Act going through
@ScotParl
this week is the complete failure to listen to women. In sport: ‘no female sports participants, athletes, academic or legal experts invited to give evidence…’
@Womans_Place_UK
Isn’t it time the
@iocmedia
sorted this out? I’m ashamed that my own sport
@worldrowing
is one of the sports that does not protect the female category at international level. We need all sports to follow the same rules: NO males in female sports.
#FairSafeEqual
#SaveWomensSports
A great start to
@TeamGB
medal tally yesterday with medals in women’s diving and cycling (both sports have protected the female category). If you want to check which sports are Fair and which have bottled on protecting the female category, check out our
#Olympics
Sports Guide.
This 👇🏻it’s already happening. Women have dropped out of indoor rowing competitions because they come up against males time and again. TEN British and THREE World Indoor Rowing Women’s records are held by males.
@Telegraph
@WomensSport
“In its response the LGB Alliance said the answer was to ensure that people born male were barred from women’s sports..all sports regulators must recognise that unless women’s sports can continue to be single-sex they will wither & die”
#SaveWomensSports
Brava these girls standing up for their rights to safe and fair sport. Where are the sports administrators and coaches standing up for women and girls? MIA. Thank you
@Riley_Gaines_
for giving these girls a voice.
‘For all the women out there, Yes Kim’. Toughest thing to do for a sportswoman to forfeit her chance of winning. Huge kudos to all the women who are battling for fair and safe sport.
#SaveWomensSports
A video of the concession by Kim O Brien in today's European Championships final 👏 🙌 💪. Its sad because i know how difficult this is for her right now aswell. 😢 But I am so proud of her 💓
It took an independent media outlet to expose this scandal. The vast majority of mainstream media is so up its own fundiment with gender nonsense that it didn’t bother with the story. (A few honourable exceptions)
🎯 The
@BBCSport
has never interviewed the sportswomen who have been cheated out of medals by males in female sports categories. Why? Are women not worthy of their own sports? The BBC thinks not.
#SaveWomensSports
Where the heck is the sympathetic interview with Lynne Pinches who actually lost out on a title?
@steve_mawhinney
you need to take control of your department
‘Walkout sparked 'vile' and 'horrific' abuse, says trans pool player’
Women’s sport is being destroyed by males who pretend to be female. Our sports governing bodies & Sports Councils are complicit in allowing men to worm their way into our sports / changing rooms / toilets. Those are the facts.
#FactIsNotHate
#TruthIsNotHate
#SaveWomensSport
I put up with the mixed changing rooms. The eyeball assault of wall-to-wall Pride flags. The extortions to ‘Be Ourselves’. But when
@JohnLewisRetail
recommended breast binders and published photographs of partners in their favourite fetishwear, something had to give…
I got hold of
@JohnLewisRetail
’s new internal staff magazine, ‘Identity’.
It shocked me.
-Recommending breast binders for kids
-Peer pressuring staff to wear pronoun badges
-A wordsearch containing words like ‘transitioning’ and ‘cisgender’.
Read here.
I clicked the link: ‘We are looking to speak to a mix of people so on this occasion this is all the questions we have for you.’ No questions asked. Literally.
So, I’m the wrong kind of John Lewis customer. It hurts but I’ll get over it.
Goodbye
@JohnLewisRetail
In rowing, males have been mopping up Women’s indoor rowing medals and setting World and British records for 15+ years.
@WorldRowing
know this and have sat on their hands. They do nothing because women’s sport is not seen as important. Time for Change. Now.
It took 76 days from Austin Killips winning cycling's Tour of the Gila to the UCI imposing its transgender ban. Just as sport was captured by trans ideology with dizzying speed, it can extricate itself just as quickly.
Time for the IOC to step up. Column
I wrote to customer services. No reply. I wrote again. Radio silence. Well, I can take a hint. John Lewis doesn’t love me anymore. It’s over. I’ve cut up my partnership card. Closed the My John Lewis and My Waitrose memberships.
I can’t continue to support a company in thrall to an ideology that threatens so much of what I hold dear: the right of children to puberty, the right to grow up with a healthy body and full sexual function, to discover their sexual identity, rights to single-sex spaces / sports.
I wrote to Dame Sharon White asking why John Lewis seemed intent on alienating its core customer base, women like me. I explained how uncomfortable I was with my favourite store promoting an ideology that supported the medical and surgical mutilation of children. No reply.
I just don’t know what it’s going to take for those who run sports venues / competitions to wake up to the obvious safeguarding risks of allowing adult men to wander around women’s changing rooms at will. Wilful blindness.
British Swimming changes rules after parents complained that trans pool volunteer, 60, was wandering through female changing rooms while their teenage daughters were using them making the girls feel 'uncomfortable' | Daily Mail Online
‘She has been accused of having an unfair advantage because she can hit a ball further than a female born player’. That’s because Hailey is male.
@GMB
wake up and smell the coffee. Your viewers aren’t idiots. Call a male what he is.
#SaveWomensSports
Transgender golfer, Hailey Davidson, says she fears for her safety after winning a place on a US tour designed to provide 'growth opportunities' for female players.
She has been accused of having an unfair advantage because she can hit a ball further than a female born player.
Thank you
@BritishRowing
for inviting me to talk Women’s Rowing yesterday. A great opportunity to discuss the science and legal issues surrounding women’s sport. We also heard the ‘voices’ of rowers, coaches, rowing officials and their concerns for fairness, safety and inclusion.
@usrowing
Wow! You really don’t want women and girls access to fair and safe sport do you? What an absolute dog’s dinner of a policy. The loud and clear message is that women and girls are not valued in rowing. How depressing for your female athletes.
Hiding replies when a MAN wins a WOMEN’S competition doesn’t hide the misogyny in the game of pool
@ultimatepool_
Top female pool players have thrown in the towel because of your unfair rules. Message to women and girls: take up another sport.
#SaveWomensSports
@BritishVogue
Honestly, I expect better of Vogue than regurgitating this claptrap. A once-great magazine now reduced to printing a whinge-fest of staggering proportions. Read the Room. Women have suffered greatly because of sports allowing men to compete in the female category. Get over it.
Good luck to the rowers at British Masters’ Champs this weekend. Sad that masters women have been most affected by discriminatory policies at national and international level. 10
@BritishRowing
and at least 3
@WorldRowing
women’s indoor records held by males.
#SaveWomensSport
#SummerOfSport
British Rowing Masters Championships is this weekend at the National Watersports Centre, Nottingham
Women in the masters’ categories have been most affected by policies that allow males to compete in female categories
TEN Women’s Indoor Rowing masters’ records
Well, well, well… according to Mermaids website they delivered gender ID training to
@BritishRowing
The same Mermaids currently being investigated by
@ChtyCommission
Could this explain why the new Trans Policy is as Woo as it gets?
Then something changed. It started with the changing rooms. No longer female due to ‘inclusivity’. Then the progress pride flag was plastered all over the shop floor. That dreadful ad with the boy in a dress trashing a house. But the last straw was Ruby, the trans fetishist…
A British retailer is under fire after featuring a transgender BDSM fetishist in a new ad campaign highlighting "LGBTQ+" employees.
Ruby Geoffrey Michael Porcelain Whitcombe was profiled as part of the John Lewis Identity Project.
@BBCWomansHour
@meerasodha
@BBCNuala
Hello
@BBCWomansHour
I love food as much as the next woman but there’s a massive failure to protect women’s safety at the
#OlympicGames
happening NOW. Do you think you might get around to covering the males in women’s boxing story? Thank you, A Listener
@McCainUKIE
The Chips are Down! I just made a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about the stereotypical and derogatory language aimed at women in this ad.
Fears
@HenleywRegatta
would be targeted by Fair Sport protesters were a little overblown in
@thetimes
What actually happened: a peaceful demonstration of the rules in our sport that allow self-ID of males into the female category. Well done to
@WomensRightsNet
#SaveWomensSport
It would help matters if our Sports Minister
@StuartAndrew
pulled his finger out and ordered sports NGBs to comply with the Equality Act and the recommendations of the Sports Councils Equality Group. He is missing in action on this.
@KemiBadenoch
could you have a word please?
Blood pressure warning. F*****g INFURIATING. FA not fit for purpose.
Top girls' football league faces being shut down by the Football Association for refusing to allow … via
Girl and woman, I’ve been a loyal John Lewis customer. Those ballet shoes started a lifelong retail relationship.
@JohnLewisRetail
was my first port of call for a bolt of ivory shot silk, from which I made my wedding dress. It’s where I bought my baby’s pram and nursery goods.
I knew this was
#NotACultureWar
when I was at an Indoor Rowing Championship where a man was competing in the female category and when my colleague had to remove a group of junior girls from the changing rooms because a man was getting undressed in there.
NEW: This is
#NotACultureWar
The needs and rights of half the population are not a culture war, a niche issue or a distraction. Single-sex provision is a real issue in practice.
“It’s a culture war” is another version of “calm down, dear" ⬇️
Great to be coaching young people again this morning. An extra spring in my step knowing that every girl on this course has fair competition to look forward to, under the new
@BritishRowing
eligibility criteria. Now we just need
@WorldRowing
to value women rowers.
‘We spoke to hundreds of people and the vast majority were absolutely gobsmacked that any one of the crews in the female category could have a male in it’. Great write up by
@henleystandard
of
@WomensRightsNet
demo
@HenleywRegatta
last weekend.
I trusted JL to fit my children’s first school shoes. I bought washing machines, curtains, blinds, Christmas presents, beauty products, perfume, garden furniture, a sewing machine, knitting wool, rugs, pictures, mirrors… everything.
An email from my once-beloved retailer popped into my Inbox this morning: Why Did You Close Your Account it asked, and invited me to click through to ‘Tell us what you think’. At last, John Lewis is listening to its customers…
Such a great advert for girls’ sport. Banned from TikTok because 🤷🏻♀️ Hurty feelz? Please share this widely. It deserves to be seen, and heard.
#SaveWomensSports
A winning locking duo, a loose forward trio to admire, plus a strong midfield combination -
@TheRunHomeSENZ
's team list of iconic NZ women is full of gamebreakers! 💪
Nothing will change until the Sports Governing Bodies grow some cojones and change the rules to support fairness and safety for their female athletes.
#SaveWomensSport
‘It’s just one cycle event’.
‘It’s just one swimming race’
‘It’s just one event at Olympics’
‘It’s just one place in a marathon of 1000s’
‘It’s just Park Run’
‘It’s just PART of the prize money’
‘It’s just a minority of women speaking out’
No. It’s unjust.
#SaveWomensSport
The ONLY reason males have been allowed to compete in women’s sport is because of weak sports governing bodies who have not stood up for their female athletes. Shame on all of the Boards of NGBs that have allowed this to happen.
Where the heck is the sympathetic interview with Lynne Pinches who actually lost out on a title?
@steve_mawhinney
you need to take control of your department
‘Walkout sparked 'vile' and 'horrific' abuse, says trans pool player’
‘the FA has experienced very little negative reaction to its policy on the grounds of either safety or fairness.’ Really? Women are furious. Parents are incandescent. Coaches are stuck with terrible rules. The
@FA
is getting negative reaction. But ignores it.
#SaveWomensSports
The FA is resisting government pressure and will continue to allow transgender women to compete in women's football, Sports Editor
@stevescott_itv
writes
Yet another misogynist students union bigging up the boys who have no place in women’s sport. Loud and clear message to all sporty girls. Don’t put Goldsmiths on your UCAS form. You won’t be valued or supported.
#SaveWomensSports
@GoldsmithsSU
@GoldsmithsUoL
NINE MILLION women are on Mumsnet. 76% of them say politicians IGNORE their views. Powerful stuff. Mums keep society going. Ignore them at your peril. Great stuff from
@MumsnetTowers
We’ve launched our first Mumsnet Manifesto, with a series of asks for the next govt that reflect our campaigning work on women's health, women's safety, the motherhood penalty and political representation over the past twenty years. You can read it here👇
If this isn’t the wake-up call sports’ governing bodies need then I don’t know what is. A medal podium in a FEMALE category filled with MALES. Message to girls: don’t bother with sport, you aren’t welcome. And where the USA goes, the UK follows.
#SaveWomensSport
In a martial arts tournament last week, several females boycotted because of the surplus of males competing against the women.
In most of the women's divisions, there were more males than females competing. In one of the women's division, there were ONLY males left competing as
‘World Rowing indicates that it will wait until after next year’s Paris Olympics before making a definitive ruling. Why?’ Another excellent assessment of the trans shambles in sport.
@worldrowing
what are you waiting for?
It took 76 days from Austin Killips winning cycling's Tour of the Gila to the UCI imposing its transgender ban. Just as sport was captured by trans ideology with dizzying speed, it can extricate itself just as quickly.
Time for the IOC to step up. Column
Dear
@lisanandy
As our new
@DCMS
minister take a look at Pool as an example of a sport trashed by rules allowing males into the female category. No one can claim this is fair for females.
#SaveWomensSport
In Pool 🎱.Currently; Our Women's National Singles Champion is a Man. Our Women's Champion of Champions is a Man. Our Women's European Champion is a Man. Our Women's Masters Champion is a Man. Our Women's World Champions team contains a Man. Let that sink in
@sharrond62
@Glinner
If you haven’t watched the brilliant Australian Senator Claire Chandler, she’s worth a moment of your time. In the UK we have very few politicians and sports chiefs willing to support female athletes from grassroots through to elite. Your silence is deafening.
#SaveWomensSports
Senator Claire Chandler of
#Australia
has been one of the few politicians who has supported female athletes from the beginning.
Enjoy this speech.
It’s a beauty.
#SaveWomensSports
It’s one of the busiest rowing weekends…thousands of rowers reaping the results of their winter training. Sadly, women & girls race with no guarantee of Fairness in the female category due to
@BritishRowing
and
@WorldRowing
policies that allow male entries.
#SaveWomensSports
@WomensRightsNet
What a shocker.
@networkrail
- take this seriously. How can his colleagues not have called him out on this misogyny and as for the predatory comments about young men… no words. 🤦🏻♀️ why does it take an article in
@MailOnline
to expose this? The railway need to root this out
We go again.
@HenleyRegatta
Today I wear the suffragette colours to mark
#GlobalWomensDay
For women everywhere especially the women of Afghanistan, Iran and all nations where women and girls do not have the freedoms we take for granted.
#RespectMySex
‘If men aren’t making it as difficult as possible for women to compete at the highest level, they’re flooding women’s sport with trans players.’ Scorching article from
@camillalong
@thetimes
Agree with every word.
Another woman has to give up on the sport she loves because of a pathetically weak sports governing body that won’t protect female sport. Well done Sarah Dunn. Shame on you World Women’s Snooker Tour for allowing this.
@WPBSAofficial
The big issue of the day, apart from obviously
#BlokeInAWig
is that he’s standing for The Green Party and owns a range of wigs that are plastic, can’t be recycled, won’t compost, made from oil. How very Green.
#hypocrisy
is off the scale
‘We wish to register our dismay and disappointment’… or ‘what the f@*k were you thinking’?
When 17 women’s groups have to write to the UN because they can’t tell a
#blokeinafrock
from an actual woman then we have a problem. The UN is failing women and girls.
A lot of discussion about the
@HenleywRegatta
article in
@Telegraph
today. Here’s my take…
I don’t know any coach in the UK who would select a boy to race in a girls’ crew for this (or any event). Careers are at stake… 1/7
Man with Patience of a Saint explains sports categories to Man Who Should Know Better given that he works in Sports Programming. Misogyny alive and well at
@SkySports
Thank you
@Scienceofsport
@NakulMPande
The "unbeatable advantage" bit you have taken from these tweets is you manipulating an argument. Because of normal overlap between the populations, some women outperform many men, everyone knows this. But it's irrelevant, as you surely know, no? Or do you need this explained too?
@ultimatepool_
Oh please spare us. This male has taken the trophy that should have been won by a woman (the adult human female variety). Stop gaslighting us.
#SaveWomensSport
Wow! A sports organisation blocking a women from their Twitter feed for asking perfectly reasonable questions about their policies.
@parkrunUK
is
#Unfairforfemales
… The UK Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Association which has no Trans Policy on its website. I would advise the
@ukbjja
to get onto this pronto and ensure that the rules are put in place to ensure fairness AND safety for women and girls taking part.
🙋🏻♀️ Is there a reason for our publicly-funded national broadcaster
@BBCSport
hiding replies supporting fairness in women’s sport? I’d like to know, and so would the many women & girls who’ve been cheated out of podium places and team selection by cheating males.
#SaveWomensSports
British shot putter Amelia Strickler says plans by World Athletics to allow transgender women to continue to compete in female international track and field events "would leave women at a serious disadvantage".
Full story ⬇
So.
@UCI_cycling
Held an extraordinary general meeting to sort out their unfair policies. Begs the question why
@WorldRowing
can’t do the same. Instead we’re told we have to wait for the congress after Paris 24. Fair rowing for women isn’t a priority.
#SaveWomensSport
This is a conference on CHILD HEALTH. Police were called to keep the peace. Has anyone asked these thugs why they are so keen to keep children in a pre-pubertal state and then give them hormones that may (will) cause sterility and long-term health problems?
#FirstDoNoHarm
The chilling testimony from
@Rileygaines
of being exposed to a naked male in the women’s changing rooms should send shockwaves through any sport NGB that allows males to self-ID into female sport. More than 50 sports in the UK allow males into female categories (AND their
Great thread. I, too, just wanted to row and coach but while men are taking women’s medals and rowing records, and coming into our changing rooms, I couldn’t stay quiet. I’ve annoyed a few people but I hope it will be worth it when the sport I love finally comes to its senses.
Great to see this story hit the nationals. My cycling friends have some horrendous stories of turning up at Breeze rides to find males in the group. And don’t think it’s only cycling. The majority of sports welcome males into female grassroots and recreational activities.
Exclusive: British Cycling urged to close policy blindspot after biological males enter women-only events.
It has thrown one female ride leader off its Facebook group for using the term 'male', on the pretext that this constitutes discriminatory language
Sport is absolutely screwed if we’re now allowing females to take testosterone - A BANNED SUBSTANCE - and then issue a Therapeutic Use Exemption because y’know ‘trans’ or ‘non-binary’. The doctors facilitating cheating should take a hard look at themselves.
The precedent has been set, non-binary people are more equal than other people.
Trans/ NB identified female Cal Calamia has been granted a therapeutic use exemption by the USADA to take a performance-enhancing substance, testosterone.