Get your mind out of the gutter. This isn’t a post about Southern Decadence. My publicist would never let me print that. Plus, I’m a lady. (Or at least that’s what I tell myself while I’m there.) And if you’ve ever been to New Orleans, you know having a body part touch the street is risky at best. How we were able to convince a straight couple to make snow angels on Bourbon Street is a story I’ll save for another time.
But for now, law firms, universities, businesses, and news outlets across the U.S. have bent their knees to the dumpster fire currently running the country. One after another, they’ve caved. And he didn’t even have to buy them a drink first—just threaten to withhold cash.
While this has been going on for a while, I hadn’t really given it much thought, particularly with the cumulative ongoing madness. Then news broke last week that the University of Pennsylvania bowed to the Trump administration and erased Lia Thomas’s titles and swimming results, including her fifth-place tie with competitor and transphobic talking head Riley Gaines.
Additionally, Penn is required to write letters of apology to other female swimmers who were impacted by Thomas’s participation and commit to adopting biology-based definitions for male and female. For every transgender student—as well as every queer student—this news doesn’t bode well. Penn was more than willing to toss Lia Thomas overboard if doing so meant keeping some of their funding.
Too bad Penn isn’t the only one to drop trou and take a bow. Columbia cratered pretty quickly, and we’re watching DEI initiatives at universities and businesses disappear at an alarming rate. After years of working to create more inclusive environments for marginalized communities, those same communities are being sacrificed by their employers and their alma maters.
Nothing like having our backs. Nothing like making zero effort in standing up to tyranny.
Which made watching Harvard tell the administration to shove their threats such a thrill. We know it cannot last forever. However, seeing someone stand up and say they won’t be bullied by Trump’s bullshit threats was refreshing. And who in the administration thought suing the home of Harvard Law was a good idea? I don’t imagine they’re lacking attorneys to help support their efforts.
If we can only get more people to give them the legal finger. Not that Trump’s stooges aren’t already overwhelmed with court date after court date. Those executive orders have certainly kept them busy. But throwing in a few more lawsuits can’t hurt. We wouldn’t want them to get too comfortable.
In the meantime, Riley Gaines is somewhere reveling in the fact her transphobia scored a win. That years of whining about “men” competing in women’s sports finally paid off. No longer will she share her athletic participation with some “man.” She won. Or at least that’s what she’ll see.
However, the rest of us know better. As someone noted in one of the articles about Gaines no longer being tied with Thomas:
Congratulations! You still came in fifth.
