THE PAIN-2-POWER PERSON OF THE WEEK: SELINA SOULE
Selina Soule deserves to be recognized as a Pain-2-Power Person of the Week because she is willing to stand up for her beliefs and fight for the truth against those who would destroy others for doing so.
Ms. Soule was a senior at Glastonbury High School in Connecticut when she became the lead plaintiff in a 2020 federal lawsuit against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC). The suit challenges the CIAC policy on transgender athletes which allows biologically male athletes to compete against biological females in girls’ sports. That policy meant she had to compete in track for four years against biological males who identified as female. Because those biological males were her competition and won, again and again, she lost out on the opportunity to compete in the New England Regional Championships.
By the way, what sort of people—knowing their bodies are stronger because of male characteristics—would compete against biological females, anyhow? And who convinced them that they were the real winners in those competitions? Because they weren’t. But, I digress.
Imagine if any characteristic other than gender were the issue here. For instance, are we prepared to let 18-year-old hockey players compete against 12-year-olds if those players feel, deep down, that they are far more like 12-year-olds psychologically than like 18-year-olds?
Let’s hope not. But anything could happen.
Ms. Soule is heroic because she is willing, despite Cancel Culture threatening to obliterate the lives of all who oppose far left-wing ideologies, to say what she thinks and act on it. That’s a terrific example for women and men, of any age.
Clearly, Ms. Soule does justice to her family name. She has more heart and soul than many men and women three times her age.
I also happen to agree with her (although that isn’t an absolute criteria for selection as a Pain-2-Power Person of the Week). The idea that biological males should be allowed to compete against biological females in sports denies the basic fact that men and women have different anatomies and different physiologies because they have different DNA. Think of the Heavyweight Champion of the World in boxing identifying as female, all of a sudden, and taking on a string of female boxers. Wouldn’t be a very pretty picture, would it. No, it would be a grotesque, bloody, possibly deadly show of biological truth meeting with cultural fiction.
The fact that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) sees it differently is proof positive that they cannot be trusted to play a role in the lives of the youth of Connecticut. If public programs bend as far in the direction of fiction as the CIAC and do damage to the lives of young women and men like Ms. Soule, they are the enemies of psychological well-being.
Ms. Soule was joined by two other high school track athletes in filing her lawsuit challenging the CIAC. They are represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, whose general counsel is Kristin Waggoner. The Alliance is a nonprofit organization which advocates for religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage and family.
Here, the Alliance is doing God’s work. Good for them.
And good for Selina Soule. She’s a hero. And she’s the Pain-2-Power Person of the Week.
Dr. Keith Ablow
Freedom,
I am so sorry you were attacked for voicing your opinion. That’s EXACTLY the kind of suppression of people and their ideas that I started Pain-2-Power to combat. Thank you for sharing your ideas here. Keith
Love the Angelou quote, Martha. Thank you for sharing it. Keith
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMAN’S DAY!
” Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women.”
– MAYA ANGELOU
Dear Dr Ablow,
Please print this one which I have edited for typos.
I agree 1000%. And incidentally, I was recently put in “Facebook Jail” for 30 days and accused of “Hate Speech” for saying just this. Even though I stated very clearly that I support whatever personal decisions individuals make regarding their gender identification, but that a transgender female who is in fact a biological male has no business competing on a girl’s sports team – and that as a former varsity Girl Athlete I feel very strongly about this. I stated that this is just common sense. A boy is a boy and a girl is a girl and a transgender is a transgender. And that if transgender people want to play competetive sports that much, well.. perhaps they should form their own transgender leagues. This would keep the playing field even. I said that that a transgender, biological male should not be able to beat out a female for a sports scholarship. Everything that has been articulated here by you and Ms. Soule. I was accused of “HATE SPEECH”. “It goes against our Community Standards” they said. WHAT Community Standards?!? If you so much as express an opinion or a point of view that differs from the mainstream narrative/agenda (which in case you haven’t noticed is being forced upon us these days) they shut you down. I need not tell you the levels of censorship that are going on now especially regarding lifesaving vital information about Covid that social media is proactively silencing right and left. This should alarm every American. Our sovereignty as citizens to decide what to put in our own bodies is a constitutional right. Transgenders on Girl’s sports teams is not. I applaud anyone who has the courage to stand up and speak out against tyranny in any form. I especially applaud Ms. Soule and the other brave Connecticut Girl Athletes for taking a stand to protect the sovereignty of Girl’s Sports and I hope many more female athletes will have the good sense to do the same. Thank you so much Dr Ablow for highlighting this very important issue which will help to make more people aware of what’s been going on, who hopefully will begin speaking out and taking a stand in their communities as well. This cannot be allowed to continue and it’s up to We the People to make these decisions – not governmental policy. Thank you so much!