Don’t be fooled by the people who screech about "fairness" to cloak their bigotry toward transgender girls and women, the transgender girls and women who have the audacity to want to play sports, in particular.

This is, and always was, about hate, fear and ignorance.

ESPN’s Samantha Ponder is the latest to tell on herself, using a tweet by anti-trans activist Riley Gaines to "fight for the integrity of Title IX" and then patting herself on the back for her “support” of women’s sports...

There has been no shortage of stories in the last year about the actual ways in which women athletes are being treated unfairly and robbed of opportunities to participate. USA TODAY Sports, for one, did an entire series on the subject, detailing how most schools aren’t providing equitable funding for their men’s and women’s programs, are short-changing women athletes on scholarship money and are manipulating numbers to make it look as if they’re complying with Title IX, and how the federal government is doing little to stop it.

[Ponder's] public concern about “fairness” for female athletes starts and stops with the miniscule number of transgender women who are participating in sports.

Dig a little deeper into Ponder's timeline, and it's clear her hostility toward transgender women goes far beyond their participation in sports. In January, she replied, “Yes. Thank you.” to Megyn Kelly’s screed about a transgender woman going to the gynecologist.

“You can’t just become (a woman) and take all of our things,” Kelly ranted.

I’m at a loss as to how a transgender woman going to a gynecologist takes anything away from anyone, or how it’s any of Kelly or Ponder's business. Unless you are someone who wants to see the transgender community marginalized out of existence, that is.

“I’m genuinely sorry for my own cowardice in not speaking out sooner,” Ponder wrote to Gaines on Twitter in April.

Yes, it takes real courage for a woman with an inordinate amount of privilege to pile on a group that is already among the most vulnerable in our society....

Acceptance, be it in the form of support from family and friends or being able to partake in sports and other social activities, can reduce the risk of harm. Instead, Ponder endangers these already in-peril people by further amplifying the bogeyman that cisgender women’s participation in sports is being threatened by transgender girls and young women.

To be clear: It is not. Boys and young men are not waking up in the morning and deciding to transition so they can a win a race that afternoon. In the decade-plus the NCAA and International Olympic Committee have had protocols and policies for the participation of transgender athletes, a tiny number have competed and an even smaller number have made it to the podium....

If Ponder truly wanted to champion women's sports, she's had ample opportunity. But she hasn't. Because this has nothing to do with "fairness."

[msn.com]