this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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Woman refuses Cycling UK award over trans women being left out (www.bbc.co.uk)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/lgbtq_plus@beehaw.org
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Claire Sharpe says she disagrees with Cycling UK only naming cis women in their top 100 list.

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[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 days ago

"If they don’t want to ride with all women, that’s not the kind of ride I want to be on anyway,”

Yes! This is the solidarity that we love to see.

Being in community with trans folk (and especially trans women) has infinitely improved my ability to be comfortable in and even enjoy my own gender, as well as making me a better feminist.

Assholes on the right like to ask "what is a woman?", but the truth is that I don't know. I know that I am a woman, but I am just one data point and I don't feel equipped to answer such a general question. It's only through being open to other women's lived experiences that I can usefully build my idea of what it means to be a woman.

None of us are free until all of us are free.

[–] flora_explora@beehaw.org 27 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I really don't like that apparently "biological women" is being adopted to mean "cis women". I'm also biologically a woman, at least in part. My main sex hormone is estrogen and my testosterone is so low you cannot even measure it. So it would plainly be false to call me a "biological man". Just call me a trans woman and those that you call "biological women" cis women. Otherwise this feels like we are adopting terf terminology :(

[–] stray@pawb.social 12 points 2 days ago

Furthermore, the brain is not separate from biology; it's a body part the same as any other organ. There's plenty of research to suggest (not prove yet) that gender identity correlates to where various parts of the brain lie on a masculine-feminine spectrum, forming an individual mosaic, like a fingerprint or snowflake. Trans women are biological women in every possible sense of the phrase, and this wording is obviously chosen to de-legitimize gender identity.

[–] apotheotic@beehaw.org 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Came here to say this, the "biological man/woman" phrasing is so rooted in high school level biology

[–] cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

Know. They know about the android infiltration, and how agents are often assigned the wrong hardware.

Thats why so many transcwomen are so good at code.

[–] Deyis@beehaw.org 4 points 2 days ago

Also, "woman" is a gender category and therefore based in social conventions, not biology.

[–] TehPers@beehaw.org 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't think you understand. By taking hormones, you have forgone the weakness of your flesh and adopted an artificial, non-biological body.

Some post-menopausal cis women do this as well, which is why you don't often see older women winning sports awards either. Some men do too, but that's different because obviously it is (don't ask why, I didn't make the rules).

[–] flora_explora@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not sure if I understand you correctly. You mean this is the terfs' essentialism shining through, which sees "women" as inherently inferior to "men"? It is pretty weird that those "radical" ""feminists"" have such a patriarchal view on gender and sex.

[–] TehPers@beehaw.org 1 points 1 day ago

For my last part? Yeah I don't know. Nobody seems to ever talk about how common hormones are for cis people when they talk about banning them. But yes, I was playing on the fact that for some reason women tend to be treated disproportionately (and hypocritically) worse.

[–] cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah but you did run on silicate body chemistry until you transitioned to a machine body in 2018.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 days ago

the people who push "biological women" nonsense have never cared about women' sport or women; it's just a patriarchal desire to mandate draconian gender norms.

good on claire! <3

[–] marcela@lemmy.blahaj.zone 58 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What Claire Sharpe did and what she said was really nice. The way BBC covered it, by counterpointing each one of her remarks with up to three TERF viewpoints whitewashed as "women rights campaigners", not as much. BBC and NYTimes are complicit to trans genocide. Having said that, I'd prefer a better source linked because there is a reason I am getting my news from lemmy and not the mainstream.

[–] MystValkyrie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I think this article is better, and also goes in more depth on the other women who declined besides Claire Sharpe. The BBC article was difficult to get through.

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/cycling-uk-100-women-in-cycling-trans-exclusion

[–] marcela@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yes it was difficult to get through because the mental gymnastics they did to try and make TERFs palatable was more exhausting than cycling itself.

Edit: Yes, that was a much more inspiring and fair coverage. THANKS!

[–] cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

How does 'biological women' exclude trans women?

Except the silicon based and robotic trans women. Obviously.

[–] Deyis@beehaw.org 3 points 2 days ago

Except the silicon based and robotic trans women. Obviously.

Transhuman rights now!

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 days ago

"For our awards to comply with the law we have to limit who can be considered for an award to biological women only," she explained.

"This change to the awards doesn't alter our strong commitment to including and supporting all those who cycle, including transgender and non-binary people.

What about just not having the awards then

[–] cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 days ago

It's because trans women are beings of pure energy, having ascended beyond the need for flesh

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The article doesn't include a quote from Sharpe using the terminology biological women, so I'm not sure why you've chosen that wording in your post body. She says at one point "If they don't want to ride with all women, then it's not the kind of ride I want to be part of".

[–] LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I didn't. Lemmy did automatically

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Weird, and kind of gross, that BBC included something that wasn't in the article in the link preview. Would you be able to edit your post? It doesn't seem fair to Sharpe to attribute it to her.