Grown Man Harasses Little Girl He Thinks is Trans

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It's not about protecting girls, or protecting women's sport, it's about being able to openly express bigotry without fear of repercussions. Always has been.

It’s just really sad that so much time and energy that could be spent on something not hateful is wasted on bigotry.

It reminds me of conservatives who are against abortion but aren’t doing much for the hordes of children in need of adequate care who are here.

If people cared about women’s sports, they’d do more about funding. The only time my parents talk about women’s sports is when they’re complaining about the trans community.

It's pure misogyny disguised as protecting kids. If they cared about kids, they would care about the potential emotional scars from harassing a child. It's become an excuse to bully any female who isn't fitting their messed up vision of what perfect femininity should look like. Make no mistake, asking for proof a child was born female is bullying. No one should have to prove their gender, no matter what beliefs on transgenderism are.

Also consider that Q-Anon's core belief is that everybody outside the MAGA bubble is a potential pedophile (or communist, or both). It's McCarthyism on crack.

Never mind that children are far more likely to be molested by someone they know, or even a family member, than a trans person in a public restroom.

Also, two words: Matt Gaetz.

Let's not forget Matt Walsh, while we're naming alt-right dweebs who think f*****g high school kids is acceptable.

Every accusation is a confession.

A children's track-and-field meet in Kelowna, British Columbia, was interrupted last week when a man allegedly accused a 9-year-old girl of being transgender.

The girl competing in the track meet in Kelowna last Thursday was not transgender, but sported a pixie haircut.  The day, which started out positive as the girl placed in the discus event, took a dark turn when the man began accusing her of being transgender.

The man at the Canada meet caused such a scene -- even asking the girl's mother, Heidi Starr, for a certificate of proof that her daughter was female -- that he was asked to leave, and the event was moved to a different area.

However, Starr said the man did not leave and continued to cause a scene.

She told Newsweek that while the man was demanding proof that her daughter was born female, his wife called her and the girl's other mother "genital mutilators", "groomers", and "pedophiles."

Starr said that the man claimed that her daughter and another girl with short hair should be disqualified from competing.  The event negatively impacted Starr's daughter, who shook and cried.

"She said, 'I think I would have placed if that man hadn't shouted at me,'" Starr said.

According to a statement from the Central Okanagan School District, the man has been banned from future school events.

"The person(s) who accosted the student and family was not from one of our Central Okanagan Public Schools.  In response, the District has worked with other local schools to identify the person(s) and we are taking steps to formally ban them from any District property or events," Superintendent of Schools and CEO Kevin Kaardal told Newsweek in a statement.

"The safety of our students and staff is our top priority, which includes protecting human rights and ensuring safe, inclusive places to learn and work.  We expect that adults who are invited to celebrate student success govern their behavior and conduct themselves with civility and respect."

Starr filed a report with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after the incident.

Newsweek reached out to the man accused of making the comments through a Facebook messenger request.

 Read the Full Newsweek Article Here 

It would not bother me in the least to find out that someone had "doxed" the man, his wife, their employers, and their church.

This guy is clearly mentally unwell. This happened and so, I guess, has some legitimacy as news. But mainly for the community in which it occurred.

It's only relevance to what might well be a legitimate debate about how trans athletes compete, is that that's the particular thing that fuels his mental illness. But it could be anything, could be Donald Trump, could be gun rights, Scooby Doo cartoons, whatever.

It's not evidence of anything, other than how poisonous culture wars are.

I wish we were better about separating these things. It makes it really hard to talk seriously about serious matters.

If being a bigoted jerk is a mental illness, then likely half of the people in politics and religion are mentally ill.

(We know who they are.)

I knew people back in the 'States whose "gay-dar" needed a complete overhaul.  They claimed any woman with short hair was a lesbian, any short-haired woman with a man was bisexual, and any short-haired woman with a muscular physique was trans.  They also claimed that any man with long hair was gay, any long-haired man with a woman was bisexual, and any long-haired man with a slim build was trans.

Some of them also claim that anyone wearing sunglasses (even in bright sunlight) was on drugs, and that tattoos meant the person was a paroled prison inmate.

The worst part is that no facts could ever convince them otherwise.

I'm well aware that this man's views are not rare, but his behaviour is rare. Otherwise it wouldn't be news and I wouldn't be reading about it from across the Atlantic ocean where it has zero bearing on my life.

There are many people who hold bigoted views, but most of them aren't shouting at children and parents at track and field meets. That's a behaviour which suggests mental illness to me. He's reacting to a perceived injustice that doesn't exist. He's seeing things that aren't there and he's imagining himself as some sort of vigilante, fighting a righteous fight against it. And he's hurting people in doing it.

Ranting online about this stuff isn't the same as shouting in people's faces about it. Perhaps it ought to be, but it isn't. For a start it's gutless and cowardly, and I'd wager more than 99% of them wouldn't say boo to a goose face-to-face.

That's the difference. That's what makes it news, not his views, but his behaviour. And it's the behaviour of someone who isn't well. In my opinion.

So I just wish we could tease apart the fact that yes, lots of people hold these views, some casually, some strongly, but they aren't all comparable to this man. Most, in fact, are not.

That doesn't make them not bigoted jerks. It doesn't make them anything. But if there is a legitimate debate to be had about the role of trans people in sports categorised by sex then it doesn't help to have stories like this presented as something to do with the 'trans debate' as the headline suggests. It has nothing to do with that, except in how culture wars can affect mental illness.

^ I tend not to automatically assume people have mental illnesses. I’m not a diagnostician. People can behave in absurd or extreme ways with or without mental illnesses.

The thing is, this is the side-effect of those debates. Those debates make some people worked up and unhinged to the point they feel justified yelling at small children at a track and field meet.

They do rile people up, especially those who already adhere to extreme Right ideology. They feel like they are the ones being persecuted. I could imagine members of my family behaving similarly under the right circumstances. I’ve observed a lot of extreme behavior from acquaintances over the years. It can’t ALL be due to mental illness.

It really could be, depending on how widespread undiagnosed mental illness is.

I'm willing to bet more than half of people are mentally ill, especially if distress is removed from the criteria.

I agree, but I don’t think that my acquaintances approach the level of mentally ill in which they are not in control of their behavior. They behave normally when it comes to things that don’t involve their belief system.

Technically, I’m mentally ill because I have PTSD (etc.), but I’m in no way eager to scream at children.

There’s probably an interplay of extreme beliefs and mental illness at work.

I wouldn't expect most mentally ill people to be unable to control their behaviour, otherwise they'd be more likely to get diagnosed or end up in trouble (where they might be steered towards mental health care).

There's definitely an interplay between mental illness and extreme beliefs and I wonder how much each influences the other. Conspiracy minded people seem to find political blocs that revel in conspiracies, for example. Those people seem to pull each other deeper into the mud, so to speak. Finding a bloc of like-minded crazies only seems to reinforce and augment their initial crazy.

Mentally ill people are more likely to join cults, but that’s by far not the only risk factor.