The Wingnut Grievance Bubble takes on...transgender girls and Irish dancing?

That's right; teach you children that winning at all costs isn't everything; it's the ONLY thing

On Dec. 3, a young transgender girl won her age category in the 2023 Southern Region Oireachtas Irish Dancing competition in Dallas, Texas. This means she will qualify to compete in the World Irish Dancing Competitions. For those who have been following transgender participation in other events, you can probably guess what happened next. Predictably, a slew of right-wing media articles dropped, claiming the 13-year-old girl had a “biological advantage” in competitive Irish dancing. Right-wing media personalities like Riley Gaines and major conservative outlets such as The Daily Wire and The Daily Signal decried her victory, claiming that she had a “biological advantage” in competitive Irish dancing.

• Erin Reed

Yes, Virginia, it’s called the “Wingnut Grievance Bubble” for a reason. It’s an island sealed off from reality, a place impenetrable to facts and reality, while propaganda, lies, and rumors always seem to find their way through. And the people who call the Right-wing Grievance Bubble home aren’t the sort of folks used to dispassionately parsing the facts behind a matter.

No, they’re used to going off half-cocked based on what their emotions and Fox News tell them. As reality-impaired as they tend to be, they believe what they believe. Facts and reason have no impact on those beliefs. So, when the denizens of the Wingnut Grievance Bubble claimed that the 13-year-old transgender girl in question had a “biological advantage,” the only reasonable question would be, “Did she?”

Irish dancing is a style of dancing well suited for competition. It typically features quick and graceful foot movement combined with a rigid upper body. According to the Teelin School of Irish Dance, judges grade on things such as good timing, pointed toes, graceful and energetic movement, confidence, and pleasant affect. It is a competition where grace, poise, and technique matter. On that same note, supposed “natural advantages” of transgender competitors after transitioning do not appear to be relevant to participating.

The girl in question, a 13-year-old, placed first in her age category at the event held in Dallas, Texas. According to reports from the event, parents of girls who lost later discovered that the winner was transgender. These parents then reached out to conservative media outlets, claiming the transgender girl “cheated” by competing according to her gender identity. In an exclusive article from The Daily Signal, one parent expressed that the transgender girl's victory was so upsetting, it made her want to cry. Another adult competitor, who is also a legislative strategist for Conservative Women for America, Maggie McKneely, clearly outlined that a transitioning dancer would likely face disadvantages due to having to learn differences in the dance style, in an attempt to portray the girl’s participation as wrong:

“Most sports, men and women tend to do the same basic activity, just at very different skill levels, but Irish dance is highly gendered,” explained McKneely, who works as a legislative strategist for the conservative organization, Concerned Women for America. “The two sexes wear different shoes, they wear different clothes, they actually have completely different dance styles. They’re really not interchangeable in any way.”

So, going by this definition, one could credibly argue that the 13-year-old transgender girl who won the girls’ competition did so after overcoming a significant initial disadvantage.

What lessons have the runner-up’s parents taught her when all is said and done? We could start with how to be a sore loser- never accept the idea that someone might have performed better than you did. You must always, always, ALWAYS find a way to blame others for the fact that you didn’t come out on top because you are a precious snowflake who takes a back seat to no one.

Lie, cheat, steal, deflect, deny…whatever it takes to win and to sully the winner’s performance as wrong and somehow tainted is what you’ll need to do. That way, even if (perish the thought) you fail in dethroning the championing, you’ll have tarnished her victory and raised enough questions to make people wonder if her triumph was legitimate.

If you don’t succeed at first, you must do everything you can to tarnish and attempt to disqualify the winner so that you (or your offspring) will be named the champion.

That way, even if you don’t win, you still win.

Because winning isn’t everything; it’s the ONLY thing- there’s the winner, and it doesn’t matter where everyone else finishes; they’re all losers.

Following the article’s publication, right wing conservatives took to twitter to attack the 13 year old girl. Riley Gaines, the swimmer who tied for 5th place with Lia Thomas and has used that event to lobby against transgender people in congress, stated that “a boy stole a qualifying spot for the upcoming World Championships in Irish dancing” and then urged people to sign a petition. Prisha Mosley, an anti-trans political detransitioner, thanked her for “bringing awareness and attention to these issues” and “the girls and families affected.” James Lindsay, who has been credited as one of the people responsible for the “groomer” slur towards LGBTQ+ people, said that “the trans menace in women’s sports is even showing up in Irish Dancing.” Colette Colfer, an anti-trans activist in Ireland, decried the girl’s participation and proclaimed, “Irish Dancing has fallen.” All of the aforementioned activists then spread a petition titled “Protect Irish Dancers in Gender-Specific World Qualifying Championships.”

Wow, that’s a lot of very hateful people getting pretty worked up about something that shouldn’t be seen to be a problem. No one has presented any evidence indicating that the girl who won had a biological advantage.

What we DO have are a lot of folks with a hateful, anti-transgender agenda willing to spew hatred and transphobia without evidence to support their claims. But they’re certainly willing to sully a 13-year-old’s name for the sake of…well, for the sake of WHAT?

I would only ask the haters what they believe they’re protecting Irish dancers from in “Gender-Specific World Qualifying Championships.” What specific advantages do they think a 13-year-old transgender girl might have that allowed her to win her competition? Especially since Irish dancing, being so specifically gendered, means that the transgender girl who won the girls’ competition had to re-learn a new style from the ground up. This would mean she had no “biological” (or any other) advantage.

In other words, the White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual crybabies need to stop their whining and start acting like adults because it sounds like the 13-year-olds are the mature ones in this scenario.

Perhaps it’s time for the adults to grow up…and stop teaching their kids that winning by any means necessary is the ONLY way. How about teaching them to be good people, gracious in defeat AND victory? And, while you’re at it, you might try teaching your children that love is a better default than hatred.

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