Right. So I’m sure many of you have noticed how the International Chess Federation have banned MtF players from participating in women’s chess tournaments.

But why? many of you are asking.

There can’t be any reason other than shitting on trans people! others respond.

Nope. There is another reason, and it’s actually the more likely one.

MtF trans people have to have an unfair advantage, because if cis-women's brains were no less chess-able than cis-men's brains, then the men who run chess might notice that there’s a massive discrepancy in chess participation between cis men and cis women at every skill level. And having noticed that disparity, they might have to consider the possibility that they've created a sexist sub-culture on top of a sexist culture, and as a result women who might have been good at chess either never start or are chased out by the sexist assholes.

Genetic inferiority is the card they play to escape this frightening possibility that they are the baddies.

Seriously. This is all about avoiding any self-reflection or admission of sexism. That's it. In order to avoid that, they have to assume cis women are inherently inferior, and logic dictates that if cis women are inherently inferior, trans women are inherently superior.

Bingo, bango, bongo.

So, sure, you should tell the ICF to go fuck itself, but let’s be clear about how they’re shitting on cis women, not just trans people.