Exceptions do not invalidate rules. Nor do people deserve scolding when they hastily recognize the rule in one of its rare exceptions.
Nonetheless, when enough evidence has surfaced to suggest that a case might involve the exception rather than the rule, those who reacted in harshness and haste have a moral obligation to acknowledge it. But they owe no apology, for the rule itself prompted their reaction in the first place.
Thursday on the social media platform X, former collegiate swimmer and current women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines reacted with understandable indignation to the sight of masculine-looking Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif delivering such devastating punches that Italian opponent Angela Carini quit the match after 46 seconds.
“Men don’t belong in women’s sports #IStandWithAngelaCarini Let’s get it trending,” Gaines posted.
X owner and fellow anti-woke champion Elon Musk reposted Gaines’ post.
“Absolutely,” Musk replied.
As of Friday morning, Musk’s post had more than 170 million views.
Absolutely https://t.co/twccUEOW9e
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 1, 2024
Do you agree with Riley Gaines?
Gaines and Musk were not alone.
In fact, when I wrote about this on Thursday, I referred to anyone who believes that men should fight women as “demon-possessed swine.”
I stand by that general assertion. But I also acknowledge that it appears not to apply — or at least not to apply conclusively — to this particular case.
On Thursday morning, evidence suggesting that Khelif is, in fact, female began circulating on social media.
“ALGERIAN BOXER WAS BORN A WOMAN. Imane is a woman. She has hyperandrogenism, a condition characterized by abnormally high androgen levels in her blood, leading to elevated testosterone and the presence of XY chromosomes. This is a natural disorder,” journalist Sulaiman Ahmed posted.
ALGERIAN BOXER WAS BORN A WOMAN
Imane is a woman
She has hyperandrogenism, a condition characterized by abnormally high androgen levels in her blood, leading to elevated testosterone and the presence of XY chromosomes.
This is a natural disorder. pic.twitter.com/2VHqCUK6Zw
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) August 1, 2024
Not long thereafter, popular independent journalist Dom Lucre, who had more than 1.4 million followers on X as of Friday morning and has emerged as a prominent online supporter of former President Donald Trump, reported the same, adding in a lengthy post that Khelif suffers from a genetic disorder known as Differences in Sex Development.
The UK’s National Health Service defined DSD as “a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs, including genitals,” which “means a person’s sex development is different to most other people’s.”
Among many possible symptoms and explanations for DSD, the NHS cited androgen insensitivity.
“Complete insensitivity to androgens makes a person with XY chromosomes female,” the NHS wrote.
🔥🚨BREAKING NEWS: Imane Khalif the Algerian boxer that went viral at the world Olympics was born a WOMAN. She was banned at the World Championships because of the unfair advantage her genetic disorder (DSD) gives her. Transgender surgeries are outlawed in Algeria, it has also… pic.twitter.com/LFWV2loCZN
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) August 1, 2024
Lucre also noted that Algeria does not permit transgender surgeries.
In fact, the pro-LGBT publication Equaldex gave Algeria a score of only 13/100 on its “Equality Index.” The North African nation prohibits not only gender-altering surgery but gay marriage and homosexuality.
Thus, it ought to have seemed absurd that Algeria would send a transgender athlete to the Olympics.
Still, Khelif has encountered prior objections to boxing females.
Per the New York Post, the International Boxing Association disqualified her and another boxer from the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships due to DNA test results that, according to IBA president Umar Kremlev, “proved they had XY chromosomes.”
Those XY chromosomes loomed large on Thursday even after reports surfaced of Khelif’s female birth.
End Wokeness, an account with more than 2.8 million followers on X, rejected reports that complicated Khelif’s situation.
“‘It’s more complicated than that.’ No, it’s literally not. Biology is biology,” End Wokeness posted.
“It’s more complicated than that”
No, it’s literally not. Biology is biology. pic.twitter.com/kgewq203g0
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 2, 2024
Former UFC fighter Jake Shields took a similar approach.
“Women have XX chromosomes while men have XY. This boxer has XY chromosomes and male testosterone levels. I don’t know anything about how she was raised but the science clearly says she’s a man,” Shields wrote.
There is a lot of debate on whether this boxer is a man or woman so I’ll make it simple
Women have XX chromosomes while men have XY
This boxer has XY chromosomes and male testosterone levels
I don’t know anything about how she was raised but the science clearly says she’s a… pic.twitter.com/vl7acGHwKA
— Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) August 2, 2024
At this point, it is probably best to adopt the perspective of legendary Christian author C.S. Lewis.
“Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, ‘Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that,’ or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils,” Lewis once wrote.
In the Khelif-Carini fight, we have the story of a filthy atrocity that might not be quite true. So we must not cling to it.
At the same time, however, we should admit why so many people assumed the truth of it. After all, women have already suffered life-altering injuries while competing against men.
Furthermore, in light of transgenderism’s years-long invasion into women’s spaces, the idea of Olympic officials sanctioning a fight between a man and a woman for the sole purpose of parading their own perceived moral virtue seemed highly plausible.
Once we have corrected the record and wished both fighters the best, that remains the real story.
