Politics

J.K. Rowling went after trans Paralympian sprinter Valentina Petrillo — and failed

Published

8 months ago

November 12, 2024

J.K. Rowling went after trans Paralympian sprinter Valentina Petrillo — and failed

If you thought J.K. Rowling was done ranting about transgender athletes now that the Paris Olympic Games have long been over, you’d be wrong. After taking about two weeks off from social media, the once-beloved children’s author was back at it this week, going on at length about 51-year-old Valentina Petrillo, an Italian Paralympic sprinter who happens to be transgender.

Rowling’s gender critical allies also decried Petrillo’s participation in the Games as “unfair,” and called on Paralympic officials to ban trans women from the Games.

Rowling posted a grainy photo of Petrillo on X and wrote: “Why all the anger about the inspirational Petrillo? The cheat community has never had this kind of visibility! Out and proud cheats like Petrillo prove the era of cheat-shaming is over. What a role model! I say we give Lance Armstrong his medals back and move on. #Cheats #NoShame.”

Elsewhere, several of Rowling’s gender critical allies also decried Petrillo’s participation in the Games as “unfair,” and called on Paralympic officials to ban trans women from the Games.

“This ‘inclusive’ policy, in the name of being progressive, is actually regressive as the policy excludes women because BIOLOGY!” tennis legend Martina Navratilova wrote on X. Navratilova, who has long been vocal about her preference for excluding trans women from womanhood in general, continued, “You won’t find women who identify as men taking places of Males because BIOLOGY. Males and females are different. Period.”

Sharron Davies, a former Olympic swimmer turned anti-trans media darling, called on sport authorities to “do what everyone can see is right rather than what’s easy” and ban trans athletes.

But here’s the thing, Petrillo failed to qualify for the T12 400-meter final after she finished third in her semifinal heat. In that race, the trans runner recorded a personal best time of 57.58 seconds, finishing behind Iran’s Hajar Safarzadeh Ghahderijani by a full second and a half. In sprint events, that’s a lifetime.

Petrillo began her medical transition in 2019 after a long career winning Para athletic national titles as a male athlete. Her times now are significantly slower than they were before, which suggests that the hormone change had a real impact on her athletic ability.

As the Games began, Ukrainian runner Oksana Boturchuk was one of several of Petrillo’s cisgender female competitors critical of Petrillo’s participation. “I find this not fair, in my opinion,” Boturchuk told BBC Sport. Boturchuk said she is not against transgender people in general, “but in this situation I do not understand and don’t support it.” Unlike Petrillo, Boturchuk made the final, finishing well ahead of the trans runner she implied had an unfair advantage.

Petrillo’s failure to dominate —”https://www.paralympic.org/en/paris-2024-paralympics/results/para-athletics/women-s-200m—t12/sfnl——–” target=”_blank”>she came short of making the final race in the T12 200-meter dash Friday — is yet another example of a trans athlete “miraculously” not winning an elite sporting competition that people such as Rowling and Navratilova claimed would be unfair. In 2016, trans discus thrower Ingrid van Kranen finished ninth at the Paralympics, and no one even noticed her participation — because conservatives here and abroad hadn’t yet chosen trans athletes as a political target.

Without the political fervor stoked by conservatives and the likes of Rowling, Petrillo’s participation would probably have gone unnoticed as well. So would have 2021 Olympic weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who failed to record a single lift and finished last in her division at the Tokyo Games.

We keep hearing about how trans athletes have a natural advantage in sports, and yet we’ve yet to see a trans athlete win an elite international title in any sport — no, Lia Thomas does not count for this. While Thomas did win an NCAA title, it was at the amateur collegiate, not elite, level, and her times were not necessarily comparable with the best swimmers in the world.

Petrillo’s failure to dominate is yet another example of a trans athlete “miraculously” not winning an elite sporting competition that people such as Rowling and Navratilova claimed would be unfair.

It seems as if gender critical activists have noticed that trans athletes losing big competitions contradicts their argument that they have an unfair advantage. So those activists have recently shifted away from claiming that trans women would dominate all sports and instead accused trans women of “taking away a spot” from a more deserving cis woman.

I’m a little more sympathetic to this argument, and it’s a clever play on emotions, especially for parents who may be hoping their daughters can one day get an athletic scholarship (and avoid crippling educational debt). But this line of thinking also results in the total exclusion of trans women athletes from all sports.

There hasn’t been a trans athlete yet whose performance improved, or even remained the same, after starting estrogen. Those performances typically get worse consistent with the general difference between cis men’s and cis women’s performances in many athletic measurements. There is no way to get fairness for trans athletes by forcing them to compete against cis men. Biology or not, that type of exclusionary policy would be a de facto ban on trans women athletes completely.

As we wrestle with these new ideas of sex and fairness, we must value trans humanity equally with cis people. The proof is in the pudding: Trans women are not dominating women’s sports and never will. Petrillo’s relatively poor performance on the track should put an end to Rowling’s rage, but of course Rowling is past the point of no return. She will seethe and rage about trans people for the rest of her life, because she is a bigot.

Katelyn Burns

Katelyn Burns is a freelance journalist based in New England. She was the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter in U.S. history.

Politics

Biden pays respects as former Minnesota House Speaker Hortman, killed in shooting, lies in state

Published

4 hours ago

June 28, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — Former President Joe Biden joined thousands of mourners Friday as former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman lay in state in the Minnesota Capitol rotunda while the man charged with killing her and her husband, and wounding a state senator and his wife, made a brief court appearance in a suicide prevention suit.

Hortman, a Democrat, is the first woman and one of fewer than 20 Minnesotans accorded the honor. She lay in state with her husband, Mark, and their golden retriever, Gilbert. Her husband was also killed in the June 14 attack, and Gilbert was seriously wounded and had to be euthanized. It was the first time a couple has lain in state at the Capitol, and the first time for a dog.

The Hortmans’ caskets and the dog’s urn were arranged in the center of the rotunda, under the Capitol dome, with law enforcement officers keeping watch on either side as thousands of people who lined up filed by. Many fought back tears as they left.

Among the first to pay their respects were Gov. Tim Walz, who has called Hortman his closest political ally, and his wife, Gwen. Biden, a Catholic, visited later in the afternoon, walking up to the velvet rope in front of the caskets, making the sign of the cross, and spending a few moments by himself in silence. He then took a knee briefly, got up, made the sign of the cross again, and walked off to greet people waiting in the wings of the rotunda.

The Capitol was open for the public from noon to 5 p.m. Friday, but officials said anyone waiting in line at 5 would be let in. House TV livestreamed the viewing. A private funeral is set for 10:30 a.m. Saturday and will be livestreamed on the Department of Public Safety’s YouTube channel.

Biden will attend the funeral, a spokesperson said. So will former Vice President Kamala Harris, though neither is expected to speak. Harris expressed her condolences earlier this week to Hortman’s adult children, and spoke with Walz, her running mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket, who extended an invitation on behalf of the Hortman family, her office said.

Lisa Greene, who lives in Brooklyn Park like Hortman did, but in a different House district, said she came to the Capitol because she had so much respect for the former speaker.

“She was just amazing. Amazing woman. “And I was just so proud that she represented the city that I lived in,” Greene said in a voice choked with emotion. “She was such a leader. She could bring people together. She was so accessible. I mean, she was friendly, you could talk to her.” But, she went on to say admiringly, Hortman was also “a boss. She just knew what she was doing and she could just make things happen.”

A hearing takes a twist: The man accused of killing the Hortmans and wounding another Democratic lawmaker and his wife made a short court appearance Friday to face charges for what the chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota has called “a political assassination.” Vance Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, surrendered near his home the night of June 15 after what authorities have called the largest search in Minnesota history.

An unshaven Boelter was brought in wearing just a green padded suicide prevention suit and orange slippers. Federal defender Manny Atwal asked Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko to continue the hearing until Thursday. She said Boelter has been sleep deprived while on suicide watch in the Sherburne County Jail, and that it has been difficult to communicate with him as a result.

“Your honor, I haven’t really slept in about 12 to 14 days,” Boelter told the judge. And he denied being suicidal. “I’ve never been suicidal and I am not suicidal now.”

Atwal told the court that Boelter had been in what’s known as a “Gumby suit,” without undergarments, ever since his transfer to the jail after his first court appearance on June 16. She said the lights are on in his area 24 hours a day, doors slam frequently, the inmate in the next cell spreads feces on the walls, and the smell drifts to Boelter’s cell.

The attorney said transferring him to segregation instead, and giving him a normal jail uniform, would let him get some sleep, restore some dignity, and let him communicate better. The judge agreed.

Prosecutors did not object to the delay and said they also had concerns about the jail conditions.

The acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Joseph Thompson, told reporters afterward that he did not think Boelter had attempted to kill himself.

The case continues: Boelter did not enter a plea. Prosecutors need to secure a grand jury indictment first, before his arraignment, which is when a plea is normally entered.

According to the federal complaint, police video shows Boelter outside the Hortmans’ home and captures the sound of gunfire. And it says security video shows Boelter approaching the front doors of two other lawmakers’ homes dressed as a police officer.

His lawyers have declined to comment on the charges, which could carry the federal death penalty. Thompson said last week that no decision has been made. Minnesota abolished its death penalty in 1911. The Death Penalty Information Center says a federal death penalty case hasn’t been prosecuted in Minnesota in the modern era, as best as it can tell.

Boelter also faces separate murder and attempted murder charges in state court that could carry life without parole, assuming that county prosecutors get their own indictment for first-degree murder. But federal authorities intend to use their power to try Boelter first.

Other victims and alleged targets: Authorities say Boelter shot and wounded Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, at their home in Champlin before shooting and killing the Hortmans in their home in the northern Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, a few miles away.

Federal prosecutors allege Boelter also stopped at the homes of two other Democratic lawmakers. Prosecutors also say he listed dozens of other Democrats as potential targets, including officials in other states. Friends described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views. But prosecutors have declined so far to speculate on a motive.