At some point, you’d think that even the wokest of the #woke^[1]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading would understand the facts. The tweet screencaptured on the right gives you the basics, and you can read the whole story here. From the Portland Press-Herald:

Transgender girl makes history with victory at cross country regional

Soren Stark-Chessa, a sophomore at Maine Coast Waldorf School, controlled the Class C South girls’ race from start to finish, with support from the crowd.

by Steve Craig, Staff Writer | Saturday, October 21, 2023

CUMBERLAND — A 15-year-old runner on Saturday became the first transgender athlete to win a regional high school cross country championship in Maine.

Soren Stark-Chessa, a sophomore at Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport, won the Class C South girls’ title at Twin Brook Recreation Area, completing the 3.1-mile course in 19 minutes, 17.78 seconds – a minute and 22 seconds faster than the runner-up.

“I think I came out a little strong but just kept pushing through it and I’m happy with it,” Stark-Chessa said of her race.

As you can see, the Press-Herald apparently follows a stylebook which specifies the pronouns favored by the person to whom they refer, even if those pronouns are an abject lie.

The numbers don’t lie: 1:22 faster than the first real girl running is a huge gap, 7.13%. While young Mr Stark-Chessa beat the runner-up by 82.51 seconds, the gap between second and third place, both real girls, was just 18.82 seconds.

Last fall, Stark-Chessa competed in the boys’ division in the C South race, also at Twin Brook, finishing 14th as the fastest freshman in 19:36.01.

This year’s Class A and B South regional championship races were also held Saturday. Overall, Stark-Chessa was the fourth fastest in the girls’ races. Running faster times were Class A champ Samantha Moore of Portland (18:41.63), Class A runner-up Addy Thibodeau of Bonny Eagle (18:47.66) and Class B winner Cary Drake of York (19:09.78).

In the Class C race, Stark-Chessa went to the front quickly and ran with a serious, focused expression. She was often cheered on along the course by shouts like, “C’mon Soren.”

“That felt really great,” Stark-Chessa said of the support. “I’m super happy to have my family here. Just awesome to see them on the sidelines. That just makes me really happy.”

Also see: Lisa Carr: Riley Gaines: The Biological Woman Who Violated Community Standards

Stark-Chessa led by about 20 seconds after a mile and had increased her lead to 53 seconds just past the two-mile mark. She continued to extend the margin over the final mile. Waynflete sophomore Grace Alexander placed second in 20:40.29. Winthrop senior Haley Williams, the runner-up as a sophomore and junior, finished third in 20:59.11.

Williams said she knew second place would be her best possible finish this year, “because as you probably know there is a runner that identifies as female, and they were running the boys’ race last year, and they decided to run the girls’ race this year. And it’s really, it’s very upsetting to me because I’ve worked my butt off all year.”

Williams added, “I want to say I’m totally supportive with everyone being whoever they want to be, but I feel like when you put people born male in girls’ races, it’s just genetically unfair.”

There’s a lot more at the link, much of it about Maine state law which favors the transgendered.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, on the other hand, despite having a writing, reportorial, and editorial staff who are all highly educated, somehow can’t see the actual numbers.

Pennridge passes athletics policy based on ‘biological sex,’ the most recent vote limiting transgender students

The policy, passed unanimously by the school board Tuesday, follows a move by the district earlier this year requiring that students use group bathrooms based on sex, rather than gender identity.

by Maddie Hanna | Wednesday, October 25, 2023 | 3:13 PM EDT

The Pennridge School District has adopted a policy specifying that sports teams are divided by sex, barring transgender students from participating on teams aligned with their gender identities.

The policy, passed unanimously by the school board Tuesday, follows a move by the district earlier this year requiring that students use group bathrooms based on sex, rather than gender identity. The district defines sex as “the biological sex classification based upon chromosomal structure and anatomy at birth.”

“Tonight we become the first school district in all of Pennsylvania to protect both girls’ spaces and girls’ sports,” said Josh Hogan, a Republican running for school board. “That’s a powerful thing.”

The vote is the most recent by a Philadelphia-area school district that limits transgender students — backed by proponents as necessary to protect girls, but criticized as discriminatory toward LGBTQ youth.

Let’s state the obvious truth here: boys and girls are physically different, those differences really become stark after puberty, and those differences make a difference when it comes to sports. Human beings have known that for as long as they have been human beings; only the 21^st century leftists have had that knowledge educated out of themselves.

The newspaper’s story then has nine more paragraphs, most of which are subtly — and some not-so-subtly — criticizing the Pennridge decision, telling readers how awful it is that the 0.3 to 0.6% of the population are discriminated against. But there’s a hard truth here: protecting women’s and girls’ sports from unfair competition by males, and being inclusive of the transgendered in sports are mutually exclusive; there’s no middle ground on which there can be compromise.

The story was too recent for the Editorial Board to have weighed in, but just the day previously, the Inky gave OpEd space to “Daye” Pope^[2]While it is our stated policy to always refer to the ‘transgendered’ by their real, birth names, I have been unable thus far to find out Mr Pope’s real name., a male claiming to be a woman, to claim that Anti-trans policies in Pa. schools don’t just impact LGBTQ kids. Interestingly enough, though the Inquirer states that Mr Pope

is a gender justice advocate. She has been organizing LGBTQ communities across the country for over a decade to change narratives, oppose discriminatory laws, and fight for equality,

it never mentions that the author is ‘transgendered.’ Mr Pope’s article never mentions that fact, either. That is journalistically dishonest.

That’s hardly a surprise, given that the newspaper went all out in support of Will Thomas, the male swimmer who decided that he was rally a woman, and swam for the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team.  We reported on the Inky ending reader comments on all stories other than sports, and then, when a sports story on Mr Thomas had open comments, drew many which held that no, Mr Thomas was not a woman, the newspaper removed them.

In a way, I (sort of) understand what motivates the left on this issue. Many see it as just plain mean that some people, including me, refuse to say that Bruce Jenner or Bradley Manning are women, as they claim to be. But if someone states that #TransWomenAreWomen, he is stuck on the rocks of truth, because when ‘transgender women’ compete in women’s sports, the differences between ‘transgender women’ and real women become stark and obvious. But when you take the opposite approach, noting the real differences between ‘transgender girls’ and real girls in athletics, you cannot avoid the reality that ‘transgender women’ are not real women. And the woke just can’t handle the truth!