What’s Current: Surfer Bethany Hamilton refuses to compete with trans-identified males

Bethany Hamilton exits the water during the women’s qualifying round of the World Surf League Surf Ranch Pro on September 8, 2018 in Lemoore, California. Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
  • In a video posted to Instagram, pro surfer Bethany Hamilton speaks out against the World Surf League’s (WSL) rules allowing trans-identified males to compete in the women’s division.
  • Seventeen US states have passed or introduced bills to require age verification for access to porn sites.
  • The Aurat March, set to take place on International Women’s Day in Pakistan, often criticized as “foreign funded” and aimed at advancing “Western interests,” has included environmental justice, demands to defund the police, and trans ideology in its manifesto. In an article published at UnHerd, Hina Husain writes:

“My first thought after reading the form to express interest in volunteering at Pakistan’s annual Women’s March was: how many women in Pakistan know what “non-binary” and “cis woman” mean? In a country with a literacy rate of less than 50% for women, who was Aurat March hoping to attract with this questionnaire? Instead of being inclusive, the menu of gender options would probably make a majority of Pakistani women feel unqualified to participate, effectively excluding the aurat from Aurat March. But maybe that was the whole point.”

Meghan Murphy

Founder & Editor

Meghan Murphy is a freelance writer and journalist from Vancouver, BC. She has been podcasting and writing about feminism since 2010 and has published work in numerous national and international publications, including The Spectator, UnHerd, Quillette, the CBC, New Statesman, Vice, Al Jazeera, The Globe and Mail, and more. Meghan completed a Masters degree in the department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University in 2012 and is now exiled in Mexico with her very photogenic dog.