Celebrity posts about Khelif cause an anti-trans pile-on

Anti-trans rhetoric is being spread by high-profile figures including JK Rowling and Liz Truss after a dispute erupted at the Olympic Games when a boxer abandoned her fight against her opponent after 46 seconds.

- EMMA GUINNESS

Angela Carini, of Italy, later said “It’s not right” after suffering what she described as the hardest punch of her life against Algeria’s Imane Khelif, who is biologically female and was born and raised as a woman.

But Carini’s reaction has led to a social media pile-on, with prominent figures accusing her opponent of being a trans woman, because she has previously failed a gender test due to a medical condition. The issue is similar to the controversy South African athlete Caster Semenya faced throughout her career.

The most well-read comments include anti-trans rhetoric from JK Rowling and billionaire Elon Musk. However, other vocal figures who scrutinised the incident rowed back when it was clarified that Khelif was not a trans woman.

Khelif, who fought and lost in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo 2021 Games, and has an amateur record of 37 wins and 9 losses, was banned from the 2023 World Championships after she failed to meet the International Boxing Association’s eligibility criteria, which prevents athletes with male XY chromosomes competing in women’s events.

Rowling, who is known for her outspoken gender-critical stance, shared a picture of the aftermath of the fight, writing: “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered.”

Elon Musk, meanwhile, retweeted a picture of Carini on Twitter/X that American swimmer Riley Gaines captioned: “Men don’t belong in women’s sports #IStandWithAngelaCarini.”