the most sordid aspect of FIDE banning trans women from chess competitions is that in the previous weeks there seems to have been a reckoning in terms of sexual abusers still being allowed in chess competitions and many women (including multiple trans women) spoke up and were fighting about it. and FIDE's response was to call trans women the greatest threat to women's chess which is so telling lmaoooooo
it was literally initiated two weeks before by an open letter first signed by 14 female chess players in france (including yosha iglesias, a trans woman) and that has now been signed by more than a hundred of them. a shitton of people responded by claiming they were infected by "wokism" and "gender ideology" for pointing out sexual violence and misogyny in the chess world. FIDE responded on august 11 claiming to be against sexual violence and misogyny..... and then banned trans women four days later, to the acclaim of transmisogynists who didn't actually give a shit about sexual violence or misogyny in chess lmao. this edict has also absolutely fucked over yosha iglesias, already the victim of horrifying harassment over speaking out about sexual violence at all, and now doubly so over the fact that she is unsure she can even participate in the french women's tournament which is days away. it's calculated and cruel in ways i can barely stand.
