19 hours Ago By Meghan McCain
A few weeks ago I was inadvertently dragged into an online controversy by my friend — maybe former friend now? — Bravo host Andy Cohen. The context of the fight was over President Trump inviting a former high school volleyball athlete named Payton McNabb last month to his joint address to Congress as a way to highlight her story. Payton received a devastating head and neck injury as the result of a spike by a male athlete who identified as transgender.
I had the privilege of meeting Payton at an event put on by the Independent Women’s Forum last year in Philadelphia. Payton told me her story backstage and I got emotional listening to her relay the details of her injury, her time spent at the hospital, her and her family’s bravery — and the injury that marked the end of her volleyball career. After I supported McNabb, Cohen responded: “Surprised you’re buying into the vilification of the trans community given the real problems happening in this country, your previous ally-ship of the lgbtq community, and the fact that this non issue affects about four people in this country.
” What I believe I have known Andy Cohen since I was 25 years old and have been on his nightly Bravo talk show somewhere around 30 or more times since the show’s launch. Throughout everything, including the election and then re-election of Donald Trump, I have always had a very nice, cordial, respectful and I believed actual friendship with Andy. Yet he decided to attack me publically, and caused a storm in the process.
My phone immediately started exploding and didn’t stop for a few days. The story was covered in entertainment and political spaces and I was made out to be a villainous figure who hated the LGBT community. It didn’t matter that I was an early supporter of gay marriage, or that I won the Trevor Project NextGen’s first Ally Award.
It didn’t matter that I believe in treating everyone with dignity and respect. No, if you don’t support this one fringe issue, you are canceled. Opposing transgender athletes in women’s sports is not an issue of tolerance or equality.
It’s about fairness — and protecting biological women. I do not believe in any universe a person born a biological male will not have a physical advantage over a biological female, no matter what hormones they have taken. I do not believe any girl or woman should be forced to share a locker room with someone with male genitalia.
I do not believe gender is a construct. I do believe people who identify as trans deserve dignity, respect and equal rights under the law. I do not believe they deserve special treatment or should be put ahead of any biological female in any capacity, most notably in sports.
Lose-lose issue Just this week, a video went viral of USA fencer Stephanie Turner taking a knee in protest and refusing to compete against a transgender opponent. She was subsequently disqualified from her tournament. Stephanie’s transgender opponent switched to competing against women from the men’s team only in December.
Shortly afterwards, USA Fencing provided a statement — supporting the transgender athlete. Anyone who thinks what happened to Stephanie is fair is deluding themselves and living in a science fiction movie. That is what I believe.
And that, ladies and gentleman, is the issue that has lost me the most friends in my personal and professional life. It is also the one that has gotten me ostracized from the most places socially, including Bravo. It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of the American public agrees with me, including, I would wager, “The Real Housewives” audience members who make the Bravo channel possible to exist.
This is a lose-lose culture war issue for Democrats . I will never understand why they want to die on this hill. They claim it affects such a small number of people, but that argument also works in reverse — why are they promoting an unfair situation for the ego of a few? This is an issue of equality.
I am not hedging, I will not buck to societal pressure and I will not move. To everyone who fights alongside me on this issue, I thank you for your bravery..
