The mysterious Media Research Center sports blogger spent a good part of 2021 lashing out at transgender people in sports -- ironic, since it's unclear what sex Maxson even is.
By Terry Krepel Posted 4/27/2022
Updated 8/14/2022
How transphobic is mysterious Media Research Center sports blogger Jay Maxson? The MRC felt compelled to pull one of his more vicious anti-trans posts -- ironic, since we know nothing at all about Maxson, even what Maxson's sex or sexual identity is. Maxson has no internet presence to speak of outside the NewsBusters blog, and "Jay" as a first name can be a male or female name.
The MRC was certainly enthusiastic about Maxson's May 2019 post at first, tweeting it out with a picture of Caitlyn Jenner (back when he was Bruce) under the headlines like "Stars, Stripes & Trannies Forever in Sports Illustrated." It is on brand for the MRC to bash transgenders with such crude language; the NewsBusters subject archive lists Jenner under Bruce with the addition, "Olympic medalist turned transgender activist 'Caitlyn.'"
Strangely, though, Maxson's post was deleted some time after it was first posted, and the MRC has provided no explanation for why.
There is a copy of it at another blog, though. It appears Maxson was triggered by a report that Jenner would pose in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue "wearing only an American flag and the gold medal won by Bruce Jenner in the 1976 Olympic decathlon." Let the nasty trans-bashing begin (bolding in original):
"America's Olympic champions usually wrap themselves in the flag after winning gold. ... They don't usually change their gender 40 years later and then wrap themselves in the flag for naked photos in Sports Illustrated. But in 1976 men were men and now Bruce Jenner is Caitlyn Jenner. There's a market for flag-wearing nudie transgenders in the weird, wide world of sports media in 2019, thanks to SI."
"Falcone isn't only confused about which anniversary Jenner is observing, but also about the biological gender of the man who was hailed as the world's greatest male athlete 43 years ago. She writes that Jenner will retrieve "her most prized possession” from the bottom of a makeup drawer because she didn't want it to be a visible reminder for her five children of what they would have to compare their achievements to."
"Jenner confirmed to Sports Illustrated's Tim Layden in 2016 that the gold medal was being stored in her nail drawer. However, there was no confirmation if it had been tarnished by pink nail polish."
"The LGBT pressure groups might change their tune on Trump now that he has given Jenner the huge victory about where she can urinate, however."
Again: Trans-bashing is totally on-brand for the MRC -- an MRC videographer once embarrassed himself by pretending to be a transgender student at a college (his idea of "transgender" was dressing in shorts and a tank top and talking with a lisp) who wanted to use the women's locker room, and Maxson has previously mocked a transgender sports writer for having "Jennered" to "womanhood" (scare quotes his).
It's still not clear why the MRC pulled this post, since it's just as transphobic and insulting as other previous MRC works -- and the arguably even more offensive "Stars, Stripes and Trannies" tweet is still live as of this writing. Can someone at the MRC explain further?
Boise, Idaho, you can kiss your inclusion in March Madness next spring good-bye. The NCAA prefers a different version of inclusion for its host sites, one that doesn't ban males from participating in female sports like Idaho does. College sports fans, trans inclusion is rolling down the tracks and little can stop it.
SB Nation Outsports reports that the NCAALGBT hasn't yet rescinded its agreement for NCAA Tournament games in Boise, but the sport's governing association is in the tank for transgenders.
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NCAA postseason sports sites will only be awarded to states with the LGBT seal of approval. You may also see some very masculine dudes on college women's basketball teams in the near future. As well as some token females on the benches of men's basketball teams at Duke, Villanova and other affirming academic institutions.
Idaho is one of the few states with the guts to stand up to the unholy alliance of the NCAALGBT juggernaut, but it may get shot down in the courts.
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As if social justice activism hasn't ruined people's enjoyment of sports enough, it's just a matter of when college sports become more defined by the letters NCAALGBT than by biological gender and notions of fairness.
As the debate over transgender athletes ramped up, so did Maxson's transphobia. Unsurprisingly, in 2021 Maxson signed onto the right-wing hysteria over transgender athletes:
A Feb. 8 post attacked "the jaded opinion of SBNation Outsports LGBTQ apologist Ken Schultz" for pointing out Republican senators' demagoguery on the issue, defending the senators as "two people who realize gender is immutable."
On Feb. 17, Maxson asserted that states banning transgender athletes were trying to "preserve the integrity of women’s sports," huffing: "Who’s really at risk of harm here? Confused boys and men? Or entire teams of girls and women trying to maintain a fair playing field against the intrusion of bigger, stronger males?"
A March 4 post attacked a sports blogger who "shrieked" about Sen. Rand Paul's hostile questioning of transgender Biden nominee Rachel Levine and "slammed Kentucky’s “second-worst senator” for calling transition surgery what it actually is: “genital mutilation," adding that the writer "faulted Republicans because only one percent of Americans are confused about their gender, but that miniscule number actually plays into the hands of those who oppose bending gender rules for such a tiny group. Especially when it only appeases the LGBT movement while putting women and girls at a disadvantage in sports."
Maxson complained in a March 12 post: "Doing the dirty work of LGBT pressure groups, 550 woke college athletes are demanding the NCAA pull postseason events out of states legislating for the integrity of women’s sports."
On March 15, Maxson denied that he and his fellow anti-LGBT right-wingers are the aggressors in pushing anti-trans laws: "Sports associations and LGBT activists fired the first shot of a raging culture war battle by waving biological males into female games."
Maxson whined in a March 17 post about the idea that the NBA might pull its All-Star Game out of Utah over a possible anti-trans law there: "What's more contemptible: a league that cares about trans "women" competing in women's sports more than it does Chinese human rights abuses? Or a basketball team that wants all-star game revenue so bad it derails a state bill to protect the integrity of women's sports?" Maxson concluded by lamenting, "Utah’s trans bill eventually bit the dust. However, it certainly didn’t help the gender confused to have the powerful voice of an NBA team speak out against their best interests."
On March 18, Maxson attacked NBA legend Dwayne Wade for defending the rights of his transgender child: "Former NBA all-star Dwayne Wade is now scoring points in bunches for the LGBT movement. He’s also getting PC points for his trans child Zaya and playing shutdown defender against the state legislatures trying to level the playing field for female athletes." Maxson further whined: "Wade also scored LGBT points by taking his family to a Miami Pride event two years ago and by acting as a pronoun cop. "America's Dad" refers to Zaya with she/her pronouns."
In an April 14 post, Maxson bashed an "ultra-leftist" writer for "verbally bludgeoning hateful, ignorant conservative state lawmakers working to protect women’s sports. She accused them of trying to 'otherize' trans athletes and open a new front in the culture war, repeated LGBT talking points and urged the NCAA to hurt conservative states in the pocketbook." Maxson provided no evidence to support his claim that the writer is "ultra-leftist," nor did Maxson deny that transgender athletes are being "otherized."
On April 26, Maxson defended his fellow anti-trans activists at the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom from criticism for "representing female plaintiffs against fake girls."
Maxson spent a May 17 post whining about the possibility of transgender athletes at the Olympics: "That trans athlete explosion the world has been bracing for, the one LGBT activists keep denying? Well, it’s here now. There may be as many as nine trans women (biological dudes) bursting onto the Olympic stage in Tokyo this summer, all of them threatening to take medals away from actual women," further sneering, "Welcome to the wide, wacky world of alphabet sports."
That was followed by a May 18 post heaping hate on a "hardcore leftist" USA Today sports writer (again, Maxson offers no evidence to support that claim) who defended transgender athletes, adding, "The USALGBT Today writer has no sympathy or concern whatsoever for the young girls and women victimized by the intrusion of males into their respective sports.
That's not all. In a March 17 post, Maxson -- despite having displayed no qualifications as a legitimate researcher -- attacked a piece in Scientific American by psychiatrist Andrew Turban for the offense of not hating transgender athletes as much as he (or she) does:
It’s easy to tell when a psychiatrist is in the tank for transgenders in sports. First, he only addresses the underlying problem of psychological confusion very late in his LGBT-approved puff piece. Then, he slams lawmakers for trying to preserve the integrity of women’s sports and says trans girls should not have to "lie" about their gender and play on boys teams.
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The reason boys want to compete as “girls” is because of pre-existing confusion in their gender identity. We did not see the boys Terry Miller or Andraya Yearwood emotionally damaged while they were breaking 17 state girls sprinting records in Connecticut[.]
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Turban says girls win most of the competitions in female sports. Which is true because there aren’t hordes of cosmetic-and hormone-altered boys clamoring for acceptance on girls’ teams. But those who do so demonstrate clear and unfair physical advantages. He also mentions that Miller and Yearwood failed to win their sprint races immediately after Alliance Defending Freedom sued the state of Connecticut. Dubious timing! Each of the boxing bums of the week who lost to Mike Tyson in the first round also took a dive.
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Turban advises lawmakers to work on more important things — “instead of manufacturing problems and ‘solutions’ that hurt the kids we are supposed to be protecting.”
Here's another suggestion. How about counselors actually work with young people to address their psychological struggles, instead of encouraging them to continue in their confusion and delusion.
In a May 6 post, Maxson went on a sneering tirade against another transgender athlete who might appear in the Olympics:
Pay no attention to the men walking off with the women’s sports trophies, say LGBT activists. It’s a non-issue, they insist. Despite their denials, the controversy will flare up to new heights this summer at the Olympics in Tokyo. There, Laurel Hubbard, of New Zealand, is expected to be the first transgender athlete in Olympic history.
Laurel was for most of his life known as Gavin. He’s been mopping up the competition in women’s weightlifting for a few years and is one of the favorites to medal in the Summer Olympics.
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The realities of biology are such that no one can actually change their gender. To get around that inconvenient truth, international athletic federations merely require men to lower their testosterone levels in order to disrupt the competitive balance in women’s sports.
The realities of right-wing punditry at the MRC is that the official right-wing narrative must be maintained, and Maxson has definitely done what he (or she) has been told.
Maxson spent much of the summer spewing homophobia and transphobia at Olympic athletes, largely freaking out at the possibility of transgender athletes taking part and fretting that "there may be as many as nine trans women (biological dudes) bursting onto the Olympic stage in Tokyo this summer, all of them threatening to take medals away from actual women." Maxson went on to smear one athlete as purportedly having "suddenly decided that he was not a man, but a woman. And presto, he’s a woman who defies the laws of biology!" He was even rooting against the U.S. Olympic team for the offense of not having enough heterosexual people on it.
After that ended, Maxson repeated his (or her) attacks on transgender athletes, using an Oct. 8 post to cheer the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom for "pursuing multiple lawsuits to challenge the administration’s insistence on turning female sports into a farce." On Oct. 15, Maxson accused Instagram of having "canceled a post undermining LGBT attempts to destroy the integrity of women’s sports" by removing "a post by biologist Colin Wright citing scientific studies proving that so-called male-to-female transgender athletes have clear-cut advantages over women," going on to sneer that "Instagram and its LGBT masters cannot handle the truth, and so they try to suppress it." On Oct. 27, Maxson complained that reporting on a new anti-transgender law in Texas allegedly made it seem that transgender students are "banned from competing in sports," insisting that "The truth is that boys are eligible to participate in, or at least try out for, any boys team in Texas public schools."
Maxson spent a Nov. 23 post bashing basketball star Dwayne Wade for the offense of refusing to hate his transgender child:
Want a “model” family that will make you a hero of the Left? Encourage one of your children to claim gender confusion and then tell the world how incredibly wonderful that is. This worked to perfection for former NBA all-star like Dwyane Wade, who said Tuesday night on Comedy Central's The Daily Show recently that his transgender son is developing into a beautiful young woman.
Papa Wade appeared with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show to promote his photo memoir, Dwyane, but the former basketball star’s support for the transgender movement is what was memorable. Noah asked him about his son Zaya (appearing at far left in photo), who assumed a female identity two years ago at the age of 12. Embracing the child’s gender confusion, Dwyane and his wife Gabrielle Union are considered among the best moms and dads ever by the Left.
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Wade also said that when something like this happens to you, you have to look at in the face. Left unsaid was that he figuratively put his finger in the air to find out what reaction would get the best reaction from the LGBT Left, then go with the flow. Those folks are overjoyed and think he and his wife are parents of the year material.
Maxson concluded by accusing Wade of using Zaya "like a pawn for the transgender movement." Maxson is clearly not afraid of using Zaya as a target for his transphobia.
UPDATE 8/14/22: There are even more examples of Maxson's transophobia in 2021. In May, he (or she) complained that "Hailey Davidson underwent so-called gender reassignment surgery in January, and a few days ago, he [sic] drew praise from Golfweek for winning a women’s professional golf tournament." When Davidson pointed out that she no longer has a pysical advantage over women since transitioning, Maxson sneered, "Crowing about intentionally zapping his strength is not something a man should be boasting about."
Later that month, Maxson ranted about a Hulu documentary on transgender athletes:
This documentary seeks to take back the transgender story line. It’s a narrative that the media en masse have already perpetuated: girls can be boys and boys can be girls. The boys wreaking havoc on girls sports are really girls.
Hulu’s promo of “Changing the Game” says “filmmaker Michael Barnett’s urgent and subsuming sports documentary illuminates what many have called the civil rights issue of our time: transgender inclusion in sports ...”
Civil rights sleight of hand, is more like it. The Left is mistaking the psychological problem of gender confusion with civil rights.
In June, Maxson took offense to "woke" people asking the NCAA to sanction states that have pass anti-transgender athlete laws and that Sports Illustrated accurately called it a wedge issue for right-wingers, warning, "Woke athletes are not giving up the battle."
Transgender Awareness Week is ending tomorrow, and the observance provided the occasion for woke media to attack the opponents of transgender incursions on women’s sports. One of them is a USA Today writer who accused state lawmakers of attacking trans kid by passing laws prohibiting males from competing in women’s sports.
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Truth be known, most of the controversies over trans sports involve boys who are bigger and stronger than girls and who, more often than not, then dominate female competition. That creates an unlevel playing field for girls which is highly unfair. These boys are the bullies, the extremists -- not state legislators taking action to preserve the integrity of female sports.
Maxson then ranted that LGBT people don't deserve rights because they're aren't enough of them for anyone to care about:
In addition, only 4.5 percent of Americans are homosexual, but the United States Supreme Court imposed same-sex marriage on the entire nation. That notorious bit of judicial activism didn’t just redefine marriage, it launched attacks on religious liberty, free speech and on the businesses of people who financially supported marriage propositions. The transgender madness is already spawning gender pronoun laws. A high school football player was suspended for saying there are only two genders. This goes way beyond the number of gender-confused boys in Arkansas. Our Founding Fathers would hardly recognize this country anymore, so damaged by the LGBT legal juggernaut.
Is it part of "religious liberty" to deny rights to other people? Maxson seems to think so, but most constitutional scholars would likely disagree.
