A Lie Agreed Upon Part 2 with Beth Stelzer | Starting Strength Radio #102

Mark Rippetoe | April 02, 2021

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https://youtu.be/08cX0JT-Erg: this 08cX0JT-Erg video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Mark Wulfe:
From The Aasgaard Company Studios in beautiful Wichita Falls, Texas... From the finest mind in the modern fitness industry... The one true voice in the strength and conditioning profession... The most important podcast on the internet... Ladies and gentlemen! Starting Strength Radio.

Mark Rippetoe:
Welcome back to Starting Strength Radio. It's Friday, and since it's Friday, it's Starting Strength Radio. I don't know how to make it any more simple or logical than that. It's Friday and it's Starting Strength radio.

Mark Rippetoe:
We are here today with Beth Stelzer, who runs a very important organization called Save Women's Sports. Now, today, we are going to talk about a subject that we haven't visited in a couple of years... When we started this podcast back a long time ago, back a couple of years ago, one of our first topics, in fact, maybe the first topic of the first show was the topic of allowing trans women - which is another way to say guys - to compete in women's sports and the logical fallacies and the lies that were involved in all of this.

Mark Rippetoe:
So we're going to revisit all of that stuff today and we're going to tell you exactly what Beth and her organization have been doing to try to return some sanity to this to this process. Beth, thank you for your time.

Beth Stelzer:
I appreciate you tackling this sensitive subject and giving me the opportunity.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, I don't I don't think it's that sensitive. I think it's a matter of...

Beth Stelzer:
It shouldn't be!

Mark Rippetoe:
...Mathematics. This is this is two plus two equals four stuff, all right. And and I don't know...

Beth Stelzer:
It is a common sense issue.

Mark Rippetoe:
And we're going to we're going to, you know, dive into that.

Mark Rippetoe:
But first, I wanted to preface our remarks today by referring to a piece that I just read this morning. Stef was discussing this with me yesterday, and I read the thing this morning. And I've got it up on the website right now.

Mark Rippetoe:
Now, for those of you that are are new to the podcast and or perhaps. Naïve to the to the idea that we prerecord this, we are recording this on the 25th of March and the thing is probably going to run sometime in early April. But I want you to look at today's today's post and go to this article, and I want you to read it.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's I mean, make sure. Yes, this is the 25th. I posted this this morning. And it is an article by a guy by the name of JM Smith. And it deals with a very important topic here in 2021, it deals with the difference between a little lie, a small lie, and the big lie.

Mark Rippetoe:
And just to to summarize the topic here for you, to summarize the topic of his little essay. And this very important, it'll help you order your thinking. I like I like essays that help you order your thinking. And this provides an insight into what is going on. All right.

Mark Rippetoe:
And his premise is there are two basic types of lies. One is a small lie. A small lie is like, I'm supposed to be home at 8:00, right? And I show up at 9:00. And to cover my ass, I say, yeah, I had I had a, you know, had a phone call at the office, it took longer than I thought it was going to. And then I, you know, got on the way home and I realized I'd left my phone on my desk. So I had to turn around, go back and get it.

Beth Stelzer:
Right, right, we've all been there.

Mark Rippetoe:
And we've all been there. And it's just, you know, it's what you say to cover your ass. And then the next thing you say is, so what are we having for dinner?

Mark Rippetoe:
The small lie is told so that you will intentionally forget it. You tell the lie to cover your ass for a thing you have done right now and you don't want it dwelt on. You don't want the lie dwelt on. You don't want her to say, well, who are you talking to? Well, how long did you talk? Exactly how long you talk? Where on the desk was your cell phone?

Mark Rippetoe:
You know, you don't want any of that shit discussed, you just want to say the thing and then you go on about your business like you would have had you not had to say it.

Mark Rippetoe:
In contrast, the Big Lie is what all of politics, probably since the dawn of time has been composed of. All of politics, has been composed of the big lie, when Barack Obama gets on and says that today the seas have stopped rising. Because he's now the president and global warming is going to be fixed, right?

Mark Rippetoe:
The lie is that the seas are rising faster than they would have anyway as a result of CO2. The lie is that the seas were rising faster than they would have because of manmade CO2 in the atmosphere. That is a bald faced lie. It's an enormous lie.

Mark Rippetoe:
CO2 in the atmosphere is not related to the temperature of the earth. We have had numerous ice ages throughout geologic history where this where the CO2 levels in the atmosphere were four digits, sometimes five digits. CO2 levels do not produce global warming. Sometimes they're associated with global cooling. But it's an association. It's not a cause and effect.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yet the lie is that since CO2 levels have increased a little bit in the past 100 years and since they have figured out a way to say that global temperatures have increased a little in the last hundred years, although they haven't, that's the lie, because they want to use the lie to affect policy. And the lie is so enormous that it's believed.

Mark Rippetoe:
And here is the interesting thing between a l-- a small lie and a big lie. If if I say to you, you realize that 10 percent of the population of Wichita Falls, Texas, has been killed by the covid-19 virus. 10 percent! That's 10000 people are dead because of covid-19! Now, what are you going to do about covid-19? 10000 people have died! Right.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's it's an enormous lie, but a little lie doesn't affect anybody. If I say 10 people are dead or 100 people are dead, nobody gives a shit about that. One hundred people were going to die anyway, but if I say a tenth of the population. Covid-19 has decimated the population of Wichita Falls!

Mark Rippetoe:
Decimated. Using an actual dictionary term.

Mark Rippetoe:
Then you don't dare disagree because of the enormity of the accusation. And this this you can examine current affairs. With with this in mind, and you'll see that there are currently several big lies in operation. The most important big lie right now is that covid-19 is a pandemic.

Mark Rippetoe:
A pandemic happens every spring because the flu goes around the world every spring and covid-19 is approximately the same thing as the flu in terms of the number of people it kills. There are some differences in the demographics, but the enormity of the death toll is approximately the same.

Mark Rippetoe:
And yet here we sit under the under the Big Lie. And the big lie that covid-19 kills everybody it comes in contact with is believed by half of the population at least. Maybe more than half of the population think that if you get covid-19, that you have to go to the hospital.

Beth Stelzer:
This is a lot of misinformation.

Mark Rippetoe:
This is on purpose, it's purposeful misinformation because it is because it obtains a result that these people want to obtain. All right. And this is has been in operation, this is the way politics is normally conducted. The people in charge lie to us to get us to react the way they want us to react.

Mark Rippetoe:
And that is exactly what has happened here. And it is exactly what has happened throughout history. And we have got to wrap our heads around the fact that we're being lied to, but we're not going to we're not going to wrap our heads around that fact because... Because people are stupid, Beth. People are stupid. Most people are stupid.

Beth Stelzer:
It's hard not to think thay way.

Mark Rippetoe:
The average state average IQ in the United States is one hundred and five [Note: due to changing demographics, environmental disruptors and miseducation, it is currently ~95 in the USA]. I'm sorry you ever had tried to have a conversation with somebody with a 100 IQ is very difficult to do.

Mark Rippetoe:
You know, these are the people you meet in bars. You know, these are the people you're sitting at the bar with somebody. I'm having a conversation with a guy and he says, you know, my wife is, you know, a hairdresser. And she tells me that why you can give somebody a permanent wave with a bottle of Prell shampoo.

Mark Rippetoe:
And you think to yourself. What am I doing here? Why am I listening to this moron tell me all these ridiculous things, you know, and that's that's the typical, you know, that's the typical person. The majority of the electorate are these kinds of people. And they'll believe you if you tell.... If you tell them loudly and often enough, they will believe you when you say that transwomen are women.

Beth Stelzer:
For sure, there's a lot of gaslighting and groupthink going on here.

Mark Rippetoe:
Transwomen are women. They ARE women.

Mark Rippetoe:
So we're manipulating the language with a bald faced lie. And nobody has got the balls to stand up and say, no, men are not women. And two plus two does not equal whatever you need it to equal today. Right? Two, two, four.

Beth Stelzer:
Right, it doesn't equal five.

Mark Rippetoe:
No, it doesn't equal five. It can't equal five. But if you say it's five often enough people will go along with you and and, you know, and just say, all right, it's five.

Mark Rippetoe:
Now, that doesn't work for your accountant. It doesn't work for your CPA. But it does work in the bar, right? It works in general conversation, and if 80 percent of the people in a population believe that covid-19 results in death every time it occurs, then you can make policy based on that big lie. And here we are talking about a more a more a less consequential thing, admittedly, but a thing that's important to both you and I, because we're in this business.

Beth Stelzer:
I believe it's even more sinister. I mean, this is talking about eroding away all of women's rights out from under our feet.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yes.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, it's it's more sinister than that, because if you can get everybody to agree that that men who say they are women are in fact women, then you can get them to believe that covid-19 kills everybody it touches. So it's a pattern.

Mark Rippetoe:
It is... It is establishing a pattern and it is taking advantage of a pattern that we have consciously been foisted upon over the past, what, 2000 years in human civilization. I suppose if we are going to believe every lie we're told without stopping to analyze the nature of the lie, then we can be made to believe that I, Mark Rippetoe, 65 year old male, cock and balls, right? Can enter the 14 year old girl's division at a powerlifting meet.

Beth Stelzer:
We're not far off. At least enter a woman your age.

Mark Rippetoe:
We're not far off. No, we're not. That's the whole point of this whole discussion. This is this is very, very important, you know, and we're going to talk about specifics of this issue.

Mark Rippetoe:
But the broad general theme here is that the American people, in fact, the global population is at this point apparently willing to believe that up is down and blue is red and white is black and two plus two equals five. And men are, are!, Women. Men are women, if they if they identify.

Beth Stelzer:
It's like the Emperor's New Clothes, it's like the Emperor's New Clothes.

Mark Rippetoe:
Same exact thing.

Beth Stelzer:
Like who is going to point it out?

Mark Rippetoe:
The same exact thing.

Beth Stelzer:
So I'm here and putting my stake in the ground!

Mark Rippetoe:
Somebody got to point it out. That's absolutely right.

Mark Rippetoe:
So that having been said, I want to revisit this topic from the perspective that I addressed a couple of years ago. And I have not... I've watched just damn near everything I can find on this on this subject, and so often the most important aspect of this men and women sports thing gets gets swept under the rug or not discussed or poorly understood or whatever the situation is... And that fact is that testosterone is responsible for the differences, physiologic differences between men and women. And the fast way to summarize that is that testosterone improves neuromuscular efficiency. But the most important aspect of this discussion that is very seldom had is that that difference begins about eight weeks after conception in the womb. And you are hatched, a little boy hatched with a cock and balls. He comes out...

Beth Stelzer:
From conception there's differences.

Mark Rippetoe:
He comes out with profound neuromuscular architectural differences from his twin sister, who has not been affected by the testosterone secreted in their little fetal bodies all throughout the gestation period. The the differences begin in utero and they're much, much more profound than those provided by the subsequent levels of testosterone that take place after during puberty and afterwards. In other words, they're...

Beth Stelzer:
They're evident in utero and cemented during puberty.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yes, yes. They're further developed. But the architecture that allows the pubertal expression of these things has already occurred by the time they're born.

Beth Stelzer:
And you can't remove that Y chromosome.

Mark Rippetoe:
No, you can't. And you cannot improve a woman's standing vertical jump with the administration of testosterone. This is... You know,

Beth Stelzer:
Women aren't the hormone level. I think testosterone shouldn't even be a part of this conversation. We have women saying, no.

Mark Rippetoe:
It should not be a part of the conversation because it's much more profound than what happens... And if you can convince the International Olympic Committee of something stupid, like if you if you lower a male's testosterone level for a year, then it's OK if they compete in the women's division. If those people are that bought in to this lie, I don't know what you do with it. You know, at that point, you destroyed women's divisions and all the sports.

Beth Stelzer:
Yeah. And then in 2016 Olympics, there wasn't enough time for these athletes to adjust to this new rules. So this time around in Tokyo is the first time we could actually see intact males on the females platform.

Mark Rippetoe:
And, you know, I don't know. They did they didn't have Tokyo, though.

Beth Stelzer:
But they are going to.

Mark Rippetoe:
When are they going to do that? Twenty one? Sometime this summer?

Beth Stelzer:
Yeah. Yeah, this summer.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, that's going to be fun. It will be real interesting to see if that guy down in New Zealand is allowed to compete in the women's division.

Beth Stelzer:
Yeah, if Laurel Hubbard will be able to crush the competition. I guess I've been really concerned with our local legislation working with all these states on the national level lately.

Mark Rippetoe:
Ok, so having established that two plus two still does in fact equal four, let's talk about what is going on. In terms of the legislation regarding this, the most important observation is, is the first day Joe Biden got in office, he reversed the the administration's policy about allowing "trans women"...I just that term makes me sick. Allowing guys...

Beth Stelzer:
I don't think we should use it. They're just males. Let's call a spade a spade. We lost all of our sex separated rights the first day Biden got into office. He threw women under the bus by including "gender identity" into sex with our laws. So our sex based protections got erased. Now you can self identify.

Beth Stelzer:
I'm here to protect Title nine and Title nine was to protect equal opportunities for girls in the education system, but I should see that, you know, it should be common sense all around. We are not the same. Our bodies are created differently and that should be celebrated.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yes, you should have read my article on training female athletes and my article on women in ground combat, which is derived from the from the principles I developed in the in the training article. And those of you that haven't read that, they're available on Starting Strength dot com on the website - just look them up under my name.

Mark Rippetoe:
And the disturbing, most disturbing aspect of and we're seeing this every week, this thing is the ball is getting rolling. Standards are going to be changed. The physical standards for performance are going to be changed.

Beth Stelzer:
We've already seen it like, for example, in fire-fighting. When they let more women in, they lowered the standard instead of just making a different standard for women. Well, I'd rather have a big burly man capable of hauling me out of a fire than someone who's passed a subpar standard.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yes.

Mark Rippetoe:
What is going on with Save Womens's Sports, your organization. When did you organize it? Where is it organized? Where is it on the web? All of that stuff.

Beth Stelzer:
When, where, why, how OK. So I started Save Women's Sports as a grassroots, non-partisan coalition after I experienced harassment when I spoke out that it was absurd when a male protested the Minnesota Women's State Powerlifting competition because they were not allowed to compete. So now we're an international coalition of people spreading all across. What are you going to say? You got to say something, I see that look...

Mark Rippetoe:
Just just you know what... I don't know. I don't think really I don't even think it merits a discussion. If you want to compete in the women's division, that probably indicates that you aren't good enough to compete in the men's division.

Beth Stelzer:
We've seen that mediocre males are coming over into the female category and dominating. It's just absurd that I even have to waste my time being here.

Mark Rippetoe:
I know.

Beth Stelzer:
I started Save Women's Sports dotcom as a source for truth because so many women, so many people in general, get beat up for speaking out against this.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. Yeah, I don't think we need to belabor the point, because everybody watching this podcast already knows the truth of the matter. And I'm not going to insult everybody's intelligence by explaining to them that, you know, Laurel Hubbard down in New Zealand just couldn't couldn't hack it in the men's division. So he figured out a way. I don't know why a guy wants to win that bad, though, that's the part of it I don't understand.

Beth Stelzer:
I know. They say they feel like women. Why aren't they more compassionate to women?

Mark Rippetoe:
I mean, that's a very good point. Very good point.

Beth Stelzer:
Yes, just facts should not outweigh feelings in this. We're a little teeny percent of the population. We're listening to their feelings and then throwing women under the bus.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right, and a huge percentage of the population has agreed to the lie.

Beth Stelzer:
We're seeing in polls, 70 to 90 percent, and I think the other percentage, it's just an issue of awareness. They're just not aware of what is happening.

Mark Rippetoe:
So what are you saying? What 70 to 90 percent are you seeing in the polls?

Beth Stelzer:
In polls that people support female only sports. They do not want males competing against their daughters or in their locker rooms.

Mark Rippetoe:
Anybody with a daughter who supports it? Right.

Beth Stelzer:
Pretty much. If you understand the problem, you're behind us.

Mark Rippetoe:
Sure, sure. But for some reason, these gutless, pandering politicians seem to think that there is a constituency for this for this approach to the thing.

Beth Stelzer:
It's sad that some...

Mark Rippetoe:
I don't understand it. I don't understand why anybody in elected office would think that there are enough people to re-elect him if he agrees with putting our daughters out of a college scholarship. I don't know why you want...

Beth Stelzer:
Females' rights are not theirs to give away.

Mark Rippetoe:
Why would you think that you'd want to go to a college that would accept such an athlete on a scholarship? There's some things about this.... When the lie is sufficiently big, you have to just say uuuhkaay!

Beth Stelzer:
Yeah, it's a groupthink status right now. And don't you dare break out of that box because they'll cancel you.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, they'll try. I think... No, no, I'm serious about this. They're going to try they'll try to cancel me and you, right? This will go up and they'll try to cancel me and you. And you know what we'll say? Always remember these three words. This is very, very important. This is how you decide how you deal with being canceled: Go get fucked.

Beth Stelzer:
Fucked. All right.

Mark Rippetoe:
Go get fucked. I don't care about your opinion. Tou're not entitled to an opinion.

Beth Stelzer:
It's very tough though, when you think about how powerful social media is for women. I mean, that's one of our only platforms to communicate nowadays. So when Twitter takes your account away for saying, but a man is not a woman. It's pretty hard to be cancelled nowadays.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right.

Mark Rippetoe:
So what I have done as a response to that is I have taken myself off a Twitter and Facebook. I am not going to play. I don't need them. They don't make me any money, I make them money, they don't make me any money. I'm not going to work for Facebook. Facebook works for me. And when Facebook stopped working for me, I got off of Facebook. And if everybody would do that...

Beth Stelzer:
Well, you have a major point there, you know, if we all stop supporting these corporations that are supporting this movement, we can make a lot of progress. I mean, if we cut off all the sponsors to the Olympics, the Olympics wouldn't have a choice, but listen to us.

Beth Stelzer:
But how are we going to get to that point, you know, are we going to have to have women protesting? What's it going to take here before people really start listening?

Mark Rippetoe:
I'll tell you what it's going to take. And I said this two years ago and it's doubly true now. Men can't fix this for you girls. We can't fix this. This is your problem. This is your problem, and if you're going to get it fixed...

Beth Stelzer:
But we do need your support in the process.

Mark Rippetoe:
You already got our support.

Beth Stelzer:
Exactly, but we do need to step up. I hear you. This is a rallying cry for all the women listening. We need to speak up! Like I am almost about to tear up. I am so passionate about this because I know the truth and the power truth has. And even one voice, no matter how much it shakes, can make a difference.

Beth Stelzer:
I'm just an average American mom here and I'm helping make laws across the nation. What can you do? What are you going to do to protect future generations of females?

Mark Rippetoe:
That's right. And if if if the women listening to this can't even come out and publicly agree that they and their daughters are different than their husbands and sons, then they are participating in the lie.

Mark Rippetoe:
It is a lie. You know, it's a lie. You all know it's a lie. But you've agreed to participate and agree with the lie. And if you've got to have the courage to stand up and say, no, no, this is bullshit, you know, I'm not going to participate in this, this is a lie. And I know it's a lie.

Beth Stelzer:
Yeah. They're opening up the floodgate and it's going to be too hard to put back. Now is the time.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right, no this has to be dealt with immediately. It really does, because we are already living in a post-truth society. Where truth is no longer what you and I understand as the definition of Truth.

Beth Stelzer:
If you've got enough money you can pay for science nowadays.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh yeah, you've always been able

Beth Stelzer:
To say whatever you want it to say.

Mark Rippetoe:
You've always been able to do that. And and it's just science is not science anymore. Science is professional research. And it's not the same thing as Science.

Beth Stelzer:
And we look at the science that is often pointed to in this issue from the opposition, it's a report by a scientific... By a scientist or a doctor that is a transgender person, a male pretending to be a female. And it's a self reported study from a handful of athletes. It's not even a scientific study.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's not a that's not a study. It's not science. It's not biology. I mean, you've got thousands, tens of thousands of years of human society, predicated on the idea that women do one thing and men do another thing, and the things that they do are based upon their physical capacities. Man can't bear children. Women can't hunt down animals and spear them to death to eat. Right?

Mark Rippetoe:
Now, there may be some exceptions to the latter, but there are no exceptions to the former.

Beth Stelzer:
But yes...

Mark Rippetoe:
There are no exceptions to the former. Men don't have babies and men don't lactate and men don't raise babies.

Beth Stelzer:
There is no such thing as chest feeding, et cetera, et cetera, but we don't need to get into those weeks.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's so stupid, it's just not even worth discussing.

Mark Rippetoe:
But it's just the the idea that every reality is subjective. Is the only thing that allows the propagation of this lie. You know, there are realities that are not subjective and this is one of them. And all of the data from sports performance, I mean, we have, for God's sake, we got men's and women's golf. Right? What do you what else do you need to know?

Beth Stelzer:
Many sports have so many, like volleyball, has a different net size, hurdles, have taller hurdles for men. In basketball, hoop sizes are different. So, I mean, a man transition into a woman sport, it's not only easier for them because of their physical body, it's actually easier standards.

Mark Rippetoe:
Sure it is, and we all know that and we all know that, but we've lots and lots of us have agreed to ignore what we know to be true. And if we just repeat over and over...

Beth Stelzer:
If we continue to be nice, they're going to eat us alive.

Mark Rippetoe:
Just mindlessly repeat over and over that men, transwomen are women... You just can't

Beth Stelzer:
Transwomen are men and most have their penises. Let's be honest. In self reported studies, they had never have intentions of having surgery. These are intact males invading women spaces.

Mark Rippetoe:
You know, that are taking some estrogen or whatever the fuck, you know. And this is not it's not a serious discussion.

Mark Rippetoe:
This gets serious when girls and young women are deprived of opportunities based on their athletic performance. That's when this gets serious. OK, now if I if Laurel Hubbard I mean, you know, these are adults down in New Zealand participating in this ridiculous weightlifting federation they've got down there.

Mark Rippetoe:
And I don't care about that. I mean, that the women that continue to enter that division and don't boycott that competition, they're as much of the problem is Laurel Hubbard is.

Beth Stelzer:
We're getting to that point. I agree with you.

Mark Rippetoe:
You have to say, no, I'm not going to to legitimize this farce by participating in it.

Mark Rippetoe:
That's not the problem. All right, the girls down in New Zealand, if they want to lift against Laurel Hubbard, then they sign up for the meet and they take second and third place. OK, fine, let them do it. I'm not concerned about them.

Mark Rippetoe:
I'm concerned about the kids in high school and the kids in college who are having opportunities, who are having opportunities removed as a result of this nonsense.

Beth Stelzer:
There are four girls in Connecticut that are suing the Connecticut Athletic Association because they allowed males to compete in female track. And we saw just two males entering into female track and losing over 80 opportunities. Females lost to them. 15 state titles those boys now hold!

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. That's what I'm talking about.

Beth Stelzer:
It's absolutely ridiculous. How many records have to be lost?

Mark Rippetoe:
This is it's not merely ridiculous. This is this is criminal.

Beth Stelzer:
It is, we're being robbed.

Mark Rippetoe:
You have to examine. Beth, I think you have to examine the motives, not of the of the boys that wanted to win so bad they decided to become girls, I don't care about that. I care about the adults supposedly charge of this situation that decided to do this. To forward some goal. Who are these people?

Beth Stelzer:
The adults in the room.

Mark Rippetoe:
And what is the what are the what are the motivations of these adults and who are they? That's what I'm concerned about, because you just ruined opportunities that girls have been raised to think they had.

Beth Stelzer:
Exactly.

Beth Stelzer:
You have a lot of money pushing this transgender ideology. And all boils down to that.

Mark Rippetoe:
Whose money?

Beth Stelzer:
You have big pharma, big tech, you can go to the 11th hour blog, that's with the number 11 dotcom, and they will show you the money trail. It's really scary because these transgender people are permanent patients for life. And the insurance companies, everybody is profiting off of it.

Mark Rippetoe:
Boy, that's a very good point. That's a very good point, because that status does not exist outside the context of pharmacology.

Beth Stelzer:
And you're worried about girls' sports. We have a major problem in our nation of rapid onset gender dysphoria in our young women. Women like me who are raised tomboys are now being told they were born in the wrong body and they're actually boys.

Beth Stelzer:
It's so scary. We know girls as young as 12, 13 years old whose parents are agreeing for them to have double mastectomies. Girls as young as 16 getting hysterectomies.

Mark Rippetoe:
And whose doctors are signing off on it.

Beth Stelzer:
We have hundreds of gender clinics across the nation now. Girls can walk into Planned Parenthoods and get testosterone shots.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, these people need to be hunted down with dogs and beaten to death. With a kettlebell. You know.

Beth Stelzer:
Well, in our society, we're lacking a lot of consequences and people don't have shame.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right, right. And at all...

Beth Stelzer:
Everyone gets on top by abusing everyone else. It's just sad. We have to stand up here.

Mark Rippetoe:
And it it's all a result of the fact that people have been willing to believe the lie.

Beth Stelzer:
Yes. You are exactly right. I'll never forget the first podcast you said don't comply with the like. You were just nailing it on the head right there.

Mark Rippetoe:
It is nothing but a lie. And until everybody confronts the fact that it's nothing but a lie and that lies are not OK, then this this silly shit is going to continue.

Mark Rippetoe:
So tell us about what's going on at the state level.

Beth Stelzer:
So at the state level, we are trying to introduce laws - so it starts with a bill - to protect female athletes from K through 12 all the way through the collegiate level. Even challenging the NCAA, its policies.

Beth Stelzer:
We have 30 states. We have Mississippi that signed into a law this year. Idaho signed a law last year. We have a couple of bills on the governor's desk and a handful in the second chamber.

Beth Stelzer:
So I'd like to explain to people that aren't familiar with the process of making a law that a bill starts out with a written text of what they'd like the law to be. That bill then gets a hearing in the chamber, either the Senate or the House. It has a committee hearing there. Then it gets a full vote in the chamber. Then it moves to the opposite chamber for the same process, a hearing and a full vote before it gets to the governor's desk. Once it's on the governor's desk, different states have different timeframes for when it needs to be signed and then it becomes a law. If they ignore it, usually the it falls back on it becoming an automatic law.

Mark Rippetoe:
Ok, and this is this has taken place and gone through and been signed by 30 state governors?

Beth Stelzer:
So, no... We have bills going in process in 30 states and we have one that's become a law this session this year, one became a law just at the end of last year. We have just a handful that are headed to the governor's desk right now. South Dakota has their chance. And Arkansas just went on the governor's desk this week.

Mark Rippetoe:
So what does it look like...

Beth Stelzer:
Mississippi is the law.

Mark Rippetoe:
Mississippi's the only state with the law. Who... What does it look like, the chances for success of these things getting actually signed into law by the governor?

Beth Stelzer:
Unfortunately, we really see it become a partisan issue. So it really has been dependent on, you know, if if there's someone that's chairing a committee that doesn't like our bill, they could just choose not to schedule a hearing and the bill gets swept under the rug.

Mark Rippetoe:
Pocket veto. Right?

Beth Stelzer:
It's just I never realized how slimy politics were.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh, yeah. It's nasty.

Mark Rippetoe:
But anyway, you know, we're just doing our best. And even if we don't have a chance, say the governor as straight telling us that they're going to veto it. Well, as much as we get hearings, as much as we get to talk about it, courage speaks to courage. And more women will speak up. More people will speak up and see the issue that's at hand.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yes.

Mark Rippetoe:
How many of these 30 states have governors who have publicly stated that they're not going to sign the bill?

Beth Stelzer:
We have a couple, just a couple so far. But I guess, like I said, I just I've been keeping my eye on the prize for the awareness issue, and even if it looks like they're going to veto it, states have like smoke out laws where rules where if the governor vetoes it, if they have so much support in the Senate, they can bring the bill back to life and get a vote on it in the Senate.

Mark Rippetoe:
How many state houses have you been in over the past couple of years?

Beth Stelzer:
Um 10, I believe, on that now.

Mark Rippetoe:
Do you feel like you want to take a shower when you leave?

Beth Stelzer:
There's not enough hot showers.

Mark Rippetoe:
I would I would want to wash all that off of me when I got out of it,

Beth Stelzer:
It really drains my my battery. It really does. I'm seeing it also light my fire, you know, someone has to to fight back, and I have some really awesome female idols or role models in other countries that are helping lead the path. And we're all standing together. I mean, it's a hands across the aisle moment from all backgrounds, all political beliefs.

Beth Stelzer:
And I'm not saying that all transgender people are a threat, but what I'm saying is that most are male bodies. And then we will have male predators taking advantage of these rules. And we are training our young girls to feel comfortable with male bodies who could possibly be predators. And they're not taught women's history in school. That's another thing. They're not taught the truth, so they don't see.

Mark Rippetoe:
That is interesting. And I'm not as cynical even a bastard as me is not saying that every transgender person is evil. That's not what... These people are in a terrible situation if they're legitimately in this situation. They're in a terrible situation and I don't envy them at all. I don't envy them at all. They're not the problem.

Mark Rippetoe:
As I said a minute ago, the people who are the problem are the politicians and the people in charge who have agreed to pretend that two plus two equals five. These people are the problem. These are always the problem. They're the ones telling the big lie. And who are profiting off of the big lie.

Beth Stelzer:
Someone like Rachel Levin a head of our health department.

Beth Stelzer:
Like, I mean, we can't play nice anymore. We have to call them out for what it is. It is a male competing in women's sports, it's not a transgender woman.

Mark Rippetoe:
Richard, Levine is who this is. Richard Levine.

Beth Stelzer:
And you can find pictures of him dressing up in little doll clothes like a little girl, like a total fetish thing. It's disgusting. And they want to push children into transitioning. And even worse, so we have women sports foundations that are pushing for males to compete in women's sports and telling young boys that it's OK to go through these gender transitions so that you can end up playing in girls' sports. It's just ridiculous.

Mark Rippetoe:
People who haven't had sufficient amounts of biology in school. It's just but, you know, I don't even think you had to have biology... If you've ever been around the opposite sex with your kid.

Beth Stelzer:
Presidential physical fitness tests that we all took in school from the age of six, it shows the references.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. And again, I'm not going to insult everybody's intelligence by explaining to you people watching this podcast what the differences are. You already know that. You already know that. Anybody that doesn't know that is lying. You're lying about that. This is obvious.

Beth Stelzer:
Right, but they might not know is that how the conflation of gender identity with sex basically erases the definition of what a female is.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, that was that's intentional. That's the intentional manipulation of the language. That is what Dr. Orwell referred to as Newspeak. If you controlled the language, you controlled the thoughts.

Beth Stelzer:
It's so crazy. They control you.

Mark Rippetoe:
If you control the language of the people, you control the thinking of the people because you think in the language. And I mean, if you if you haven't watched recently the 1984 version of 1984, that film with Richard Burton and John Hurt, you really need to watch it.

Beth Stelzer:
I haven't recently.

Mark Rippetoe:
You really out to watch that.

Beth Stelzer:
I know the similarities are very shocking to what we have nowadays.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's a horror movie. It's not political commentary.

Beth Stelzer:
It is. It's becoming a documentary.

Mark Rippetoe:
It is. It's a it's a horror movie. It really is.

Mark Rippetoe:
So. I you know, I don't know what else. There is to say about this, except that you people who are who have been complicit in this lie need to re-examine your relationship with the truth.

Mark Rippetoe:
Are you interested in the truth? Are you interested in two plus two equals four, are you or are you OK with it being five? Could you tell your accountant when he prepares your tax return that you're all right with two plus two being five on your tax return? Can you do that? I'll bet not. But you're willing to play little games like this with very important things.

Mark Rippetoe:
Now in the in the interest of, you know, being internally consistent here, what would your position be on an all men's golf club excluding women from membership?

Beth Stelzer:
I think we should have sex based protections. If men want to have a men's only...

Mark Rippetoe:
If if, if, if they've got a golf club and you know, and I say women can't join.

Beth Stelzer:
Should be your right.

Mark Rippetoe:
It should be your right. Good, good. I'm glad that is that's that's consistent. Because it's my club and I get to do it.

Beth Stelzer:
Exactly, a private organization, you should have every right. But there are other tactical sports that are stepping up too, but, for example, you know, Crossfit, they got sued over it and they pandered to it.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yes, they did. They certainly did. They certainly did.

Beth Stelzer:
And we need to stop looking at the profits and look at the long term picture. We're forcing females out of sports by doing this.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yes. Yes, you are. And you people in charge are forcing females out of sports. Now, if that's your intention, I'm wondering why?

Beth Stelzer:
Well, when we lose our female athletes...

Mark Rippetoe:
Because that's the net effect, that's what you're doing.

Beth Stelzer:
Exactly. When we lose female athletes... Sports give females the building blocks for success and for life. Over 90 percent of our women in government have played sports. I think they've got there because sports have given them the resiliency and leadership roles. You learn how to work as a team. They're cutting off opportunities for women just in general. We are going to be...

Mark Rippetoe:
Athletic competition is very important for everybody,

Beth Stelzer:
I'm at a loss of words that we even need to be explaining this.

Mark Rippetoe:
When you removed the incentive for girls to compete in athletics, which is what you're doing when you're doing this, then that's just one more nail in the coffin of this society.

Beth Stelzer:
Exactly. We already have reports of moms telling us young girls are not going to games because they don't want to compete against the team with the trans kids on them.

Mark Rippetoe:
Good, good. And I say good...

Beth Stelzer:
Girls should not have to lose their opportunities. But yeah, these people are putting their foot down.

Mark Rippetoe:
And they should have the opportunity to say, you know what, I'm not going to do that. You know what? I'm not going to I'm not going to agree to your bullshit rules and I'm not going to justify your existence by participating in this lie. And I'm happy that they're boycotting that.

Mark Rippetoe:
And that's what needs to be encouraged because until this thing collapses from your side of the deal. This is again, this is something you guys have got to fix, we can't fix it for you. You have to fix this and you need to encourage all parents of female athletes to tell their kids...

Beth Stelzer:
It's time for soccer moms to wake up, look at what's going on here. Just because Jimmy wants to play on the girls team doesn't mean we can make a rule out of niceness that is going to affect future generations of females forever. Amen.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. Precisely. Precisely.

Mark Rippetoe:
So Beth and I are encouraging you if you're watching this podcast to get up off of the couch and participate in this. Her organization is Save Women's Sports dot com, so spell it correctly, save, s-a-v-e, Women's w-o-m-e-n-s s-p-o-r-t-s.

Beth Stelzer:
S, yeah.

Mark Rippetoe:
Dot com. Did I spell that correctly?

Beth Stelzer:
You did. You did, yeah.

Mark Rippetoe:
I got there finally. I got there finally. And go to her website. Contribute. You know, all this shit costs money. You need to contribute, you need to follow her website.

Mark Rippetoe:
If this is taking place in your state and this is an issue that is important to you, I would recommend that you get involved.

Mark Rippetoe:
Now, I don't normally encourage people to involve themselves in politics because under normal circumstances that would be the equivalent of rubbing vomit on your face. And that's just not something I would I would want to do.

Beth Stelzer:
This not a political issue. This is not a religious issue. We're from all sides. Join our team.

Mark Rippetoe:
This is something that has got to be addressed. And if we can address this lie and nip it in the bud, then possibly people can learn to start thinking about all these big lies and address them with analysis and logic instead of with intimidation and fear, because that's what's going on. They have successfully intimidated a huge number of people. And you can't allow yourself to be intimidated.

Beth Stelzer:
No, no. Silenced Majority. No longer.

Mark Rippetoe:
Nope. Can't have it. Can't have it. Absolutely. If you have any questions...

Beth Stelzer:
I really appreciate this opportunity.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, if those of you watching have any questions for Beth, email her at..

Beth Stelzer:
info@savewomenssports.com

Mark Rippetoe:
So info at save women's sports dot com. All right. And she'll get the email. And she's real good about returning emails. And I hope this generates some interest that previously wasn't there.

Mark Rippetoe:
We got quite a few people that watch this podcast. And I think that those of you in our audience today with female children that want to participate in athletics, this is your problem. This is a problem.

Mark Rippetoe:
And you have to address it. I can't address it, the only way I address it is as I've done today, but this is your problem and you're going to have to do something about it if you care about your kids, if you care about your girls, if you care about your boys.

Mark Rippetoe:
That want to do this insanity, that's also a parenting problem. It's not your job to tell them, yeah, it's OK, honey, you can be Jayne instead of Jim and then you can go play on the women's team and do better than you would against all those mean guys that are going to push you around. That's not the way to address this problem. And if you're addressing it like that. You know, maybe you shouldn't have had kids. You know, That's not harsh, I think that exactly...

Beth Stelzer:
I could really elaborate on that, but I think you said it succinctly.

Mark Rippetoe:
I think that's exactly the truth and... Because you're telling them things that are not right. You're making them content to be people who take the easy way out. That's what you're doing. When you encourage your boys to participate in the girls division.

Mark Rippetoe:
You're.... I'm ashamed of you. I know you don't care about that, but some people may. Right?

Mark Rippetoe:
Beth, thanks, I appreciate you. And...

Beth Stelzer:
Likewise.

Mark Rippetoe:
I hope things are I hope things can get turned around here pretty soon, because if we don't, we're all in the hole in a hell of a bunch of trouble.

Beth Stelzer:
Well, thanks to independent media like you're doing right now, I mean, the tide is turning.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yes, hopefully. Thanks for being with us.

Beth Stelzer:
It's been great. Thank you!

Mark Rippetoe:
And thank you for being with us from Starting Strength Radio. We'll see you next Friday.