You have to hand it to San Francisco State University — they’re really trying.
In the wake of swimmer and “Save Women’s Sports” activist Riley Gaines’ appearance at the school at which she was physically assaulted and essentially held hostage by an unruly crowd of political opponents, school officials and far-left activists would have you deny reality.
First, SFSU Vice President for Student Affairs Jamillah Moore sent out a memo thanking activists for “peacefully” taking part in the anti-Gaines protest … and even called them “brave.”
Then, the president of the SFSU student government said that Gaines was at fault for her assault and the screaming protesters due to her “hateful rhetoric.” Indeed, Karina Zamora also pinned blame on the campus police for their “confrontational behavior.”
Now, the SFSU athletic director has joined the fray saying she doesn’t understand what Gaines’ problem is in the first place — that it’s a “common mistake to believe people might have a competitive advantage due to their physical abilities.”
Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins (pictured), who according to her faculty page has “over 20 years of experience in collegiate athletics,” said that “some athletes can see competition as an enhancer of negative thoughts against trans people, making some forget about other issues like inclusivity,” Golden Gate Xpress reports.
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“You wouldn’t see this with dancers or any other thing that’s physical,” she said. “It’s just with this athletics [perspective], we live in this society that’s so competitive.”
Shrieve-Hawkins added “You’ll notice that especially transgender male to female is the one that people are focusing most on because it’s a gender bias in a way as well. So what does that say about women, that women aren’t strong?”
The Xpress report notes SFSU Athletics’s DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) statement reads in part:
Organizations are enhanced by achieving greater diversity. We strive to embrace diversity in it all its forms: culture, identity, life experience, background, abilities, status, and perspectives. Further, we aim to center the voices of those who are marginalized and underrepresented due to structural, systemic, and institutionalized racism and heteropatriarchy that continue to exist in the world of athletics. …
Equity, diversity and inclusion not only improve the learning environment and culture of belonging for all student-athletes, coaches, and staff; they are critical to the process of identifying, addressing, and eliminating practices, policies, norms, traditions, and organizational culture that promote barriers for historically underrepresented and marginalized individuals.
Shrieve-Hawkins said that although transgender athletes aren’t “explicitly mentioned” in the statement, that may change soon in order to be “clear and inclusive.”
According to her staff page, Shrieve-Hawkins holds degrees in kinesiology and child development and has been at SFSU since 2018. Her (private) Twitter profile notes she uses the pronouns “she/her” and includes “Black Lives Matter.”
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IMAGE: Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins/Twitter screencap
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