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CNN Report on Trans Sport Bans Claims There's No Way to Determine Gender at Birth

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A CNN reporter made the bizarre, unscientific claim that an individual’s gender cannot be identified at birth in a story slamming South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem for her executive orders on transgender athletes.

“​It’s not possible to know a person’s gender identity at birth, and there is no consensus criteria for assigning sex at birth,” CNN political reporter Devan Cole wrote Tuesday in a story promoted as straight news and not an opinion piece.

Cole made the absurd assertion while attacking Noem for issuing a pair of executive orders aimed at barring male athletes who identify as female from competing in girls’ sports in kindergarten through high school and in women’s collegiate sports.

“Only girls should play girls’ sports,” Noem tweeted on Monday.

The governor added that she “will be working with legislative leaders to schedule a special legislative session in late May or early June” to discuss the issue in detail.

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Noem signed the executive orders a week after being criticized by conservatives for vetoing a bill that would require athletes to compete on teams “based on their biological sex.”

Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted the governor for caving to the left.

Can you tell the difference between a male and a female baby at birth?

“This bill would only allow the NCAA to bully South Dakota,” Noem responded. “And it would actually prevent women from being able to participate in collegiate sports.”

However, she took action to represent the will of her state’s majority-Republican constituents with the two executive orders.



Meanwhile, the CNN “reporter” who claimed it’s impossible to determine gender at birth got dragged on Twitter for his farcical claim.

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“There is indeed consensus for knowing biological sex at birth: just gotta look between the legs, it’s really not that hard,” one Twitter user noted.

A woman tweeted: “You do know women can get ultrasounds while the baby is still in utero to find out the sex of their child, right? The criteria is pretty cut and dry here.”

Still another quipped: “CNN is a parody website.”

The issue of men who identify as women competing against women has ignited a volcanic backlash from critics who say it’s misogynistic, unfair and anti-science — especially in combat sports such as mixed martial arts fighting.

Last month, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said the Biden administration’s transgender policy “would completely destroy girls’ athletics” and deprive girls of college scholarships and opportunities to win competitions.

Paul, a physician, said “most people in this country think it’s completely bizarre and unfair” to allow male students to compete in girls’ sports on the basis of their preferred gender identity.

“Some boy who’s 6-foot-2 competing against my 5-foot-4 niece doesn’t sound very fair,” the senator said.

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Samantha Chang is a politics writer, lawyer and financial editor based in New York City.
Samantha Chang is a politics writer and financial editor based in New York City.




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