August 02, 2024 11:48 AM UTC

Boebert Goes Culture War Ambulance Chasing At The Olympics

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• by: Colorado Pols

A new and heavily misinformed front in the ongoing debate over gender identity and sports opened this week at the Olympic Games in Paris, when a female Algerian boxer widely misidentified as “transgender” easily defeated an Italian female boxer, leading to a fresh round of allegations that “woke culture” was allowing “men to play in women’s sports.” The debate is admittedly complicated by the born-female Algerian boxer’s prior disqualification from another competition for failing “gender eligibility tests,” but conservatives lept immediately to the conclusion that Imane Khelif is some kind of woke culture activist–despite being a citizen of a country where transgender people along with LGBTQ+ people in general are criminalized.

But as Jackson Walker reports for the syndicated National Desk, none of these details matter to Colorado’s foremost drama-seeking missile Rep. Lauren Boebert, who swung into action with a fundraising campaign promising 100% of the proceeds to Italy’s Angela Carini, allegedly to replace the money Carini might have earned from a gold medal:

Taking to X, Rep. Boebert said she hopes to rally support for the fighter.

“Angela Carini, the Olympic female boxer from Italy that was defeated in 45 seconds by a biological man, deserves better,” she wrote. “I’ve created a GiveSendGo with the goal of raising what Angela would have made from a gold medal! Please consider chipping in.”

“Italy pays their Olympic athletes $196,000 for a gold medal,” she wrote. “While the IOC is the only organization that can truly right this wrong, I believe we can do our part. Every dollar contributed will go directly to Angela Carini.”

As of this writing, Boebert has raised about $59,000 toward her $196,000 goal. It’s reasonable to assume that with all of the misguided hype surrounding this event, Boebert will raise the full equivalent of what the Italian government pays gold medal Olympians. The problem is, as BBC reports this morning, the intended recipient of Boebert’s charity may not want the money:

“All this controversy makes me sad,” Carini told Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision.” [Pols emphasis]

Carini, also 25, said abandoning the fight had been a mature step to take, but she expressed regret at not shaking hands with Khelif afterwards.

“It wasn’t something I intended to do,” Carini said. “Actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke.”

She added that if she met Khelif again, she would “embrace her”. [Pols emphasis]

It’s beyond the scope of our commentary to criticize an amateur athlete for accepting money that would help them no matter where it comes from. Having said that, it’s quite clear that Carini’s initial reaction after losing to Khelif has been misinterpreted, and she may well not be interested in charity raised on Boebert’s false and bigoted presumption. Carini has never once accused her opponent of being “a biological man” as Boebert alleged on her fundraising page–and if she turned down Boebert’s money somebody should give Carini a medal (or the cash equivalent) for choosing decency.

The only other thing we can add is that while Boebert is distracted raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for an Italian Olympic boxer, Boebert’s Democratic opponent Trisha Calvarese has reportedly raked in over $750,000 since winning the June 25th primary. Boebert is now the nominee for a substantially redder congressional seat than the one she abandoned last December, but that doesn’t mean she should get complacent about the general election. Polling has consistently shown that Boebert has a hard ceiling of support even among fellow Republicans, and if we were giving Boebert advice we’d tell her to work on that instead of chasing culture war headlines.