The article <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/03/03/ivwr-m03.html" author="Isla Anderson, Evan Winters" source="WSWS">Trump bans transgender athletes from entering the United States</a> writes, <bq><img attachment="semenya.jpg" align="right" caption="Semenya">Rubio justified the ban on international transgender athletes under the 1952 Immigration and Nationalities act, which authorizes a “permanent fraud bar” as punishment for “lying” on a visa application. <b>The pretense is that a gender marker matching a transgender person’s gender identity, rather than one that aligns “with their sex assigned at birth,” amounts to “misrepresenting the purpose of their travel or sex,” which constitutes “fraud.”</b> Such a “fraud bar” would lead to a lifetime ban on entry into the United States, with few opportunities for appeal.</bq> This is so petty, immoral, and stupid. How in God's name can this be a priority for the State Department? Rubio goes from a press conference for advancing an end to the proxy war with Russia to this one, announcing that trans-athletes will be banned for life from entering the U.S. because they're "lying" on their visa applications? Are they really willing to spend political capital on something so hateful and petty? Or do they think they have endless political capital? Why can't we have peace with Russia without harassing of minority groups? Still, the people who will absolutely explode about this new restriction---and quite rightly---also almost certainly want to keep the Ukraine steamroller going at all costs. And neither party is interested in justice for---or even just less murdering of---the Palestinians. The "ceasefire"---in quotes because Israel never ceased firing; they ceased bombing---was an initial ruse that Trump probably hopes to be remembered by. He will instead be remembered for having continued the flattening of Gaza and its citizens that Biden had nearly completed. And he will also be remembered for these spiteful stupid digs against people who've harmed no-one.