A California Sailing Coach Tried to Protect Women from Male Competition. He Paid the Price

Four years ago, California resident and longtime sailor Dennis Allison saw that his local yacht club had a recruitment problem. Members were retiring left and right from the senior team at the Balboa Yacht Club (BYC) in Corona Del Mar, Calif. He created a training program, through which he assembled a formidable fleet that eventually became the most active in southern California.

A few years later, his proud fleet would run into the unforgiving headwinds of left-wing gender ideology.

When a 60-something-year-old feminine-looking man, who now goes by Jennifer DesCombe, joined his lesson program, Allison didn't think much of it. Then going by Jeff DesCombe, he first sailed in "Mixed C," a co-ed group for sailing amateurs, where he won the category. But over a year later, DesCombe announced that he had begun hormone therapy and intended to compete in the women's division and use the women's restroom at BYC.

DesCombe gained access not only to women's regattas hosted by the Southern California Women's Sailing Association (SCWSA), but also to the female all-ages locker rooms in the yacht clubs where they were held, IW Features first reported.

Jeff DesCombe posing with fellow regatta winners at the San Diego Yacht Club.

The association "has over 50 years of tradition since the group of women initially started it," Allison told National Review. "All of a sudden there were several women who objected to the restroom issue and there was a whole list of women . . . who objected to him sailing in women-only events. It was starting to really affect the fleet."

DesCombe insisted on participating in the women's category and using the women's facilities for his comfort. Under California law, transgender-identifying individuals are allowed to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.

"It was all about his feelings," Susan Jennings, who was serving as fleet captain of the senior team when DesCombe arrived, told National Review. "That was a problem for me, and I think a number of other people that our feelings were never considered. 'I'm more comfortable with the women.' It wasn't about whether we were uncomfortable with him and his intrusion."

At the first SCWSA event in which DesCombe entered as a woman, several women refused to sail in that category, Alison said. Jennings also said she's sure that not everyone in the 600+ member BYC is "comfortable with having a fully intact male in the women's restroom." DesCombe does not plan to receive top or bottom surgery, Jennings said.

When Jennings confronted the man to point out that some of the locker rooms at the various yacht clubs had total exposure and no privacy whatsoever when you walk out of the shower, he replied, "Well, I go to the gym and after a while I'm just one of the girls,'" according to Jennings.

There were other interactions that struck Jennings as inappropriate. On one occasion, Jennings claimed he made the comment: "I can't wear a white shirt now. Because you can see my bra."

"He's totally delusional," Jennings said. "I don't care how many surgeries you have or what color you paint your nails, or how long you grow your hair, he's never going to be a woman."

Jennings is a former high school women's swimming coach. From her experience coaching the Southern California Interscholastic Federation in the 1980s, when East German athletes were caught in a doping scandal, Jennings saw how hormones could affect performance. Jennings recalled a conversation with a female 50-year sailor, an original member of SCWSA, who had won the Senior Sabot Nationals and defeated men in sailing events.

"She's one of the first to have said, 'Consistently the men are better sailors,'" Jennings noted. "Whether it's because they’re more aggressive, whether they have faster reaction time, certainly when the wind picks up they have a huge advantage. If nothing else . . . they have more upper body strength which really comes into play when you've got bigger wind."

Men are also heavier on average, a crucial advantage in keeping the boat stable.

Some women at BYC are lightweight and can capsize in their one-person boats when the wind picks up, Jennings said. Alison agreed that the advantage male sailors carry is significant, which is why the World Sailing Association, the governing body responsible for managing sailing at the Olympics, in December restricted men who transition after puberty from the female division. Transgender-identifying men must also keep their testosterone levels below a certain threshold during competition.

Under this new rule, which went into effect January 1, DesCombe would be ineligible to compete in female World Sailing events.

Together, Alison and Jennings dramatically scaled up the senior sabots at Balboa Yacht Club, organizing the national Senior Sabot regatta together at BYC in 2022. They felt the legacy they had built was being jeopardized by a man's intrusion into their fleet and the women's sailing events.

Over several emails, Alison politely attempted to encourage DesCombe to be conscientious of the concerns of the female sailors. Months later, Alison was brought into a meeting with the BYC commodores, who reprimanded him and told him his emails were not in keeping with the policies of BYC regarding gender identity and were putting the yacht club at risk of a lawsuit. They then issued Alison a letter demanding he stop all correspondence with DesCombe or be potentially expelled from the yacht club.

BYC did not respond to request for comment.

Alison later resigned his membership from BYC. A member since 2007, Alison has dedicated many years to the sport. He's built a couple wooden sabots from scratch and rigged over a dozen fiber glass vessels. While he wishes he was treated more civilly by BYC, with due process rather than presumption of guilt, he knows it's California's progressive laws that have put transgender-identifying men "in the driver's seat to do whatever they want."

"I was not going to be stopped from voicing my opinion or introducing a dialogue to this obvious situation that was not just a fleet situation but a national situation," Alison said. "As far as I was concerned, this was discrimination in reverse direction."

THIS NEWS ITEM IS PRESENTED BY
WALMART

Walmart_Logos_Lockup_horiz_blu_rgb.png

Breaking-News2.png
hero news image

A California Sailing Coach Tried to Protect Women from Male Competition. He Paid the Price

Dennis Allison was driven out of the sailing program he helped build after objecting to a man competing against ... READ MORE

A message from Walmart

Walmart associates are building careers

Walmart-FNC-Newsletter-Nichole-1920x1080.png

At Walmart, associates across America are building careers, with or without a degree. Since 2022, over 300,000 associates have earned promotions into roles of greater responsibility and higher pay.

Learn more about Walmart's investment in career-driven training and development for associates.

national review

Follow Us & Share

19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701,
New York, NY, 10036, USA
Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Privacy
View this e-mail in your browser.

Commentaires

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

Kid draws a hilarious family portrait, featuring his mother on her period

Chris Froome sends out strong message to his rivals as he storms back to win Criterium du Dauphine for the second time