Andrew Bogut says stupid things about transgender athletes

It’s hard to quantify team chemistry. There’s no proven formula to get a group of guys to like each other, and even if they do, it doesn’t always remain that way. So count “Andrew Bogut’s removal” among the many things that went the Golden State Warriors’ way over the past seven to eight years. Because the retired Australian big man has turned troll.

In a post on social media this week, Bogut ranted about a transgender athlete possibly playing in Australia’s pro women’s league.

My god, there are so many things to dislike about this tweet that’s been liked 2,100-plus times. (Twitter really is undefeated in its harboring of awful people.) Let’s take a closer look.

Andrew Bogut is a buffoon, exhibit A

Word is @NBL1 South Women will have a biological Male playing this upcoming season.

Are you ok with sacrificing the sanctity of Female Sport in the name of “inclusion”?

OK, first, kudos to the NBL, Australia’s professional women’s hoops league, for accepting an application from a transgender athlete, and double kudos for the news that they’re set to approve it. Sports are one of the most controversial aspects of the transgender community, and the only way to figure out a route to equality is to allow them to compete. The bridges can be crossed as we come to them, and arguments against the likes of Lia Thomas have already been dispelled.

Second, and this is for Bogut, I don’t think transgender people enjoy being referred to as a “biological Male.” If I referred to Bogut as “Transphobic Crocodile Dundee” because my base instinct is to yell it on the internet, that doesn’t make it true. And, if his tweet is any indication of his level of understanding about the transgender community, it might help to do some research. A lot of research.

Andrew Bogut is a buffoon, exhibit B

#GirlDads where are you?

The hashtag is trendy until action is needed.

This is really just cringe-level stuff from the misunderstanding of Girl Dads down to bitching about hashtags. I’m not a father, but I get the sense from Girl Dads that I know that it’s about empowering their daughters to be badasses, to be themselves, and to conquer all obstacles — regardless of how society views them. Transgender women are girls, too, and whoever the father is of the athlete trying to break into the NBL, I hope he’s her* biggest fan.

Co-opting the term #GirlDad for hateful rhetoric is right-wing lunacy 101, and Bogut has very much leaned into that brand of thinking.

This isn’t even the first time he’s used children as shields for his dislike of transgender people. He went off about a question about gender identity on his 6-year-old son’s soccer permission slip a couple of weeks ago, and holy shit did the Warriors luck out distancing themselves from the Aussie.

Bogut has been bitter ever since being jettisoned off the Dub’s roster because his game was as outdated as his stance on transgender people. Joe Lacob and Steve Kerr may not have known Bogut was a conservative sleeper agent at the time, but sometimes it’s just your decade.

*Sorry, I’m not sure of the pronouns because we don’t know the player.