Al Fulchino, owner of Fulchino Vineyard in Hollis, expressed dismay at Nashua Alderman Jan Schmidt calling my Save Women’s Sports flag a “hate flag,” commenting on Facebook, “She is out of her mind…”
Related: Jan Schmidt: Save Women’s Sports Flag is a “Hate Flag”
This response so incensed Brookline NH Public Library Outreach Coordinator Keith Thompson that he made a public post on Facebook encouraging his friends and followers to boycott Fulchino Vineyard.
Keith Thompson insists that believing that women have the right to their own sports, separate from men, is a “worst, most hateful tenet of the far-right” and my Save Women’s Sports flag is “anti-trans propaganda.”
I wonder if Keith has ever heard the term “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists,” also known as TERFs? They are far-left feminists who believe in women’s rights to their own sports and spaces. Women’s Liberation Front is one of the most active feminist groups in this fight. They are anything but “far-right.”
Does Keith understand why men and women’s sports were segregated in the first place? Does he understand, as any rational person knows in their gut, that men are much bigger and stronger and faster than women?
Does Keith think it is fair for a male basketball player to play against women a foot shorter? Does he think it is equitable when a long-legged, lean, muscled man outruns every woman in a competition because his body is naturally built to be faster?
Does Keith consider how hard women athletes train for their sports and yet a top-notch woman athlete can never hope to reach the athletic achievements of even an average male athlete in sports like running or weightlifting, where size and muscle are the biggest factors in success?
Shortly after Keith posted about the boycott, he started getting responses from people who agreed that they would not patronize Fulchino Vineyard because of the owner’s criticism of Jan Schmidt.
Keith appeared to have no qualms about his post until I called him out about it on Facebook, and shortly after that his post was deleted or changed to be private. For all I know, the post could still be there and Keith could still be trying to drive business away from the vineyard.
I hope that the Brookline town administration takes a look at this and holds Keith responsible. Town employees should not be using their position and connections in the town to urge action against local businesses over disagreements about policies or politics. The Brookline townspeople deserve better.
