I experienced some of this myself, and it was pretty overwhelming. Somebody happened to direct me to a Twitter thread where thousands of people were screaming about Khelif — about how she's a violent man who's allowed to beat up women, etc. About how this is because of trans ideology, and how it's only the beginning of the violent abuse of "real" women.

Message after message proclaimed, "XY = man!"

Of course, there's no evidence Khelif HAS XY chromosomes, but that didn't stop people, with some of them even naming a particular genetic syndrome they claim Khelif has.

So, I tried.

I commented (this is paraphrased from several tweets), "None of us knows if Khelif has XY chromosomes, but if she had the syndrome you claim, she would not have elevated testosterone because she would not have experienced either male or female puberty. That's one of the symptoms of that particular syndrome. Women who have it are born with typical female anatomy, and if they receive female hormones (HRT) then they can (and do) get pregnant and give birth. If they don't receive hormones, they don't develop breasts or have periods. They also don't develop male characteristics. I don't know if Khelif has that particular genetic syndrome, and neither do you even though you're asserting it. But if she had it, it wouldn't make her a man. Neither would other genetic conditions that lead to a woman having XY chromosomes, which again, you don't know if she even has. My point here, is that despite the overwhelming thrust of this thread, XY is not synonymous with being a man. Look how angry and violent everyone here sounds! You're calling for all sorts of terrible things to happen to Khelif, but you don't have facts on your side or even understand the arguments you're making. How about toning down the calls for violence?"

Well! The responses!

Let's just say they weren't rational. They boiled down to two things: No "real" woman is as strong as Khelif, and no "real" woman has her facial features, which are "ugly" because she's actually a man. (Note, these are primarily white women from Europe and North America calling a woman of color ugly because she doesn't meet their beauty standards.)

And the calls for violence against her did not diminish. If anything, they grew louder, as people grew increasingly bolder.

I reported the thread. Nothing happened, obviously, not with Musk in charge.

Will anyone take responsibility? Will Khelif ever be able to leave Algeria and walk the streets in safety?

Maybe this French legal case will help, but I'm not betting on it.