Allison 🦖

Because my old account @allison was stolen and Twitter won’t help me get it back. ⚽️ 📺 🎟 ✈️ Angeleno in Pittsburgh 💍 @brownamatthew

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@Thomas19064 。　☆ 。　　☆。　　☆
★。　＼　　｜　　／。　★
The Magic of the Open ™
★。　／　　｜　　＼。　★
。　☆。 　　。　　☆。

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

Husbands across America going “what?!”when their up at 3am wives tell them the unexpected one died.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

That’s literally me and my wife this morning when she told me.

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

Oh Kobe

[Ulysses S Chant @UlyssesSChant]

The best part of following this team is the wonderfully unhinged people you get to do it with.

#USAvAUS #USMNT

(here’s the same video but now with lyrics)

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

Come on @FOXSoccer. How did you misspell Dempsey on the this jersey. He’s on the broadcast team!

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@ch Oh dang read more and holy shit. I remember them beating beautiful but I guess that was like 15 years ago. How gross.

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@ch The ballrooms are nice but the rest of the building is a no.

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

We had no idea how good we had it with Sepp

[Adam Crafton @AdamCrafton_]

That’s two parties FIFA have laid on for Infanti10 - one in Miami, one in Switzerland - to mark his ten years in power. Increasingly wonder: Does he work for FIFA or does FIFA work for him?

[Julio Núñez @julioamx]

La boda y el niño dormido en la silla, el momento más latinoamericano del medio tiempo en el #SuperBowl #SuperBowlLX grande Bad Bunny.

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@jonnyboypgh @PGHNoContext It was on national cbs

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@Rudedeck I was saying dinosaurs

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

A benchwarmer who can’t get playing time against stronger talent is upset because no one remembered she still plays soccer.

[Elizabeth Eddy @elizabetheddy2]

The W in NWSL

When I joined the National Women’s Soccer League 11 years ago, our games were live-streamed to fans on YouTube. Today, our league is halfway through a four-year, $240 million television contract. Our teams are among the most valuable franchises in women’s sports. Yet with this remarkable growth comes an urgent challenge: How do we preserve women’s rights and competitive fairness while fostering meaningful inclusion?

I’m proud to have played a small role in our league’s transformation from struggling startup to supercharged celebrity-maker. I’ve been a part of winning seven titles: three NWSL Championships, three regular-season titles and one International Champions Cup. But I’m concerned that without clarity about who the league is for, it will lose its identity and its momentum.

Recent controversies across women’s sports — from swimming to track and field — have highlighted the absence of clear eligibility policies in professional soccer, unlike a growing number of other competitions. This uncertainty serves no one, as questions and controversy abound over intersex and transgender athletes. Players have been excluded and then unexcluded, administrators have blamed and criticized each other, and fans have used the uncertainty to harass players. 

Leaders from across the political spectrum, including progressives like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris, have expressed support for stronger protections for the integrity of women’s sports. Ensuring fairness prompted numerous international leagues to tighten eligibility. World Athletics did so in 2023 for international track and field competitions. Other countries’ domestic organizations did the same, including the UK Athletics Federation. World Aquatics (formerly FINA), international swimming’s governing body, adopted clear rules about sex and gender eligibility in 2022. England’s Football Association now requires ovaries at birth.

Addressing this challenge entails remembering why women’s sports categories exist in the first place: not to exclude but to create a space where female athletes can physically compete on equal footing. Studies show measurable differences between men and women in muscle mass, bone density and cardiovascular capacity, which directly affect competitive outcomes. Further research has found male muscular advantage is only “minimally reduced” — by about 5% over 12 months — by testosterone suppression.

Fairness and inclusion are core American values. Reasonable people can disagree about where to draw lines, but avoiding the conversation altogether by shutting out diverse views does not serve us. In fact, we owe it to current and future female athletes to solve this.

The NWSL must adopt a clear standard. One option is all players must be born with ovaries, as the FA requires. Another option is an SRY gene test, like those World Athletics and World Boxing implemented.

This SRY genetic marker indicates male-developmental pathways during fetal growth, providing objective scientific criteria for competitive categorization. Critics say genetic-testing policies can cause psychological harm. This concern must be taken seriously. Testing could easily integrate into medical evaluations through existing blood draws or noninvasive cheek swabs, conducted once per career under strict confidentiality protocols. Athletes testing positive for the SRY gene could receive comprehensive support, including counseling, privacy protections and inclusion in professional networks. World Athletics has successfully used similar protocols since 2018, with legal challenges ultimately supporting such policies’ scientific basis.

Creating pathways for athletes traditionally excluded from competing at the highest level would demonstrate inclusion and competitive integrity can coexist.

I know from experience the NWSL is more than just a sports league. For many, dreams are coming true in real life — dreams that were impossible before my generation. I also understand that for many athletes and fans, seeing intersex and transgender athletes compete and dominate on sports’ biggest stages also realizes a dream. How can we make an open arena reality for small and tragically marginalized minorities with nowhere else that may feel safe and inclusive to compete?

The answer is in the NWSL’s own history. Just as we built a new space for women to compete in the largest arenas, now we must honor that commitment and make the National Women’s Soccer League for women. I welcome leaders including the aforementioned American politicians to come together with the NWSL’s blueprint and build solutions.

Some pathway ideas: an open division within the NWSL, small-sided opportunities like the Soccer Tournament and World Sevens Football, pathways to stay in the game and free counseling. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know we’re all in this together. It will take time, space and creativity to cooperate as we move forward.

Decisions the NWSL makes — or shirks its responsibility to make — will shape opportunities for young athletes of all backgrounds for decades to come. We must get them right by finding the most ethical and innovative path ahead.

Women’s sports showcase the full range of human ability as we reach and exceed what is physically possible. Everybody needs a chance to break records and achieve the previously impossible. That is why we love to celebrate women competing against each other and why we need creative solutions to ensure everybody can compete on a level playing field. 

It would be nice to have no need for clear eligibility criteria. Unfortunately, when money, power and fame are at stake, which inevitably happens in professional sports, competitors may try to push on what is right or fair. Especially when the goal of winning requires using every available advantage.

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

Old Allison is back to say “I love commuting using @metrolosangeles.”

I do really miss being able to commute like this.

I do not miss it being hot and gross on the train platforms though.

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@OsoFresh138 I had no idea they were on sale and I work in ticket sales.

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@talentedmsgrace The Swedish version are so good!

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@TheScenestar @RachelRey615 @toddterjeolsen It feels like a different time. I can’t imagine Coachella being like that still.

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

Coachella 2010 - I got to Sahara early to meet up with some girls who were staying at a friend’s house. The security guards came up to us and were like “want to dance on stage?”

We were brought up to dance in front of a packed Sahara tent to Pon de Floor - the peak of the set.

[The Scenestar @TheScenestar]

Share a piece of concert lore or music festival lore about yourself

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@joeybagovdonuts True must see tv right there

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

@ariellec Solid content

[Allison 🦖 @AllisonLives]

My experience at the Pittsburgh @Fabletics store was so terrible. Like never will buy fabletics again the associate was so rude and condescending and then gave me the wrong information on top of being all that.