The trangendered in athletic competition.

[NiftyNiblick]

Although I can't begin to understand their birth-assigned gender conflicts,
there is perhaps no necessity for me to understand.

I bear no ill-will toward the transgendered community, and would hardly expect praise for that.
I would merit condemnation for a different view.

But when we consider sports,
I think it's pretty obvious that the transgendering procedures currently available do not actually change a person's genetic gender.

Also, as a participant in contact sport myself, even at the professional level, I hardly believe that access to such sports participation
is one of our more important basic civil rights. Truth be told, I would probably be enjoying a healthier old age had I been prohibited from boxing for some contrived reason.

At least I was never thrown in against an enraged broad!

Perhaps sports, and contact sports in particular, are not an appropriate place for the transgendered to participate.
I can understand the opposition toward it, and beyond that, I don 't think that it's a significant hardship for the excluded compared to the inequities it might cause.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

I am surprised that with all these views, there were no responses to this.

 

[QP!]

Your view is accurate.

Whilst I fully support anyone YOLO'ing and living their best life as they see fit, with all decisions remaining between them and their families, decisions are not freed of consequences, just because you want them to be.

The entire reason sports were split along gender lines originally was the recognition that biology matters. When the early 'Mens' and 'Womens' divisions were created they never imagined the split between 'Gender' and 'Biological Sex' and the mistake made was that as 'Man' and 'Woman' became 'gender terms', the athletic commission should have instantly re-aligned all sporting division by 'Biology'. As long as you keep a 'Men' and 'Women' division, trans people will argue 'my gender is Woman... and thus i should be allowed', and that was the mistake.

Had instead at the onset the Athletic commissions said 'with the split between Gender and Biology, we are re-aligning all division to Biology. We all share the same few biologies, and thus none of us are prevented from competing in a division against our biological peers. It is the same for everyone', and that would have addressed the problem. There is no discrimination in that as there is no right to 'compete by gender', what matters is a 'playing field' is created that is accessible to all who share the same defined traits. Anyone with Male biology to the left. Anyone with female biology to the right. NOw compete. Not one person is left out.

I lean very left, and know that is fair.

 

[cawacko]

Although I can't begin to understand their birth-assigned gender conflicts,
there is perhaps no necessity for me to understand.

I bear no ill-will toward the transgendered community, and would hardly expect praise for that.
I would merit condemnation for a different view.

But when we consider sports,
I think it's pretty obvious that the transgendering procedures currently available do not actually change a person's genetic gender.

Also, as a participant in contact sport myself, even at the professional level, I hardly believe that access to such sports participation
is one of our more important basic civil rights. Truth be told, I would probably be enjoying a healthier old age had I been prohibited from boxing for some contrived reason.

At least I was never thrown in against an enraged broad!

Perhaps sports, and contact sports in particular, are not an appropriate place for the transgendered to participate.
I can understand the opposition toward it, and beyond that, I don 't think that it's a significant hardship for the excluded compared to the inequities it might cause.

We saw all the hub bub with the transgendered Penn swimmer and its clear the for and against sides didn't fall along traditional political partisan lines (there were liberal women who did not support the Penn swimmers participation).

One of the arguments is to give transgender athletes their own league to compete in. I don't know the details of how that would work but it's a way to allow access while also avoiding the obvious physical advantages some have.

 

[ExpressLane]

We saw all the hub bub with the transgendered Penn swimmer and its clear the for and against sides didn't fall along traditional political partisan lines (there were liberal women who did not support the Penn swimmers participation).

One of the arguments is to give transgender athletes their own league to compete in. I don't know the details of how that would work but it's a way to allow access while also avoiding the obvious physical advantages some have.

Sports should be divided by sex not reprieved gender.

 

[Yakuda]

Your view is accurate.

Whilst I fully support anyone YOLO'ing and living their best life as they see fit, with all decisions remaining between them and their families, decisions are not freed of consequences, just because you want them to be.

The entire reason sports were split along gender lines originally was the recognition that biology matters. When the early 'Mens' and 'Womens' divisions were created they never imagined the split between 'Gender' and 'Biological Sex' and the mistake made was that as 'Man' and 'Woman' became 'gender terms', the athletic commission should have instantly re-aligned all sporting division by 'Biology'. As long as you keep a 'Men' and 'Women' division, trans people will argue 'my gender is Woman... and thus i should be allowed', and that was the mistake.

Had instead at the onset the Athletic commissions said 'with the split between Gender and Biology, we are re-aligning all division to Biology. We all share the same few biologies, and thus none of us are prevented from competing in a division against our biological peers. It is the same for everyone', and that would have addressed the problem. There is no discrimination in that as there is no right to 'compete by gender', what matters is a 'playing field' is created that is accessible to all who share the same defined traits. Anyone with Male biology to the left. Anyone with female biology to the right. NOw compete. Not one person is left out.

I lean very left, and know that is fair.

I think this is a great post and agree with 99% of it. But let me ask a question and I do not mean this to be contentious in any way but for a VERY VERY long time everyone knew what woman was, what a man was and especially in sports no one to my knowledge seemed to have much problem with it. Why is it that suddenly this is an issue that has to be addressed now? Are we to believe that throughout all of human history we knew the distinction and it's only in the past $-5 years? that this has come on our consciousness? Why now?

 

[QP!]

I think this is a great post and agree with 99% of it. But let me ask a question and I do not mean this to be contentious in any way but for a VERY VERY long time everyone knew what woman was, what a man was and especially in sports no one to my knowledge seemed to have much problem with it. Why is it that suddenly this is an issue that has to be addressed now? Are we to believe that throughout all of human history we knew the distinction and it's only in the past $-5 years? that this has come on our consciousness? Why now?

Because whether or not you or i agree with it society does change as the generations change. ALways has and always will. As much as an old fart like me might want to say 'my way or the highway' or 'my way was the best way' that will not stop change as the newer generations emerge.

The younger generations have a view of Gender, largely, in way that we do not, and they are not wrong simply because we may disagree. We can agree to disagree but we cannot simply say they need to live their lives the way we did, because we liked our way and thought it best. When i was young this same battle was being fought over same sex relationships. The right to be gay and out. The older people then fought them on that (some still do), but most of us changed our view. The young people with the generational change view won.

So i am fine with 'gender' changing as long as Biology does not.