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The issues regarding 'trans' people are some of the hardest for me to reconcile. I read through this article, and I appreciate the trans perspective. However, I believe it doesn't adequately depict the problem.

[aclu.org]

I'll suggest a different perspective, that in the context of competitive women's sports, where or fame is involved, there could be a problem where a larger physical male becomes trans to compete against women.

Women who compete in athletics against a man who has transformed to become a woman have a credible claim of unfairness.

Is femaleness defined by genetics, physiology, social claim, or what combination of these (or other classifiers)?

What is the greater good? 0% inclusiveness, or having fair competition within women's athletic activity? I see the good of both, but which one is the 'greater good?'

Suggestions?

racocn8 9 Dec 24
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6 comments

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This is an interesting topic. Can gender be classified on the basis of hormonal levels? Do transwomen have a statistically significant difference in hormonal levels compared to cismen or ciswomen? If not, ACLU is absolutely right. My intuition is gender is far more complex to be predicted by hormonal levels. I base it on the fact that trans persons undergo hormone replacement therapies after coming out as trans.

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How about if we MIND OUR OWN BUSINESS? Not everything needs a group weigh-in!

This topic makes you that uncomfortable? When is discussion OK if not for difficult issues?

@racocn8 the topic does not "make me uncomfortable", as I said (can you read?) the propensity for busybodies to think their opinion (s) on every conceivable topic have any importance whatsoever to those actually affected by "whatever" never ceases to astonish me.

@AnneWimsey Certainly in a context of a wide open universe, no one's opinion makes any difference. But on our tiny dot of a microcosm, opinions are used for various purposes that have importance in the context of our limited existence, even if only by honing our comprehension and communication skills. If your opinion is that no opinions have importance, I appreciate that as an amusing paradox.

@racocn8 my idea of, for example, what a comfortable life is matters to me...your ideas may be completely different and maybe i could get some good ideas from hearing you out. But opinions on 3rd party behavior/values, to me is obnoxious hubris, unless it actually involves me, my freedom, my money, my dogs,my well-being........

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I agree that it could, and would, be used to cheat. It's a sad thing humans place so much importance on competitive games to begin with but that's how we find the most desirable mates and employees. So long as this is the case then sports are going to be a thing so we should find a comprehensive solution. I say end gender segregation now and let everyone compete on the merits of what they have. If it's not enough then they lose. Oh, well. This will produce teams lopsided in favor of males but not entirely. Those who don't succeed will probably form a separate league, maybe charge less for a seat, largely but not entirely composed of females. Power plays will occur on and off the field to eliminate players for not being preferred team-mates in both leagues. In short, not much will have been achieved.

There is no shortage of self-hating people, and they come in various forms. The roles of maleness and femaleness are already ridiculous and mostly artificial. That someone would wish to assume the role of female and mutilate themselves to do it indicates confusion at best. When that person then insists on disrupting a female athletic competition, that indicates disrespect to the point of hostility.

From a scientific perspective, if the person does not have two XX's or a natural female body, they should not be competing in female athletics. Forcing women to compete against modified men (claiming to be female) is unfair, and effectively destroys female athletic competition.

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Nay.

  1. Only the woman in question is qualified to define her gender.

  2. Larger body type might be an advantage in some competitive sports but will not be in others. Let us not stoop to allowing sports to play a role in things that actually matter.

  3. 100% inclusion is always the greater good.

I really want to make strong statements like this because it's more true than the "fairness" concerns, but some of those are at least reasonable to openly discuss and I haven't done any research at all, so while I'm with you humility tells me not to expose how much I don't know about the subject.

@Willow_Wisp That's a very good point that we should be able to safely discuss these things here. I should have clarified that this is my position because it is the most progressive one but not everyone is there yet or even wants to be there.

Perhaps my fundamental point is that what one has between their legs has been given too much emphasis for too long and I'd like to see us move on to focus on more important things. Thanks for your input.

@LovinLarge Fairness needs to be the priority, and the last thing the world needs is a bigger divide between trans-women and cis-women.
Encouraging terf's does nothing for us.
Yet for every terf I've known I've had five supportive cis-sisters that pull me into their confidence despite my insecurity and shyness.
So the last people that need the cards stacked against them are cis women, they're already underpaid and underappreciated.
Yet the profound effect of estrogen in conjunction with testosterone blockers or testicle removal makes me dismissive of the terf concerns about fairness, but a simple requirement of a min of two years of HRT to qualify for women's sports would be fine. The acceptance you get when you still have five o'clock shadow and haven't started HRT is psychologically empowering but hardly an excuse to compete in women's weight lifting when they haven't even picked out an endocrinologist yet.
See it's easy to deescalate this issue.

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Hormones drop that upper body mass a lot, not that I care, sports suck.
No one transitions to get an unfair advantage, or Andy Coffman probably would have when he was seriously competing against female wrestlers, but he would have done so for an inside joke that others may or may not have gotten, just like his wrestling.

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The Olympics used to test female competitors. USSR used transgender participants to help them dominate in 50s and 60s. The Press sisters come to mind. I have no problem with anybody, live and let live but it could be used to cheat and has been done already. I'll probably hear it from people. [transadvocate.com]

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