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this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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How can it not matter? You have a sport built around the idea of fair competition to a genetic physical weakness, and you think we should just throw that all away? I'm not sure why you are bringing race and nationality into this discussion, that's never been a race based disadvantage that we decided we needed to design sports around.
I agree, but I think sports falls under "not possible" because they don't meet the requirements for the women's league. I have no problem with a trans league, or they are more than welcome to compete in the best of the best league. I don't think they should be competing in women's sports, it's unfair to all biological women athletes who compete against other biological women athletes.
And if you want to compare it to race, where the idea of a race segregated sport would be super controversial, let's just get rid of women's sports all together. Women are equal to men, right? They can do anything a man can do, right? What are we pretending women aren't equal by putting them in their own sports leagues? Let's just get rid of all women's sports, let them compete directly with the men, and may the best win.
I’m fine sorting people by weight classes or hormone levels. But gender is not a useful way to do that and hasn’t been for years. The Olympics, for example, tests your hormone levels and not what your natal sex was or what your genitals look like.
But ultimately I just don’t think sports matters more than peoples’ rights. So if we have to abolish gendered sports, especially below the ultra-professional level, I’m fine with that.
And yes, people did indeed claim certain races had advantages in sports and pointed to science about muscle density to support their theories. They would consider themselves well-justified by Black people dominating certain sports. It is the same with trans athletes.
So you are for getting rid of women's sports, special Olympics, and everything in that realm and just letting everyone compete as people of the human race?
What rights? There is no right to compete in stuff you are not eligible for.
So you are fine with women essentially never being competitive in sports? Personally I think it's great they have their own league, because otherwise there wouldn't really be women in sports.
Except that they are competing in the open to everyone category, even if some races had an advantage, that's legal in an open to everyone category. Women's sports are not open to everyone, only to biological females who don't take performance enhancing substances. Again, if you want to essentially remove women from sports by pretending biological males and females are the same, that's your grave to dig.
Race isn't the same as gender, I'm hoping you realize that. In today's world, gender is more a state of mind than anything else, race is not. I can choose to become the opposite gender, I can't choose to be black as a white person.
If trans athletes want to compete in sports, compete in the open to everyone league, don't try to compete in leagues you don't qualify for. Women's sports, if they are to still exist, are for biological and non testosterone taking females only.
As I said, below the ultra-professional level, yes. Inside the ultra-professional level, gender tests are already not used to differentiate people into competition categories so they've already solved this problem. Read what I said in my previous post.
The point is it didn't used to be. This was because people had research at the time showing that Black people had "higher muscle density" and other nonsense pseudoscience that they used to bar them from the "open to everyone categories." Which, at the time, were not open to everyone, but only white people.
Since you are just not understanding this: the same arguments used to prevent Black people from competing (they would dominate certain sports, their inclusion would make white people feel bad, their existence is basically the same as taking performance enhancing substances) are literally the same ones used to prevent trans people from competing. We decided those problems didn't matter, and now, yes, Black people do win in certain sporting fields more. But everyone's decided that's okay.
Literally the same thing will happen with trans people. I know you have this weirdly deep-seated need to believe in the fairness of sports, but fairness is a construction we apply to sports, not something inherent in them naturally. If we include trans people as much as possible, it will still feel fair, even if trans people (gasp) even sometimes win.
Gender is not "more a state of mind than anything else," any more than sex (or race) is. Trans people are their actual genders, they aren't pretending to be a man or woman for the day, any more than a Black person is pretending to be a white person or vice versa.
Frankly, as I said at the beginning of this discussion, the entire sports argument is stupid though. The rights of an entire minority (yes, their rights) shouldn't hinge on whether or not they can compete in sporting events, and every time trans liberation is brought up people whine "but what about fairness in sports?"
You should find other stuff to care about, because the amount of trans athletes is vanishingly small and the amount of ink spilled on debating their inclusion with sports totally out-of-proportion to the "problem" itself.
Why should we have separate categories at the ultra professional level only? It wasn't until pretty recently that trans women trying to compete in women's sports was even a thing, and I believe they do have some tests in certain competitions that would not allow trans women to compete.
That was also during a time where they were segregated from everything, right? Also, while that reasoning might have been BS, the reasoning for not allowing trans women in women's sports isn't. Biology isn't BS, it's science. Trans women have a biological and scientifically proven physical advantage over women from birth.
The reason behind the argument matters a lot. You are comparing racism backed arguments with scientifically backed ones. They aren't the same argument, they are based on very different reasons.
What I meant is that gender is all in your head, sex and race are not. We should not define sports by what you say you are in your own head. When it comes to bathroom use, sure, base it on gender, aka what is in your head. When it comes to sports, we should use sex, not gender. I'm not trying to bash trans people here, I think they should be treated as the gender they identify with, and that is what I mean by gender being a state of mind, whereas sex is a biological state.
Unlike gender though, where at some point after birth you can change it, you can't change your race. One of these is physical, the other is mental.
Right now everyone has the same rights, so you don't lose it gain rights by switching genders. There is no right to compete in sports, so no right is lost by banning trans from women's sports. Maybe you have a different definition of "rights" than the actual definition?
Maybe trans liberation shouldn't be fighting for stuff like inclusion in sports? There is such a thing as taking a movement too far. I'm all for fair treatment, access to healthcare, inclusion in society, etc. But when it comes to thinking trans women are exactly the same in every way to a biological woman, that's just taking it too far and blatantly ignoring science. There are going to be times when we need to separate trans and biological women, and for the sake of fairness and the whole reason women sports what in the first place, trans women shouldn't play in women's sports.
Maybe trans people should find other stuff to care about besides inclusion in sports they aren't eligible for. I also don't see anything wrong with stopping a problem now before it becomes a bigger problem. Just look at climate change, how much better would it have been if instead of "it's not an issue yet, no need to care about it" we actually did care about it many years ago? Personally I don't like waiting for problems to become big problems before doing something.
I mean, people thought Black people had biological differences that would prevent them from competing on an equal footing too. There was literally science about it, in the same way you claim there’s science about trans people. And indeed Black people do dominate certain sports right now. If you want sports to be perfectly fair how can you reconcile that?
Because you’ve a priori agreed Black people competing is worth any amount of “unfairness” that results. The same will be true of trans people in the future.
The rest of your post is honestly just pearl clutching about sports stuff that neither I nor anyone else truly cares about. Sports will get over trans inclusion; trans people are already being included, even in the Olympics, so the process is happening. And no cis athletes have been dispossessed yet. So… continue being unhappy about it if you like, the world is moving on and so am I.
Black people dominate some sports IN THE BEST OF THE BEST DIVISIONS. Trans people are welcome to compete in that best of the best division.
Are you claiming there is no legitimate scientific provable advantage than trans women have over natural women in sports? Maybe there isn't anything legitimate for black people, or maybe it's a minor advantage present in some, but you can't deny trans women retain significant advantages given they are biologically male.
Trans can compete in the best of the best leagues like everyone else, yes. They shouldn't compete in leagues based around biological disadvantage because they don't have that biological disadvantage.
They are more than welcome to compete in the best of the best sports leagues, nobody is banning them from sports, just ones they don't qualify for.
I'm not unhappy about it really, I'm just fighting for equality is all, trying to keep things fair for everyone. I would be totally for a trans league, since they don't qualify as biological women but probably aren't good enough to compete at the best levels.
Just like how I don't think able bodied people should compete in the special Olympics, I don't think trans women should compete in biological women based sports, because it's just unfair to women.
Let me ask you this, if we are to store trans women in women's sports, should there be any limits? Can a male bodybuilder decide he is actually a women, then the next day go break records? Would you deny her entry, and if so why?
Yes, and I am provably correct.
Literally trans people (including trans women!) are competing in Olympics events now. Because as I've said over and over again, gender tests are not based on natal sex but hormone levels.
If trans women had an advantage, they would be crushing their cis competition. But they are not: for example, Laurel Hubbard. Check her out: https://olympics.com/en/news/weightlifting-laurel-hubbard-transgender-three-failed-lifts-tokyo
You've just been watching too much South Park. No one is trying to do compete in opposite-gendered leagues that is not trans, and as I've been saying from the start this is just a red herring with regards to trans liberation.
You don't understand what provable means at all. One example of someone who didn't crush the competition isn't proof at all. There was a recent trans woman who crushed women weightlifting records, that is an example of your idea being wrong. That person went from ok but not record breaking man to record breaking woman. Are you going to pretend the male genetic advantage had nothing to do with that?
And let me ask you this, what does a trans woman have to do to be a legitimate trans woman? Does she have to do anything more than say she is a woman? Does she need to take pills to be legitimate? Does she need to shave her beard to be legitimate?
If all she has to do is proclaim she is a woman, you can't seriously think that changes her genetic advantage, right? If a person can compete as a man one day and a woman the next, did they lose their male advantage? Or are you going to claim those aren't real women?
You can't ignore that males have a genetic advantage in sports, I think you were even agreeing with that point earlier. How does going from a man to a trans woman overcome biology? It doesn't. If males have no generic advantage, then why have any women's sports at all?
If your concern is valid, why did the trans woman weight lifter in the Olympics not easily crush her competition? Where is the source for any of your claims? I linked you my proof; your “common sense” is meaningless.
Trans women are not dominating sports when included and there seems to be no “male genetic advantage.” Indeed, as I’ve demonstrated over and over again, it is unfair not to include trans people in exactly the same way as it is to not include Black people.
Your continued sourceless concern trolling is baseless. I’m going to be leaving this conversation because you seem to have nothing more to add. If you have further concerns, I encourage you to reread what I’ve already stated numerous times.
If there is no male genetic advantage, why do males completely dominate the best of the best sports, and why do you say we should still have women's sports in the elite ranks? Clearly males have a genetic advantage in sports, it's undeniable.
Again, one trans women, who still did pretty well, doesn't prove anything. Look at Avi Silverberg, who came out as trans and dominated women's weightlifting records.
If you want proof of the male genetic advantage, just look at how they dominate all the sports that are open to males and females, which is basically all the professional sports. Even though it's open to both sexes, it's essentially 100% males. You can't deny the male advantage, it's clear as day.