Transgenders competing in women's sports?

[Nakita Akita]

What's the general consensus on this happening?
It seems like a few women's sports are being dominated by transgendered competitors.
Is this fair?
I see it as a short change to a lot of people born with functioning vaginas losing out on top positions in various sports.
How do others feel
On this?

 

[Kilana2]

Athletics and Caster Semenya come to mind. They tried to introduce certain testosterone levels as limits. But what happens with athletes who changed their gender? They had to end their career.
I heard that track and field, especially middle distances like 800m, has several female athletes who look very maskuline and have high testosterone levels. Basically they are too slow for men and to fast for women.
I don't know how the authorities will handle it in the long run. Female athletes might consider illegal methods to keep up with their high testosterone level competitors. It is certainly not Caster's fault and I don't like it how she is treated by her competitors.

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[Nakita Akita]

As in the video I guess women could be tested and have to have a certain level of testosterone and no more than that?
They said that Semenya was tested and then lowered her testosterone to the lower amount and suddenly she didn't do as well.

I just see this as the end to women's sports.
No more athletic scholarships for girls.
No real reason for most to do anything other than recreational league stuff.
I'm a competitive fencer, ( I'm not very good)
But I am friends with another woman that is
Very high in the national ratings but routinely she gets beat in small, local, mixed sex competitions by men that have basically zero or immensely low national ratings.
Simply because they are men. They move faster and differently than women. ( don't get me wrong, she beats a lot of men too, she is s very good fencer)

I'm thinking they are going to have to do blood tests for women to compete in certain levels or all levels, possibly, of sports.
I personally don't want to watch men's "specific sport" then watch different men competing in the same sport.
Ie. "Men's 1/2 pipe " and then watch men that aren't good enough to compete in "Men's 1/2 pipe ", compete in the Women's 1/2 pipe.
Semenya may be an exception but some of the other events I have heard/ seen, it's simply a make competing as a woman.

 

[Kilana2]

The whole sports world is crazy right now. I watch competitions with diffent eyes now. There just was the Nordic Ski World Championships in Seefeld/Austria. They caught several Cross Country Skying athletes red-handed while conducting blood doping: they reintroduced their own blood to enhance the oxygen feed. Several athletes and doctors (a Doctor from Erfurt, Germany, among them) were arrested.
Several female swimmers also look very androgynal or male. My body fat sticks on my body like pitch. Despite healthy nutrition and excercises.
This year will be world championships in swimming and track and field. German swimmers are too skinny and thin, lacking in strength and muscles. So they were told by their head coach.
Doping will ever be existent. The athletes have to pay the price for it one day with serious health issues.
Try to exclude female athletes with too high testosterone levels without them violating any anti-doping regulations? Some will go to law for it.

 

[Ovation]

I just see this as the end to women's sports.
No more athletic scholarships for girls.
No real reason for most to do anything other than recreational league stuff

Yes. You’ve uncovered the dastardly conspiracy. It’s true. The REAL reason transgender women exist is to flood the women’s sports world and crowd out TRUE women. How could we as a society have been so blind? Oh, the humanity!!! Won’t someone think of the children?!

 

[Kilana2]

It won't be the end of women's sport. Transgender athletes will be the exception. And they won't flood any kind of sports.

 

[Ovation]

It won't be the end of women's sport. Transgender athletes will be the exception. And they won't flood any kind of sports.

(Yes. I know. Was lampooning the notion. Truly.)

 

[Kilana2]

As for me: I keep on watchin athletics. And I'll watch Caster Semenya racing from a neutral point of view. When she is allowed to compete she should do so. The running disciplines are not among my preferences, I like javelin throw.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It's a dicey proposition, balancing the moral value of treating transgender women as truly the gender they identify is with the fairness issues such considerations introduce into women's sports. I don't think you can give a definitive answer the right way to go.

Certainly nobody is maliciously becoming transgender in order to take over the sport, that is ridiculous. But also, if they are making it so talented women are unable to compete, it could be unfair to them. But also, there are biological women who have high testosterone levels, and it's certainly not cheating just to be born that way. Is it unfair to the kind of women's tennis players who were winning before the Williams sisters came along that the finesse style of play they were used to couldn't compete with the raw ability to just smash the ball?

There is no right answer here, just managing the amount of wrong.

 

[Refuge]

We're all physically varied as women and the origins of those abilities encompass so much already. Some athletes are just plain gifted in their field because they come from a genetic line of having long legs or maybe their family have a proud history of being swimmers and so they encourage their child into that sport. I look at the high achievers in sport and know they are out of my league - all of them! Those qualities that make a person good in a sport are just part of the package any woman brings to the table.

 

[TribbleFeeder]

People shouldn’t feel the need to discuss a person’s genitals in sports. If someone identifies as a woman they should be able to play sports with other women.

It’s a shame that this issue will cast a shadow on their talent.

 

[ThankQ]

People shouldn’t feel the need to discuss a person’s genitals in sports.

If wishing made it so...

 

[gblews]

People shouldn’t feel the need to discuss a person’s genitals in sports. If someone identifies as a woman they should be able to play sports with other women.

It’s a shame that this issue will cast a shadow on their talent.

But surely you can understand that it is not that simple. Sports involves physicality and in the case of trans women competing against non-trans women, trans women might have a "natural" physical advantage over non-trans women.

I don't have any answers either. The testosterone tests seems like a good place to start until something better comes along.

I think the o/p should consider opening this thread in a forum that gets more traffic like Miscellaneous or even TV and Media. It is a topic that is going to become more and more of a issue that slops over into politics.

 

[TribbleFeeder]

But surely you can understand that it is not that simple. Sports involves physicality and in the case of trans women competing against non-trans women, trans women might have a "natural" physical advantage over non-trans women.

There are some women that are stronger than men. Should they have to be on the men’s team because of their natural ability?

 

[Awesome Possum]

First off, “transgenders” is not a word. The actual term is transgender person or people or woman or man.

Second, these athletes have been on hormone replacement therapy for years. Trans women are having their testosterone blocked which causes muscles to become weaker and more in line with most cis woman. The goal is to drop testosterone levels to be equal with cis women and this is easy to test. I’ve learned this first hand and while I was never strong to being with, I find myself struggling when doing anything that requires strength. One of these tasks is opening pickle jars which is just cruel since due to my medication purging my body of salts, I get cravings for pickles a lot.

So a trans woman competing is going to be line with her cis women counterparts. The same goes for trans men competing with cis men. This whole controversy is transphobia masquerading as concern for women and not based in reality. Every single sports organization has guidelines on this and approve of it. There have been trans women in MMA and other sports without issue for years, except from transphobes who really hate the idea of trans people even existing. They don’t have any unfair advantage and the records really show that. There’s a trans woman MMA fighter and she got her ass kicked by Rhonda Rousey. But this bullshit just continues to live on. If anything it may be harder for trans women to compete because the most common testosterone blocker lowers the blood pressure causing lightheadedness during an increase in physical activity and there is an increased risk of blacking out due to the lower blood pressure and dehydration. I have to constantly drink water to keep this from happening.

 

[Nakita Akita]

People shouldn’t feel the need to discuss a person’s genitals in sports. If someone identifies as a woman they should be able to play sports with other women.

It’s a shame that this issue will cast a shadow on their talent.

Ah wishing it to be so.
I have always identified as being a 6 ft tall willowy blond woman. I know that was born in the wrong body.
Wishing or feeling does not make it true.
A man who thinks he should have been born female is not a female.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Ah wishing it to be so.
I have always identified as being a 6 ft tall willowy blond woman. I know that was born in the wrong body.
Wishing or feeling does not make it true.
A man who thinks he should have been born female is not a female.

Yeah, scientists, doctors, psychologists, therapists and biologists disagree with you. Trans women are women according to science and we have evidence to support it. You have this transphobic shit. You really have no idea of what you're even talking about.

 

[Nakita Akita]

There are some women that are stronger than men. Should they have to be on the men’s team because of their natural ability?

There are few to no women stronger than men.
Yes, you could say that a competitive weight lifter female can lift more weight than this man here, next to me in the bus, who works in an office and jogs a couple of miles about three times a week. But the competitive weight lifter female lifts less weight to win in the competition, say gold in the Olympics, than a man in the same, weight class( assuming that is what they use)
Can you site any examples of any sport where women have better speed times, lift more weight, shot putt further? Anything?
Site done examples because you will find that your statement is incorrect.

 

[Nakita Akita]

Yeah, scientists, doctors, psychologists, therapists and biologists disagree with you. Trans women are women according to science and we have evidence to support it. You have this transphobic shit. You really have no idea of what you're even talking about.

No you're wrong.
I don't really give a crap about what a person feels about their personal being.
Transphobic LOL.
Whatever.
My issue is men competing against women.
I don't have any issues about people ferling this way, I am about the competition.

 

[TribbleFeeder]

@Nakita Akita I’m not going to argue with you because I just don’t have the energy for that today.

I’m hoping one day you’ll understand how truly hurtful your remarks are. I will keep you in my prayers.