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Transgender athletes face growing hostility: four tell their stories in their own words
(www.usatoday.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
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Yeah it's a fairly standard grift now, they point at again random trans women winning (or make them up) and say it's not fair because obviously trans women are just dudes in wigs, and because that's what a lot of cis people think (or at most - they know that breast implants are a thing despite the fact trans women avoid them like the plague) and they screech about muh biomechanical males and females and whatnot.
You can explain and show a million times how most trans women have lower Testosterone levels than cis women do (weak biological loose regulation vs the cold perfection of medicine) and it will do fuck all because it's all pretense, if trans women were wizards who changed completely including genetically they'd still just wanna brand us for it.
So tiring and exhausting. All just screaming into the void. So much bloodlust. Can't wait for the civil war at this point.
EDIT: ah the bloodthirsty have come here
Trans women are biologically female btw in all ways that aren't literally just the presence of the Y chromosome, from gonads, to their blood, to gene expression :3
Sports are inherently unfair, and trans women's strength advantage is lost with transition.
Puberty blockers for minors are the compromise. (this would also eliminate the stupid sport shit hence why they wanna ban it)
I’m not even gonna bother typing “transgender athletes setting world records into google” for you, you’ve either conveniently forgotten or willfully ignored these examples.
I just - almost everything else I get. I too would be rather upset at people calling for my head or saying I’m the work of the devil.
But there is evidence showing trans women have a massive advantage over cis women. It’s equal rights, not “fuck you I want more rights than you now”. That means you gotta compromise sometimes, and not just stick your head in the sand and shout oppression at every single speed bump.
Most of those articles are either disingenuous, if not outright false. How? Glad you asked.
The whole issue is disingenuous to begin with. Sports is a competition of genetic freaks and is fundamentally unfair.
The reason you see black women win at athletics is also because they have more T on average lmfao.
In fact, restrictions on trans women's T levels often end up banning black women. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/07/two-cis-black-women-banned-olympics-natural-testosterone-levels/
https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/the-international-olympic-committee-is-failing-black-women
I have lower T than them btw so as a trans woman I'd actually be fine, and probably at a disadvantage to them
These are the latest rules if I'm not wrong:
https://www.iaaf.org/news/press-release/eligibility-regulations-for-female-classifica
The limit is reducing to 5 nmol/L to enter.
I have 0.5 nmol/L as a trans woman and have had this level for 10 years since my teens, because I'm trans and suppressing T and raising E is literally what medical transition is.
I'd likely have lower strength as a result and would not be able to win, no matter how much I trained.
https://academic.oup.com/jes/article/5/Supplement_1/A792/6241278
The reason Usain Bolt wins the run is because he's got long legs, someone else could train all their life - and they will never win if they don't have a bigger advantage.
I want to make this bit crystal clear:
I don't really give a shit about sports.
If you'd like to just ban all trans people completely and fully then please do so.
But the right-wing think-tanks behind it won't do any such thing, because then their golden goose - the wedge issue that awakens the bloodlust in the average cis person - kicking a thing in a thing - is what they're using as a stick to beat trans people with and take our rights to healthcare (this includes minors btw) etc.
I think the truth of the matter is that trans women are seen as just blokes in wigs by the vast majority of cis people and because of weird societal shit that makes it bad, and the reality that human bodies are fairly malleable and vague is hard or undesirable to accept, therefore the easiest solution is to hate trannies, if possible while maintaining the pretense of a moral high ground ala "fairness in sports" despite the fact it's almost a comtradiction in terms.
Odd that you would focus on testosterone levels instead of muscle mass. It’s certainly true that trans women have testosterone levels comparable with cis women, and also true that they would lose some amount of muscle mass due to that. However, they still retain more muscle than a cis woman would have, in general.
I think it’s legitimate to ask if that’s fair.
Ah, because testosterone levels hugely influence muscle mass and resultant strength and performance. The longest study on the matter actually ended up with trans women having on average LESS muscle strength than cis women.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8090355/
I don't actually give a single shit about sports btw.
But this is a good example, this issue brings out the inherent bloodthirst many cis have towards trans people.
I suspect that this study should be repeated on the athlete subpopulations, because I imagine many trans women are actively trying to not be muscular in order to aid transitioning, which is a different goal from those participating in athletics.
…bloodthirst?? Because somebody disagreed with you? How about you calm down instead of being such an extremist. And no, your single study with like 8 people in each group is not more convincing than all of the other studies that you’re deliberately choosing to ignore.
I really don't know enough about who has when an advantage, but when that whole drama broke out about that swimmer who won by a landslide that used to be a man, i was browsing some trans/lgbtq boards. Most of them said that it's more than fair, because men have denser bones and a lot of convincing arguments for her. But then it had me thinking, why are men so dominant in swinning then? (I assume they are, i think professional sports are pretty pointless and shit)
With all that being said, i feel like if you go through a sex change, which should he the most important and dearest thing one could ever do, maybe it's time to just drop a silly sport for it. Because one of these things is surely more important than the other.
Before HRT, she was a top ranked men's swimmer. After hrt, on the men's, she dropped into the 400s. When she had been on HRT long enough to compete as a woman, she was a top ranked women's swimmer, but was still beaten by several cis women. What's the issue, exactly?
There isn't one and they know it.
~~How~~ Who are we talking about?
Edit: autocorrect
I can't parse this sentence as written. I predict that you actually meant, "Who are we talking about?", and to answer that, Lia Thomas, the trans swimmer who the right focused on as their primary hate figure with respect to their campaign against trans people being allowed to exist.
Thank you. I've corrected my question, and yes, I meant "who."
Man, the right sucks.
When you transition, you often lose everything. Family, friends, work, support networks. You name it, every single one of them is impacted, even if they're not lost completely.
It's not a "silly sport" it's community, which can be life saving if you've lost most of the rest of it...
Don't bother. The bloodlust consumes all cisoids eventually.
Ah the classic “fight bigotry with bigotry” approach. Let me know how your hate is working out for you.
Incidentally also, Lia Thomas set a school record. Not a state record, not a national record, not a world record. Her performance just was not that out of line than one would expect from any other woman.
Believe me when I say that I support my LGBTQ+ peeps.
And I concede that I don't know much about the subject of trans people in sports and physical capabilities.
But in my view, trans women have higher probability to be stronger than most cis female athletes. I'm not saying it happens all the time. But it happens. There is a reason there are competition categories. Even in the same gender, for example, in boxing, there are weight divisions.
So, I don't know what the solution is. Measure the amount of strength and categorize accordingly? Having an extra "transgender" category? I tell you - I would watch this! Not in a morbid way, but a genuine one, no different from watching women's soccer or men's tennis, for example.
If they are on hormone blockers and HRT, they honestly do not have a higher probability. That said, it would be pretty fucking invasive to make sure they are taking those consistently.
On the other hand, if you put a transman with the women, he will have a clear advantage and it wouldn't be fair.
Given this belief, is there a reason trans women have never taken Olympic medals despite having nearly 20 years to do so? That would seem to be evidence against that perspective. If any trans women are more capable at sport than cis women shouldn't at least one have been world class?
Theres a trans female weightlifter Laurel Hubbard who made it to the Olympics in 2020. Passed every Olympic requirement for trans women to compete. Big hubbub about biological advantage and all that from the critics. She was in the competition one would most expect dominance from someone assigned male at birth. She had three lifts. She failed three lifts. Placed last in her group. So much for that.
Yup. Quietly dismissed by so-called "skeptics" tho
How many trans women compete in olympic sports in women's categories? Genuine question.
Really very few, I think it's only in the last few years that any have qualified. Which, again, is a pretty solid argument against, "Trans women are driving cis women out of sport!".
That's a good point, but for the sake of the argument, can trans women compete in women's Olympic sports? As in, are they really allowed? Given your previous comment, I'm going to say yes, but I'd like to be sure..
Yes, since the early 2000s.
They are allowed. As [email protected] pointed out, Laurel Hubbard competed in weight lifting and failed all three lifts and placed last in her category. She was expected to medal.
No, I don't believe you.
Because you literally admitted that you don't know much about this topic, but still came out to argue for the exclusion of one of the most marginalised parts of the LGBTQ community.
Your understanding is one that comes from the talking points of people trying to use sports as a wedge tactic to further ostracise trans folk, and you completely disregard or simply fail to look for the experiences of trans people and the impact these exclusions have on them.
So if you genuinely do support LGBTQ folk, and that sentence wasn't just a salve for your own conscience, it might be time to stop stepping on the people you claim to support. If you don't know enough to form a supportive opinion, that's fine, but stop adding to the voices trying to pull us down...
Friend, I understand your struggle. I'm also part of a marginalized group. I'll stand schooled and say that I must inform myself more, sure. But don't characterize me as someone who is trying to put you down.
You're speaking in absolutes, though. To "completely disregard or fail to look for the experiences of trans people" would mean to say bullshit like "I fail to see how they're suffering for not being women because trans women are NOT women" - that is to completely disregard it, like you put it. And friend, you don't know how many heated discussions I've had with people, even childhood friends, to defend trans rights, simply because it's the natural and right thing to do.
So, I'm here to discuss, to be taught, to learn, to gather tools and help to continue defending everyone's rights, yours and mine.
I'm not talking about excluding anyone. I'm discussing different options that allow inclusion. Are they right or wrong? I don't know, that's why I'm asking! But again, don't accuse me of doing something I'm not doing.
Can you share your knowledge now?
Don't characterise you as someone trying to put me down?
You're quite literally arguing to take away my rights from a position of self confessed ignorance.
And when called on it, you ignored literally everything I said to highlight how the biggest problem that needs addressing is about the way you're being treated.
If you were here to learn, you'd be asking questions, and you'd be listening to what I, a sports playing trans woman has to say. But you're not asking questions, you're arguing, and volunteering to exclude folk like me, without even knowing enough to understand why, let alone the impact it has.
Trans people have no track record of consistently out performing cis people in any sport at any level. Literally every example you can think of is a misrepresentation by a media more interested in controversy than fact. Those are your facts.
If your response to that is to argue about it so as to validate the position you've already staked out, rather than listening, asking more questions, or simply backing off, then you know what you can do with your support. People calling themselves allies but then arguing to take away our rights hurt more than bigots ever can...
I guess the hypocrisy is lost on you. Frankly I’m inclined to believe you’re a right wing troll trying to make trans people look bad at this point.
I was with you until that last part lol. I’m not ready for a war.
But yeah, no evidence will persuade people. They have super intense beliefs about trans people because they saw something on Fox News or their social media feed. Confirmation bias and whatnot
It’s not hard to find evidence to support the skepticism about trans women in sports:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33648944/
I’m curious what evidence you’re talking about?
Yeah. I went from being a fairly progressive trans liberationist to a bit more conservative transmedicalist arguing that sports and healthcare are issues best settled by science and attempt to focus on dysphoria and the physical literal aspects of everything but even that does not work.
No matter how much evidence cis people simply do not believe you, no matter what you say: trans women = bio men or maybe have even more testosterone and thus muscle mass, no matter what they think everyone transitioned because trauma or some psychological social bullshit they made up in their stupid fucking battle of the sexes.
They mostly are either too evil, or too stupid to understand us and I don't really give a shit which is which anymore. It's not always true, but it's a safe assumption.
And yeah I don't want a war either ofc, but I see no other end to society in general as it is now.
We need a fucking trans-ethnostate.
You have become what you hate, congrats on your bigotry.
It won't help. Bigotry doesn't get better for separation, it gets worse. People need exposure to the other, to see that trans people aren't some kind of media trope monster, just people. Being an out trans person is one of the best things that people who have passing privilege can do, to reduce the stigma of being trans in society and remove trans people from the scary caricature the media loves to sell.