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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsConnecticut parents petition to ban transgender track athletes
Congratulations to these young women on their achievements, but clearly, we have a long way to go to eliminate transphobia.
http://usatodayhss.com/2018/connecticut-parents-ban-transgender-track-athletes
As reported by the Hartford Courant, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference allows athletes to compete as members of the gender with which they identify. That means that transgender teenagers can compete alongside cisgender opponents, creating what some feel is an uneven playing field.
Supporters of two petitions to eliminate the transgender regulations claim that their efforts arent aimed at the individual athletes who will be most directly impacted by the regulations. Still, its impossible to overlook the success of Andraya Yearwood, who first spoke about her transition to being a transgender female with the Courant a year ago. In the time since then, Yearwood has captured back-to-back 100-meter State Open titles as a freshman and sophomore. After Yearwood broke out as a freshman she inspired multiple other transgender entrants, according to the Courant.
While parents of opposing runners may deny their petitions have anything to do with the chosen gender identity of the teens in question, its hard to debate the impact such rules and regulations could have on transgender athletes themselves.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Or neither?
Ex Lurker
(3,825 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Why shouldn't people of different gender identities compete against one another in high school sports competitions?
Also, what about individuals who are non-binary?
ansible
(1,718 posts)Are people just going to ignore this? Of course a male body will outperform a female one in sports.
FreeState
(10,606 posts)Its for that reason many organizations require the person undergoing hormone therapy in order to compete.
Ex Lurker
(3,825 posts)Plus hormones may not be advisable for some adolescents.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,965 posts)Back when Renee Richards hit the news (and those of you who don't know who she is, the Google is your friend) I had a hard time making a friend understand that she still was biologically male, with an X and Y chromosome, not two X chromosomes. There really is a difference.
Response to Ex Lurker (Original post)
Oneironaut This message was self-deleted by its author.
inwiththenew
(973 posts)It's not fair for women to have to compete against them. I mean you may identify as a female but nature could give two shits about that. They are biologically men and are generally bigger, stronger, and faster than females. This is a string of occurrences where male to female transgender athletes are smashing records. It's not right.
xor
(1,204 posts)How does that apply to someone who is on hormone therapy? I think this probably more relevant when it comes to FTM transitions. Aren't there significant changes to the body with that?
I don't know what to think of this because I'm rather ignorant of the science behind it all. Thinking about this a little has given me a few questions that I don't know the answer to. Such as, is it feasible to do away gender/sex separation all together and base it on weight class (or whatever), or are are there still enough physiological between sexes that one sex has distinct advantages over the other even if the same physical size. Also, how much do hormone treatments affect those possible advantages/disadvantages, and is possible to define a point in those a certain threshold is met? etc...
inwiththenew
(973 posts)But I still can't shake the feeling we are cutting women athletes off at the knees. If you go through puberty as a man you have unfair advantage over females because you have built the bone/muscle structure of an adult male. I don't know. I mean for everything else I'm fine with but this feels unfair to female athletes.