What is fair? Your parents determine your genes, and some people will never be as good as others because of it. Your upbringing, environment, time, money, parenting decisions all determine your early exposure to a sport. Finances and parents determine early nutrition and help set future fitness ahead or back. Some people get to play for good teams in high school or college and some don't. If you did have a trans league, would it be fair to W>M to compete against M>F? How would you regulate the amounts of hormones an athlete could take, since all people need different amounts for their transition? I'm not saying this is right, but what is right seems harder to determine on examination. Sports tend to have no trouble embracing technology off the field to improve performance. This seems to be a case where they need to catch up to technology and society and find a better way to rank leagues than weight or what was between your legs when you were born.
I suspect that eliminating drugs, training, and nutrition, if you studied the top athletes in any sport you'd find the majority have physical and genetic advantages over most people. Some people have naturally long limbs, or a higher lung capacity, more natural muscle potential, or other traits which make them well suited for a sport. In that vein- it makes no sense to ban competitors who have natural advantages. Of course we have gender based sports division to address known differences in how certain genes effect performance, but it wouldn't make sense for someone on hormones to compete against others of their "biological gender" who aren't. A male on female hormones is disadvantaged to other men, a woman on male hormones is generally at an advantage to other women. I don't have data but I suspect a mixed "trans" league would put some set of people at a disadvantage, and banning transgender people from organized competition seems exclusionary. No answers, just questions.
Ban them from competing period. Anything less kills the spirit of the sport. Aren't they on the steroids and supplements for life anyways? Either way, we don't currently have the means for a person to be chemically identical to the opposite gender.
If a boy becomes a woman in her teens, then I’d say they’re on par with the women who just naturally have more testosterone or whatever. However, in this instance, this woman has had the advantage of training for many many years in a male body with waaaay more testosterone than any woman could achieve naturally (and even enhanced women would struggle to reach that level). So this woman is kinda cheating the system in my opinion. Just because her hormone levels are acceptable now doesn’t mean they always were, and muscle doesn’t waste away if she keeps training it, even with reduced testosterone
Sorry. Gonna backto back post to hit all these. @yimmye- First I want to just say your muscle does waste away if test drops. That's why older men can't keep training the same as when young even if they don't stop, and why someone can't just take steroids once or twice to get strong and then keep training the same and not lose size. The testosterone is what allowed the mass to be gained, and other effects of it such as increased protein synthesis wear off. You recover slower so can't work out as frequently or as hard as well.
@i_ - many of the changes to skeletal and muscular systems that give men strength advantages occur during puberty, as well as body fat composition and other factors. Like someone else said- current and foreseeable science ant truly "transform" one biological binary gender into another as if they'd been born that way.
As for the rest- I'm not saying this is right or wrong. I'm asking, if it is wrong- why is it wrong? They have an advantage? As stated- most people who are top athletes have natural advantage. Otherwise anyone could ball like Jordan or fight like Ali if they trained hard and wanted to. But we only see a handful of prodigies in a generation. Men and women can't be the same hormonally but biologically this person is not strictly male or female. They have traits linked to both. Can they not compete against either binary gender, only other M>F or F>M? Even in "like for like" some will have more benificial traits or be on different doses of hormone. Do we sub divide into leagues based on "passing" level? If that's the sticking point why not do away with gendered sports and do leagues based on natural advantages and hormone levels? Where a men,women, others of similar theoretical potential or ability as quantified compete fairly? Where do trans people belong in sports?
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· 7 years ago
Muscle does indeed waste away over time, my mistake. However, this woman still has a body which strongly resembles a man’s if we look at the musculature. I think as she keeps training with female levels of testosteron, over time her body will become more like “regular” women’s bodies. However, since this woman went through puberty as a man, I think she’ll always have a substantial advantage.
It is a very good question to ask where trans people belong in sports. I don’t claim to know the answer, we’ll have to see what people decide in the future. It’s a difficult decision, and I think there’s no simple answer.
No worries. And I agree completely. Only time will tell. Changing technology and increased acceptance mean changes to the fundamental way people live and think. That's never an easy thing. IMHO though it's past time pro sports especially was put under the microscope and put into perspective. So I think these are good questions to open that up.
Before I get down voted I'd like to point out that I'm joking and don't really care if he/she wants to be called a she or translateral sack of cornflakes or any other ridiculous pronouns
It is a very good question to ask where trans people belong in sports. I don’t claim to know the answer, we’ll have to see what people decide in the future. It’s a difficult decision, and I think there’s no simple answer.
She's a guy so...