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Posts Tagged ‘Transgender Sports’

A Solution to Transgender Sports | The Libertarian Institute

Posted by M. C. on January 6, 2022

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/a-solution-to-transgender-sports/

by Walter E. Block

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Even in these politically divisive times, this headline fairly leaps off the page at you: “Texas Passes Bill Barring Sports for Transgender Students.”

According to Texas State House Representative Valoree Swanson, a sponsor of this bill, it is “all about girls and protecting them” in the state’s University Interscholastic League. She continued: “We need a statewide level playing field…It’s very important that we, who got elected to be here, protect our girls.”

This seems a bit unfair to a small group of marginalized students, but we all know the genesis of this initiative: boys with dresses beating girls in sports; no, pulverizing them. The hearts of the Texas legislators are undoubtedly in the right places, given such goings on. Still, we can do better than this, while still safeguarding the distaff side against unwarranted and manifest unfair competitions in athletic competitions.

How can this be accomplished? Simple. Instead of entirely barring transgender students from sports, set up their own competitions for them! There is simply no justification for treating innocent students of this demographic so harshly, so unjustifiably. If they had their own sports competitions, no longer would they be able to run roughshod over their fellow students who are of the female persuasion. Nor would they be deprived of the benefits that these activities confer on all participants.

In boxing, there are numerous weight categories; as it happens, there are seventeen:

minimumweight, 105 pounds (48 kg)

light flyweight, 108 pounds (49 kg)

flyweight, 112 pounds (51 kg)

super flyweight, 115 pounds (52 kg)

bantamweight, 118 pounds (53.5 kg)

super bantamweight, 122 pounds (55 kg)

featherweight, 126 pounds (57 kg)

super featherweight, 130 pounds (59 kg)

lightweight, 135 pounds (61 kg)

super lightweight, 140 pounds (63.5 kg)

welterweight, 147 pounds (67 kg)

super welterweight, 154 pounds (70 kg)

middleweight, 160 pounds (72.5 kg)

super middleweight, 168 pounds (76 kg)

light heavyweight, 175 pounds (79 kg)

cruiserweight, 200 pounds (91 kg)

heavyweight, unlimited

Why has this system been instituted in the “sweet science?” Well, every once in a while, a good small man can beat a good big man. But weight is a strong determinant of success in this sport. It would be a rare bantamweight of 118 pounds who could successfully take on a cruiserweight tipping the scales at the double century mark. The latter is almost twice as heavy as the former. There are no such weight divisions in numerous other sports: ping-pong, swimming, running, tennis, volleyball, basketball, football, baseball, etc. Why not? That is because sheer weight does not garner any such advantages therein. However, there are age categories in numerous athletic competitions (running, swimming, tennis, for example) since that characteristic does indeed confer great benefits for younger people vis a vis the aged.

How does transgenderism fit into this situation? Clearly, being born male comes with benefits in many high school sports and college and middle school too. When faced with a stronger male, even one underdoing chemical treatment to reduce testosterone levels, females simply cannot compete on anything like a fair basis.

But prohibiting the two from competing against one another does logically imply that those with that characteristic should be entirely barred from competitive sports—as the new Texas law mandates. “Separate but equal” has a controversial aura in another educational context, but there is simply no just reason why this should pertain insofar as this new Texas law is concerned. It is not merely slightly unfair to bar any demographic, no matter how small in population, from sports for something that is no fault of theirs.

Depending upon the situation, it might make sense, also, to have separate competitions for those transitioning from male to female, and, in sharp distinction, those moving in the exact opposite direction. Boxing, as we have seen, has 17 different categories; here, we could have four: males only, females only, male to female, and female to male.

The difficulty is that there might be too few members of the latter two categories for there to be enough competition. How might this challenge be addressed? Consider long distance running, say, a marathon of 26.2 miles. Members of all four groups would race against each other. However, when medals are given out there would be four sets. In larger events, there are sometimes tens of thousands of participants. Plenty of competition there. But what about smaller and shorter events; for instance, a 5k race with only a few hundred entrants, as often occurs. There might be only one transgendered person there. So, give that person a medal. This is what occurs for runners in the 80-84 category. There are very few of us, also, in such races!

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Liberals Embrace Anti-Feminism in Transgender Sports Debate

Posted by M. C. on September 4, 2019

The best female high school athletes in the country in twenty states are now routinely being demolished by boys who identify as girls. 

This is also why you see headlines like the one in Slate that recently trumpeted that ”Betsy DeVos may force high schools to discriminate against trans athletes.” Apparently, protecting women from having to compete against men is a horrible act of discrimination. One would think that feminists would throw their full support behind DeVos, but they despise her for it.

When Martina Navratilova, not exactly a conservative icon, complained about the blatantly unfair situation, she came under such withering attacks from her former allies that she eventually apologized.  No one is allowed to wander off the insane liberal plantation.  She should have stood by her words because they were 100% true.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/09/liberals_embrace_antifeminism_in_transgender_sports_debate_.html

By Fletch Daniels

Anti-feminists continue their unapologetic efforts to destroy women’s sports at all levels.  Not satisfied to just ruin high school girls’ athletics, they are setting their sights higher.

This week’s headline indicated that Juniper Eastwood, a University of Montana cross-country runner, will become the first transgender (i.e. biological male) athlete to compete as a female in division I cross country.

Anyone want to bet against him completely dominating his sport?  No disrespect intended towards Eastwood, but he is a biological male.  This means that, no matter how much testosterone blockers that he takes, he will still have a massive built-in advantage in strength, speed and athleticism.

As a recent report from Journal of Medical Ethics indicated, “Science demonstrates that high testosterone and other male physiology provides a performance advantage in sport suggesting that transwomen retain some of that advantage. To determine whether the advantage is unfair necessitates an ethical analysis of the principles of inclusion and fairness.”

Another study by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that the “effect of the hormone treatment in relation to reducing leg muscle strength, is almost negligible for men who transition to become women.”

The Journal of Medical Ethics reluctantly admitted that transgender females have a built-in advantage but then, fearful of the liberal backlash and unwilling to challenge liberal orthodoxy, implied that might be a wonderful thing in the interest of inclusion and fairness.

This is also why you see headlines like the one in Slate that recently trumpeted that ”Betsy DeVos may force high schools to discriminate against trans athletes.”

Apparently, protecting women from having to compete against men is a horrible act of discrimination.  While DeVos may be viewed as a cross between Cersei Lannister and Darth Vader in liberal circles and within the insanely liberal department she heads, she is adopting both a logical and feminist position.  She is trying to protect girls from having to compete unfairly against biologically stronger and more athletic men…

Liberal support largely boils down to their embrace of “intersectionality,” which is all the rage in academic circles.  Intersectionality was a concept introduced in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a civil rights activist and legal scholar.  In practice, it sets up a hierarchy of grievances, where the highest consideration and support must be given to those with the highest grievance score.

On the hierarchy of grievances, a false (transgender) female scores higher than an actual (cisgender) female.  Faux feminists rush to throw their support behind biological males as they destroy women’s sport while the real feminists, most of whom are now conservatives, try to protect women.  It’s toxic liberal virtue signaling on steroids.

Anyone with common sense understands that there are only two biological genders, regardless of how many genders liberals deem to exist.  I realize that Joe Biden is out searching for that elusive third gender, but he isn’t going to find it. At the same time, presidential candidate Julian Castro is trying to protect transgender female’s right to an abortion, proving that no position is too ridiculous to adopt in the grievance sweepstakes.

The fact that males are better athletes than females has nothing to do with privilege and everything to do with science.  As a general rule, the average male is stronger, faster, and more athletic than the average female.  They start receiving a massive amount of testosterone at puberty resulting in a significant athletic gap.  Again, any C-grade freshman biology student should understand this reality.

On a typical high school track team, the worst-performing male athletes regularly record better times than the best-performing female athletes.  When I was in high school, we boasted the best female cross-country runner in the country.  She was an absolute running machine, but had she been on the men’s team, she would have been the fourth best runner.  That’s no small gap…

But, the new feminist position is that we should cheer as men destroy women’s sports.  This is an illogical and anti-woman outrage.  Most of the true remaining feminists based upon the classic definition of fighting for women’s rights and equality are now conservatives.

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Transgender women in sport: Are they really a 'threat' to ...

 

 

 

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