NAIA ruling on Transgender athletes

[sprtfan]

very simple. olympic standard. XX is female, XY is male. sorry about the genetic anamolies, or anyone else... you don't get to play.

I might be out of date, but I didn't think this was the Olympic policy. I thought it based on hormone levels for a few years, did it change?

 

[LEsoftballdad]

What we are doing as a society is substituting feeling for science in this case.

You nailed it with this comment. As an example, I was going to reference the women's national soccer team getting beat by a bunch of 14-15-year-old boys, 5-2, but the Will Thomas climb in the rankings is another excellent example.

 

[Top_Notch]

Men don't belong playing women's sports. Why this is a conversation is beyond me. Taking drugs and/or removing body parts does not make one the opposite sex. That is rooted in science. Not judging, just stating fact. There, I said it.

 

[tim_s]

one could argue that for every individual case like Lia Thomas, where there appears to be some competitive advantage there are hundreds, if not more, MS & HS & even NCAA athletes who see zero/zip/zilch advantage, and are enjoying the benefits of interscholastic athletic competition by being a part of a team where they best fit

kind of like "we" are letting emotion overrule actual common sense and statistics......wholesale bans are NOT in the best interest of all

the NCAA policy of a case by case basis, which is more or less the same policy my home state uses, makes the most sense.....

 

[torpedo #8]

There's not even compelling evidence that simply being 'stronger' or having 'more testosterone' (Something that isn't even true for male to every female, it's an overlapping graph) makes you better at sport, even most sports. There are various other body composition things that may actually benefit more traditionally female athletes. "Male" and "Female" or just not clearly separate enough categories to really justify banning people who don't match at birth.

This study found women weightlifters actually had more fast-twitch muscles for instance.

"Researchers at Cal State Fullerton conducted an interesting study. When assessing muscle fibers taken from 21 weightlifters who were divided into three groups: World/Olympic class females (6) National Class Females (9) National Class males (6) and what they found was the women had far more fast-twitch muscles than seen in male weightlifters. The elite female weightlifters had a higher concentration of fast-twitch muscle fibers than ever recorded for any elite athlete, man or woman, in any sport."

Women Fast Twitch Fiber Findings May Surprise You — SCCG Management

In the world of sports and athletics, speed and explosiveness are crucial for success. Athletes need to be able to generate power quickly, whether it's sprinting down the track, jumping to grab a rebound, or throwing a punch. And the key to that explosive performance lies in the type of muscle fiber

sccgmanagement.com

Ok, so what does that mean to you?

 

[daywalkerdad]

Just wanted to clarify. Title IX guarantees equal opportunity for women athletes. To achieve this you must have separate arenas for competition.
The exclusive portion of this is Title IX . Title IX is great BTW.

 

[sluggers]

Youth sports is one thing. Some 10YOA kid comes up to me and asks to play softball, it would be hard for me to say "No."

Where big money is involved, the whole thing becomes very complicated.

Would some people take dangerous drugs simply to get a fat paycheck? Lance Armstrong, Ron Guidry, Barry Bonds, and the East German Olympic teams have already answered that question with a resounding YES.

 

[CoachCeetar]

Ok, so what does that mean to you?

It's just an example of how "People assigned male at birth are genetically better at sports" is not some biological truth, and that there is more to it than simply bigger/stronger. It's just not particularly clear that it's an advantage in most sports (not physical strength records) to be a trans female.

But it's pretty obvious that most of "it's unfair competition!" argument is the PR spin to get people on the side of transphobes. It's a solution without a problem, as was said above. Just let everyone play. Who cares. no one's getting hurt. imo all kids sports should be open to all genders.



And that's without getting into how much of the gender binary is societal. Trans people have existed forever.

 

[sluggers]

@Cannonball and @Top_Notch: Please limit the discussion to sports.

 

[tim_s]

If "we" are going to allow a male to compete as a female, then what other categories are "we" going to allow? If I feel like I can benefit from a change in race, is there a difference? If I believe that there is a benefit in a change in age, is there a difference? If feelings and not science matter then no classifications matter.

you've never worked with a 12 year old struggling with gender issues, have you?

i get it.....we struggle with what we don't understand; took me a long time to even begin to wrap my head around it....i'm thankful it is something that has not hit too close to home

but no one is "deciding" to go through this, no one is "deciding" there's a benefit

no one asks to join one of the single most marginalized groups in the world, with statistically one of the highest suicide rates, on a whim

if they can benefit from participation in sport with their peers along the way, i have a hard time telling them 'no'........for the absolute few who's participation may result in unfair benefit, there already exist rules to deal with that (the case by case basis that exists within the NCAA & many high school governing bodies)

i have a hard time telling the trans male 8th grader that is throwing with the boys track team here right now that, along with all of their other daily struggles, that they can't go out and compete in an arena where they feel comfortable......and are accepted by their peers, both as teammates and by competitors, because it is hard for me to wrap my head around