Originally Posted by
OBoile
Human rights should always trump your hobby (and for master's racers, along with the 99.9% of us who aren't good enough to go pro that's all this is). If you care so much about a result that you're willing to discriminate in order to achieve it, you need to take step back and examine your priorities.
If you care so much about winning an argument you're wiling to use false dichotomies and knock down straw men, you need to step back and examine your priorities.
We discriminate all over the place in sports to make things reasonably fair. We discriminate on the basis of gender, age, professional status, experience, aptitude, etc. A 60 year old cat 4 woman won't be in the same race as a 25 year old elite pro. The race wouldn't be fair, and we all know who would win. Women who compete deserve to compete on as fair a playing field as possible. That means competing against people born as women.
As has been stated elsewhere, gender dysphoria is a real thing. The challenges involved in gender reassignment are huge and daunting. I understand that people put the personal lives, their professional lives, even their family relationships on the line to treat their gender dysphoria. Anyone transitioning knows there are a lot of sacrifices to be made. One of them (IMHO) should be the right to compete in sports where your birth gender gives you an advantage over your fellow competitors.
That's not a human rights issue. It's a competitive issue and an issue of fairness.