Thread: Is it unfair ?
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Old 10-23-19, 12:04 PM
  #15  
OBoile
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Originally Posted by hubcyclist
I've been following along since last year (and I know she used to post here on the racing forum). As the parent of a gender nonconforming child I have an appreciation for how folks may feel, but I can't at all agree with her almost militant approach of name calling anyone who reasonably disagrees as transphobic, all it does it serve to shut down any reasonable discussion. The fact is she can cite studies that agree with her stance but from what little I understand there's still not a lot known about how much advantage one has by virtue of reaching puberty as a male. I can also imagine it insulting to women to have this outsider (for lack of better term, for all the challenges that come with being gender questioning, she didn't experience a lifetime of being female and all the baggage that comes with that) come in and suddenly try to tell women how their sport should be.

It's a complex topic with no clear answer, everyone deserves dignity and it seems that there's no path where everyone comes out with their dignity intact, whether it be a large portion of competitors at a disadvantage or folks being excluded from competing with a group with which they identify.
I also don't agree with her militant approach/viewpoint. The idea that trans women should be allowed to compete as women *without any restrictions* goes too far IMO. It's a selfish viewpoint for her to take.

But having said that...
1. This is a single woman winning a single master's category event. Let's not try to blow it out of proportion. If transgender people are competing on an even playing field they will win sometimes.
2. While I agree that the current rules are probably not fair (and are in the process of being revised), no one really knows that for sure, or the actual magnitude of advantage given. We don't know the effect(s) of drugs taken to suppress hormones, or how a body reacts to a lower hormone level than it is expecting. Furthermore, the magnitude of advantage likely varies greatly depending on the sport in question, or even events within a sport. This lady would likely be at far less of an advantage over her competitors in a hill climb event for instance. We'll probably never know the exact magnitude of the advantage (if any) because there simply aren't enough trans women competing to do a proper study.
3. If, in the future, this really does become a major problem (i.e. say 10% of the elite, not masters, female podium spots are going to trans women) the restrictions can be revisited.


In short, there really isn't a significant issue here. This makes the news every year due to fear mongering and nothing more. Let trans women compete using restrictions that are the current best guess at what is fair. If they start winning a disproportionate number of times, revise those restrictions. But, as of now at least, this isn't happening.
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