Comment on MANDATORY!
Darcranium@lemmy.world 2 days agoI understand that MtF athletes are exceedingly rare and certainly not an issue worth platforming an entire campaign on (right or left). I identify as a progressive and want to focus on wealth redistribution, green energy, healthcare, and election reform. Can we just say that MtF athletes should complete with cis males or other trans athletes and be done with it? Otherwise we are going to be very divided as a country about something that only affects 1 percent of the population.
cass1312@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
Sports are a wedge issue used to open the door to further eroding trans rights is the issue, it’s not something you can compromise on. The reason sports are even something people even have a problem with is due to the fact that most cis people don’t see sex as mutable or trans people as changing their sex, which is the argument behind sports bans, bathroom bans, and other “single sex” spaces like women’s shelters or hospital wards. Any of those spaces banning trans people provably leads to more assaults/rapes, or otherwise materially harms trans people. And even if it somehow didn’t do that, from a moral standpoint it is still discrimination.
A minority being a minority of the population isn’t a reason to ignore those issues, and doing so just opens the door to more discrimination and repression of other groups as well.
All those other issues you listed are also important, but being willing to throw trans people under the bus doesn’t help you accomplish them, all it does it hurt trans people. El-sayed, Mamdani, and a bunch of the progressives that have won recently have done so without needing to abandon trans people, and are better off because of it. If you’re willing to sacrifice a minority’s rights to get elected, all it does is show that you don’t have actual principles and makes me believe you’d abandon other causes you otherwise claim to champion the moment it becomes politically inconvenient. And that goes for any minority, not just trans people.
Also, its worth noting that trans women are women, and that includes physically for stuff like sports. Almost every study done on the topic shows that a trans woman athlete has no statistical advantage over a cis woman one.
Darcranium@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Thank you for the well thought out response. I would love to see the studies about trans women athletes having no statistical advantage over cis women if you have them handy. I just want to learn, but unfortunately most people come into these arguments with just disgust and phobia, and I don’t think we should be picking a battle with them at this time. I think that’s a time for when we’ve resolved the issue of the electoral college and restored a true vote for all. If I were trans, I would like to think my vote counting, the climate, or fair pay would be more important to me than playing sports
cass1312@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Here’s an actual study on it. Basically, trans women have slightly more lean muscle on average, but otherwise are statistically the same as a cis woman in terms of actual strength and cardiovascular strength.
Like I said in the previous response as well, its not “just playing sports” the same way segregation wasn’t “just water fountains”. As a trans leftist I will not vote for any candidate who is in favor of sports bans, (as would a lot of other trans people). And trans people tend to be very left leaning, so by espousing those viewpoints it would cost the progressive candidate votes.
Darcranium@lemmy.world 1 day ago
After I sent that message, I realized it was not fair for me to ask you to provide sources I could easily look up myself, so I just looked a few up myself and found some similar results as you did. Overall the data is still lacking or incomplete, and you also see studies like this…
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7846503/
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9331831/
Perhaps the NIH (ncbi) has an agenda? It’s been over a decade since I got my BA in neuroscience, but I can see the value of both arguments. I’m sure your qualifications to speak on this are just as high, if not higher than mine.
I get that my logic is not perfect, and I don’t think we should be pandering to the neonazis or the neoliberals. The wisest solution is not always the most logical, however, and we must pick our battles - new ones every few years. We need pragmatic legislation that helps everyone, before we start to address niche difficult issues like transgender equality in sports.
For now, I still think a bandaid solution is best; Trans women of any age cannot compete with cis women unless it’s expressly allowed by the regulatory committee of that particular sport - i.e. in an open division or in a sport where physical traits are not a statistical predictor of success.
That would help liberals and republicans get off this merry-go-round of absurd hypotheticals and focus on the major issues happening now, affecting us all.