Muscle Strength, Size, and Composition Following 12 Months of Gender-affirming Treatment in Transgender Individuals - "In this single-center observational cohort study, untrained transgender women (TW, n = 11) and transgender men (TM, n = 12), approved to start gender-affirming medical interventions, underwent assessments at baseline, 4 weeks after gonadal suppression of endogenous hormones but before hormone replacement, and 4 and 12 months after treatment initiation... One year of gender-affirming treatment resulted in robust increases in muscle mass and strength in TM, but modest changes in TW. These findings add new knowledge on the magnitude of changes in muscle function, size, and composition with cross-hormone therapy, which could be relevant when evaluating the transgender eligibility rules for athletic competitions."
Of course, the "science" tells us that as long as transwomen have sufficiently low testosterone levels, they can compete with "cis" women
How does hormone transition in transgender women change body composition, muscle strength and haemoglobin? Systematic review with a focus on the implications for sport participation - "In transwomen, hormone therapy rapidly reduces Hgb to levels seen in cisgender women. In contrast, hormone therapy decreases strength, LBM and muscle area, yet values remain above that observed in cisgender women, even after 36 months. These findings suggest that strength may be well preserved in transwomen during the first 3 years of hormone therapy."
Eight of Iran's women's football team 'are men' - "Eight of Iran's women's football team are actually men awaiting sex change operations, it has been claimed.The country's football association was accused of being "unethical" for knowingly fielding eight men in its women's team... Football is highly popular among many Iranian women, despite religious rules that bar them from entering stadiums to watch matches between male teams.Earlier this month the women's national team captain was unable to fly with the squad to Malaysia because her husband refused her permission to fly."
From 2015
Iran are accused of playing a MAN as a goalkeeper for their women's national team by rivals Jordan - "Zohreh Koudaei, 32, saved two penalties during the 4-2 shoot-out victory over Jordan in Uzbekistan on September 25, meaning the Iranian women's team qualified for its first ever Women's Asia Cup. The President of Jordan's FA, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, tweeted a letter 'requesting a gender verification check' on Koudaei from the Asian Football Federation (AFC)... The Jordan Football Association's letter, dated November 5, cited doubts over the 'eligibility of a participating player'. It also alleged that the Iranian women's team 'has a history with gender and doping issues', and called for 'due process' to be followed. Irandoost said the accusation was being used to cover up for Jordan's loss."
Lucky they're Muslims - or it'd be transphobia and/or misogyny
BoysVsWomen.com - "Male High School Athletes vs Female Olympians If boys win against the fastest women, is it fair for males to compete in female-only athletic events?"
Meme - "You support Lia Thomas because you're pro Trans rights
I support Lia Thomas because I am anti women's sports
We are not the same"
Meme - Reka @RekaGyorgy: "My finals spot was stolen by Lia Thomas, who is a biological male. Until we all refuse to compete nothing will change. Thanks for all the support retweets and follows I wont stop fighting."
Reka @RekaGyorgy_: "Account suspended. Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules. Learn more"
USA Swimming Official Quits In Protest Of Lia Thomas: ‘Everything Fair About Swimming Is Being Destroyed’ - "Cynthia Millen “has officiated at USA Swimming events for 30 years, but she hung up her whistle last week in protest over Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, and she hopes others will follow her lead.”"
Penn Trans Swimmer's Teammate Speaks Out As Lia Thomas Smashes More Records - "friction has been building within the team, according to a Penn female swimmer who said she feared for her ability to find employment after graduating from college for sharing her honest opinion about a transgender teammate... "When the whole team is together, we have to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, go Lia, that’s great, you’re amazing.’ It’s very fake”... “When I have kids, I kinda hope they’re all boys because if I have any girls that want to play sports in college, good luck. [Their opponents] are all going to be biological men saying that they’re women,” Thomas’ teammate told OutKick. “Right now we have one, but what if we had three on the team? There’d be three less girls competing.”"
Second Female Penn Swimmer Steps Forward, Describes Teammates In Tears - "Even after a Wednesday team meeting where a source says Penn administration “strongly advised” its swimmers to avoid talking to the media about the situation surrounding transgender Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, a second female Penn swimmer has stepped forward to speak out... Penn swimmers are “angry” over the lack of fairness in the sport as Lia Thomas destroys the record books and brings fellow teammates to tears... “Usually everyone claps, everyone is yelling and cheering when someone wins a race. Lia touched the wall and it was just silent in there”... after the 200 freestyle, Thomas could be overheard bragging. “That was so easy, I was cruising,” Lia Thomas allegedly said... As for the biological women, they’re left to battle it out for second place in the freestyle events and receive lectures from school administrators who want them to be good foot soldiers so the school isn’t attacked by an angry transgender community for speaking out against Thomas."
Idaho athlete who lost five times to transgender competitors tells Pennsylvania swimmers to speak up - "Madison Kenyon filed a motion in Idaho State Court last year along with teammate Mary Kate Marshall to intervene in a legal challenge to the state's Fairness in Women's Sports Act, the first legislation in the nation to bar transgender competitors assigned male at birth from competing in women's sports. Kenyon described the experience of losing to 'biological males' on the field as 'extremely deflating'"
Lia Thomas May Be Out Of NCAA Championships After New USA Swimming Rule - "University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, formerly known as Will Thomas, may be barred from competing in the NCAA championships in Atlanta in March after USA Swimming updated its rules. On Tuesday, USA Swimming announced that competitors in women’s events must have recorded low levels of testosterone for 36 months; the previous rule required only one year... Jenner added that Thomas “is also not good for women’s sports. It’s unfortunate that this is happening. I don’t know why she’s doing it. She knows when she’s swimming she’s beating the competition by two laps. She was born as a biological boy. She was raised as a biological boy. Her cardiovascular system is bigger. Her respiratory system is bigger. Her hands are bigger. She can swim faster. That’s a known. All of this is woke world that we’re living in right now is not working. I feel sorry for the other athletes that are out there, especially at Penn or anyone she’s competing against, because in the woke world you have to say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great.’ No it’s not.” In early December, Thomas utterly crushed the women competing with Thomas at the University of Akron’s Zippy Invitational, winning the 1650 free by a gargantuan 38 seconds ahead of the young woman finishing second, winning the 500 free by a whopping twelve seconds ahead of the woman finishing second, and winning the 200 free by a still-huge seven seconds, setting new Penn records along with meet and pool records."
Women's Swimming Champion Calls for End to Trans Swimmers in Women's Sports - "Jeri Shanteau, an 11-time NCAA All-American swimming champion, is stepping up to call for an end to biological men competing as women in college swimming as U Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas continues a controversial swimming career."
Lia Thomas breaks record at Ivy League Women's Championships - "Trans swimmers Iszac Henig and Lia Thomas have won races and broken records at the Ivy League Women’s Championships."
Meme - "O wonder why there are no women transitioning to men and trying to compete in men's sports."
Meme - "MANIMORPHS
WILLIAM THOMAS RANKED 462 MEN'S SWIMMING
LIA THOMAS RANKED #1 WOMEN'S SWIMMING"
Meme - "Lia Thomas, left, is seen on the podium on Thursday night as second placed Emma Weyant celebrates with Erica Sullivan (third) and Brooke Forde (fourth)"
Scott Morrison backs bill for transgender exclusions in sport - "Prime Minister Scott Morrison has thrown his support behind a bill that would make it easier for sporting organisations to exclude transgender women from competing in female sports. Liberal Senator Claire Chandler introduced her “save women’s sports” bill to Parliament earlier this month during a heated debate about whether religious schools should retain the right to discriminate against transgender students on the basis of their faith. Senator Chandler said the purpose of the bill was to clarify that offering sports for athletes born biologically female was legal under the Sex Discrimination Act."
Meme - "CALLING ALL MEDIOCRE MALES
WOMEN'S MEDALS RECORDS SCHOLARSHIPS SPONSORSHIPS
ARE NOW UP FOR GRABS!
LIVE YOUR DREAM BY RUINING THEIRS
CALL THE ACLU TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET IN ON THE ACTION"
Transgender Women in the Female Category of Sport: Perspectives on Testosterone Suppression and Performance Advantage - "We report that the performance gap between males and females becomes significant at puberty and often amounts to 10–50% depending on sport. The performance gap is more pronounced in sporting activities relying on muscle mass and explosive strength, particularly in the upper body. Longitudinal studies examining the effects of testosterone suppression on muscle mass and strength in transgender women consistently show very modest changes, where the loss of lean body mass, muscle area and strength typically amounts to approximately 5% after 12 months of treatment. Thus, the muscular advantage enjoyed by transgender women is only minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed. Sports organizations should consider this evidence when reassessing current policies regarding participation of transgender women in the female category of sport."
How does hormone transition in transgender women change body composition, muscle strength and haemoglobin? Systematic review with a focus on the implications for sport participation - "In transwomen, hormone therapy rapidly reduces Hgb to levels seen in cisgender women. In contrast, hormone therapy decreases strength, LBM and muscle area, yet values remain above that observed in cisgender women, even after 36 months. These findings suggest that strength may be well preserved in transwomen during the first 3 years of hormone therapy"
Sport must face up to reality - fairness and inclusion cannot co-exist with trans participation - "Studies tracking trans women who reduce testosterone levels for up to 36 months consistently show only slight reductions in variables including muscle mass, volume, and strength. Relative to the known typical differences between males and females, these reductions are small. For example, where muscle strength is found to be 30 to 40 per cent greater in males than in females (both trained and untrained), reductions of between 0 per cent and 10 per cent have been found with the suppression of testosterone. Some biology is fully reversed – hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in our bodies, reaches female levels within months of testosterone suppression – but other systems are unaffected. Think of body structure – height, limb lengths, hand size, pelvic width, and other skeletal differences are never reversed, yet all have performance implications for many sports... if the athletic base of that person is sufficient for the athlete to have been relatively highly ranked in men’s sport, residual advantages, which improve ranking in women’s sport, will be enough to catapult a relatively good - but not great - male athlete to the very top level of women’s sport."
Photographer 'surprised and disappointed' at Today's edited Lia Thomas photos - "Photographer and University of Pennsylvania graduate Erica Denhoff was shocked to see her work significantly altered on the Today show last week, adding that at first, she thought "something was honestly wrong with the video." She said she was "disappointed" by the show's choice and that "I pride myself on providing authentic images as a photojournalist." After watching the segment multiple times, she came to the conclusion that the apparent softening of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas's features in her pictures was "intentional," telling the Washington Examiner, "It's really important as photojournalists that we transmit authentic photos that have not been altered."
Thomas Barnidge's answer to Why do people in California eat at Chipotle when they have better Mexican food locally? - Quora - "I asked an “old country” Latina why do I see Mexicans eating at DelTaco, Chipotle, etc. instead of “genuine “ Mexican restaurants. She replied we don’t consider those places as Mexican restaurants. We consider them American restaurants and sometimes we like to eat American food. if it tastes good, why not eat it?"
Team GB stars face losing Olympics place as trans cyclist begins racing in female events - "Emily Bridges, 21, will compete in the women's cycling category for the first time in 2022."
Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges barred from racing at British National Omnium Championships - "Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges has been declared ineligible to race in the women’s event at the British National Omnium Championships this weekend... The initial decision to allow Bridges to race caused major controversy, with threats of a boycott from other female riders if she was allowed to compete... “It would not have been fair to ask Laura Kenny and the other women cyclists that Bridges would have come up against to have to race a rival with the advantages of a biological man,” said former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies. “No amount of testosterone reduction can mitigate that, but we’re being told to turn a blind eye to science and biology, to keep quiet and suck it up.”"
Sex-based differences in physiology: what should we teach in the medical curriculum? - "With the recent recognition of important sex-based differences in disease, there is now a burgeoning literature addressing sex-based differences in normal physiological function and effects of sex steroid hormones on the function of multiple organ systems. The goal of the Refresher Course symposium was to summarize our current state of knowledge of sex-based differences in three systems for which there are prominent differences between men and women: cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and immune systems"
From 2007. Clearly hormones are the only things that matter
All-trans women soccer team to play on Trans Day of Visibility - "On Transgender Day of Visibility — March 31 — an interesting fixture in the world of soccer will take place. A competitive league side from Dulwich Hamlet FC will meet in a friendly against a squad made up entirely of transgender women, perhaps the first in the history of the game, representing TRUK United FC."
DHFCTV LIVE | Dulwich Hamlet W v TRUK United FC - YouTube
Surprisingly, the trans team lost 4-0
The Trans Movement Is Not About Rights Anymore - "A recent internal report by the Transgender Law Center confirms the bleeding obvious: “Right now, our opposition wins the debate on trans youth in sports against any and all arguments we have tried for our side … Our base and persuadables want to support transgender student-athletes, but are extremely susceptible to our opposition’s argument that excluding trans youth is necessary to protect the fairness of women’s sports.” Well, yes. This is the problem. And why won’t you admit it — instead of insisting that there is no issue of fairness for biological women here at all?... the TLC report recommends creating “villains” as one of the more effective strategies. Here’s a good example published in the NYT: “It’s not even, really, about women’s rights or biology. It’s about how terrifying some Americans find any shift toward inclusivity and tolerance.” That may be effective propaganda, but it simply isn’t true. And it’s sickening to claim that people are full of fear and hate simply because they have a different view on a complex subject. Among those seeking a compromise is the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, led in part by Martina Navratilova, who once had a pioneering trans coach, Renée Richards, who acknowledged she had an unfair advantage over cis women, and is now a member of the working group. “Options [for trans athletes] could include separate heats, additional events or divisions and/or the handicapping of results,” according to a report on the group’s work. Another of its leaders, Donna Lopiano, just penned a piece on how to update the NCAA’s rules to both maintain fairness in competition and protect trans participation. “Sport’s transgender debate needs compromise not conflict,” begins an op-ed by another member of the group, Joanna Harper, a trans athlete herself. Are all of these women “villains”?"
TRAs want trans women to be treated 100% the same as cis women, so there is no possibility of compromise with them
By conflating gender and sex we undermine sporting competition - "What is fairness? In sport, everything. From childhood, we come to see the head start in the playground race, the shove in the goalmouth, a rogue thumb on the egg (and spoon) as unjust, and quickly, loudly, “Oi!” object. The same sense of probity works its way up into professional sport... From puberty, the sexes compete separately in most sports most of the time. These are long accepted norms. Or were... By conflating gender and sex, I would argue we fudge the very reason we have sex categories in sport: the male performance advantage. Without a separate category for females, there would be no women in Olympic finals. Even in the 100m, one of the events with the smallest performance gap, approximately 10,000 men worldwide have personal bests faster than the current Olympic female champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.70sec). And it’s not just track and field. While the smallest attainment gap between the sexes comes in running, rowing and swimming events (11-13%), this moves up to 16%-22% in track cycling, and between 29% and 34% when it comes to bowling cricket balls and weightlifting. The difference in punch power between men and women is a whopping 162%. Not, then, to be sniffed at. But the International Olympic Committee tweaked its guidelines in 2015 to allow athletes such as Hubbard to compete in the women’s category, provided their total testosterone level in serum is kept below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months. Transgender men face no restrictions in the male category for obvious reasons. Increasingly, however, research is showing that these testosterone guidelines do not guarantee the “fair competition” the IOC was hoping for. Ross Tucker, a sports scientist and expert on testosterone advantage in sport, succinctly sums it up: “Lowering of testosterone is almost completely ineffective in taking away the biological differences between males and females.” There is just no proof that reducing testosterone takes away the advantage of muscle mass, strength, lean body mass, muscle size or bone density. Despite this new evidence from Drs Emma Hilton and Tommy Lundberg, the IOC has put off any further decisions making until after Tokyo and left it up to individual sports federations to decide their own transgender policies. Some have been bold, others have written their policies alongside trans lobby groups without consulting women’s organisations or sports scientists. Those questioning the narrative are accused of transphobia – as Martina Navratilova and Nicola Adams have discovered. The most common argument used in favour of inclusion is that sport is all about natural advantage and that being a trans woman is just another factor to add to the list alongside Michael Phelps’s size 14 feet and double-jointed ankles. The problem with this argument is that we don’t compete according to foot-size, but we do protect the integrity of women’s sport because the advantage gained from male puberty is so comprehensive in terms of speed, power, strength and so much else. Phelps’s feet gave him an advantage as a swimmer; male puberty gave him a much bigger advantage across the board. At the Beijing Olympics, he won the 200m freestyle in 1.42.96, breaking the world record. Federica Pellegrini broke the women’s world record at the same distance, finishing in 1.54.82 – a time that wouldn’t have got her into the men’s semi-finals. It wasn’t internalised misogyny slowing her down. Serena Williams told David Letterman that were she to play Andy Murray, “I would lose, 6-0, 6-0, in … maybe 10 minutes”... Some claim that this debate is irrelevant as trans women aren’t winning everything, which is true. The simple explanation is that the athletes who have transitioned haven’t generally been good enough... The American cyclist Veronica Ivy (previously known as Rachel McKinnon) says hang the heartache, trans women are women and should simply be able to self-identify themselves into the women’s category at every level. This argument has got some traction. In which case, why bother having sex categories for sport at all? Just put everyone in together and watch biological males win the lot."
Gender games: The complex issue of sport categories and why they matter - "the best women runners in history are outperformed every year by hundreds of boys younger than 18, and by many thousands of adult men. The gap between the respective champions in most track and field disciplines is 10% to 12%, and thousands of biological males fit into that space. As a result, if women’s sport did not exist as a category, women would vanish entirely from elite track and field. Consider next that a 10% to 12% difference is actually relatively small. In weightlifting, the difference is 30% to 40%. For tasks like serving in tennis, it is 20% and for punching power, the male advantage has been measured at 160%. These differences are enormous and within a relevant comparison group (like Olympic athletes, or high school athletes competing for scholarships), they are insurmountable."
NCAA, leaders are deliberately turning a blind eye to injustices in women's sports - "They used to call me "the fastest girl in Connecticut." But I couldn’t outrun an injustice. For four years, I competed as a high school runner and made it to the state championships every one of those years. But in my junior year, I lost four of the state titles I earned to males who identified as females....
Chelsea Mitchell is a college sophomore and track athlete. She is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom...
Female athletes like me make a ton of sacrifices to compete—working tirelessly to shave fractions of seconds off our personal times and giving up what many would consider the "normal" teenage life by watching what we eat, skipping parties for practice, going to bed early to get up early and practice yet again. It becomes almost like a career. And we do all this while working hard to earn scholarship opportunities with preferred colleges and universities. It’s all worth it to us because we know we stand a chance at victory against our fellow female athletes—but not against those who aren’t biologically female. It’s demoralizing to see all that effort and sacrifice as futile, where we are punished for a biological reality we can’t do anything about. And that’s what’s been happening on high school and college campuses across America for the last several years. With the permission of coaches and administrators, as well as those in leadership at the National Collegiate Athletic Association, some male athletes have been pushing their way onto women’s sports teams and playing fields. With their physical advantages, they’ve been taking the positions, the wins, and the opportunities so many women and girls have worked so hard—often their entire life—to obtain. When women protest this—objecting to seeing the rewards for all our hard work go to competitors with a biological edge we can’t hope to overcome—we’re accused of hatred and bigotry. But the issue is fairness. And the people who should be protecting us and defending our rights are letting us down, time after time... Everyone in leadership seems to want someone else to take responsibility. Many of them are understandably scared that a minority of loud activists are going to take aim at their sport, their school, or them personally. So, they’re throwing female athletes under the bus, hoping we will eventually be quiet and all the commotion will eventually go away. If it does, women’s sports will become a thing of the past. There’s no way athletic administrators in every sport can’t see this. If biological males move into women’s competition, they will dominate whatever contests they enter. Eventually, nearly all the titles, all the scholarships, and all the opportunities to compete, earn scholarships and endorsements, and one day maybe even coach will go to the ones with the anatomical edge. That’s just biological reality, and the leaders of sport are deliberately turning a blind eye to it. Under Title IX, they have a legal obligation to protect female athletes from this unfairness, but—just like the Connecticut Association of Schools, which I and other girls sued through our attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom—they’re not doing it. And that must mean that the dreams of women, the opportunities for women, the rights of women just don’t matter. On the playing field, or under the law. Which means there’s a lot more at stake here than a footrace. Or a swimming event. Or an Olympic title. This is about what we think of women in America. This is about what’s safe and fair. And that’s a responsibility our athletic administrators can’t outrun."
Meme - "Dad, why are there so many strong female athletes lately?"
Aragorn: "They were once men."
Meme - Mx. D. Anderson supports the MPLS tea...: "so many of these men so convinced that being AMAB gives trans women a "natural advantage" in sports are the same men who are convinced they could beat Serena Williams in tennis."
No borscht for you, Comrade: "In 1998 Venus and Serena Williams claimed that they could beat any male player ranked outside the world's top 200. Karsten Braasch, ranked 203rd, accepted their challenge. He defeated Serena 6-1. Then he defeated Venus 6-2."
Fina bars transgender swimmers from women's elite events if they went through male puberty - "Fina will also aim to establish an 'open' category at competitions for swimmers whose gender identity is different than their birth sex. The new policy, which was passed with 71% of the vote from 152 Fina members, was described as "only a first step towards full inclusion" for transgender athletes. The 34-page policy document says that male-to-female transgender athletes could compete in the women's category - but only "provided they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 [which marks the start of physical development], or before age 12, whichever is later". The decision was made during an extraordinary general congress at the ongoing World Championships in Budapest. It means that transgender American college swimmer Lia Thomas, who has expressed a desire to compete for a place at the Olympics, would be blocked from participating in the female category at the Games. However, the policy does not apply to national federations or the US college championships, the NCAAs, at which Thomas recently won in the 500-yard freestyle. Instead, each national federation - including British Swimming - will need to decide if it is to implement the Fina policy... Fina members heard a report from a transgender task force made up of leading figures from the world of medicine, law and sport. "Fina's approach in drafting this policy was comprehensive, science-based and inclusive, and, importantly, Fina's approach emphasised competitive fairness," said Brent Nowicki, the governing body's executive director... Former Great Britain swimmer Sharron Davies, who has argued against transgender participation in women's elite swimming, told BBC Sport she was "really proud of Fina". "Four years ago, along with 60 other Olympic medallists, I wrote to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and said 'Please just do the science first' and no governing body has done the science until now"... Asked whether Fina's policy left trans athletes "in limbo" while they waited for an open category to be created, Davies praised Fina for having conversations around trans inclusion that should have "happened five years ago". "Sport by definition is exclusionary - we don't have 15-year-old boys racing in the under-12s, we don't have heavyweight boxers in with the bantamweights, the whole reason we have lots of different classes in the Paralympics is so that we can create fair opportunities for everybody"... "So that is the whole point of having classifications in sports and the only people who were going to be losing out were females - they were losing their right to fair sport."... 'Athlete Ally' - an LGBT advocacy group which organised a letter of support for Thomas in February, called the new policy "discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles". Australia's four-time Olympic champion Cate Campbell had addressed Fina before the decision was made, asking the governing body to "uphold the cornerstone of fairness". However, fellow Australian swimmer Maddie Groves has criticised Campbell's comments, asking if she was "OK with ostracising an already marginalised group". "There are already gender diverse people in swimming and I'm guessing they're not feeling very accepted right now," Groves said on Twitter . "Shame on everyone that supported this discriminatory and unscientific decision."... Fina's decision follows a move on Thursday by the UCI, cycling's governing body, to double the period of time before a rider transitioning from male to female can compete in women's races. The issue in swimming has been catapulted into the spotlight by the experiences of American Thomas. In March, Thomas became the first known transgender swimmer to win the highest US national college title with victory in the women's 500-yard freestyle... More than 300 college, Team USA and Olympic swimmers signed an open letter in support of Thomas and all transgender and non-binary swimmers, but other athletes and organisations have raised concerns about trans inclusion. Some of Thomas' team-mates and their parents wrote anonymous letters supporting her right to transition, but added it was unfair for her to compete as a woman."
"Science" is anything that helps trans people
Liberals claim that people against trans athletes in women's sports didn't care about women's sports before trans athletes came along, which proves they don't care about women's sports. But that's like saying the police ignore citizens unless they are preyed on by criminals, so that proves they don't care about citizens: if there's no problem in a certain area, it's not hypocritical to not talk about it
Now International Rugby Bans the Trans—Is More Sanity on the Way? - "The IRL indirectly admitted that letting men play rough contact sports with women is not only unfair but also dangerous... the president of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, opened the door for more non-pro leagues to follow suit. “I’ve always made it clear — if we ever get pushed into a corner to that point where we’re making a judgment about fairness or inclusion, I will always fall down on the side of fairness,” averred Coe. In an encouraging sign for fans of sanity and fair play, he added, “We have always believed, and repeated constantly, that biology trumps gender and we will continue to review our regulations in line with this.”... Throughout the sports world’s current obsession with trans madness, two truths have held steady: No “transgender” men have crushed the competition in men’s sports, and no “transgender” men have qualified to play on a professional team. And isn’t it interesting that there aren’t any “transgender” women on pro women’s teams? I’d love to see that battle, once actual business competition is involved."
More than half of Britons want trans women BANNED from all-female sports, poll suggests - "Transgender women should not be allowed to compete in female-only sports, 57 per cent of respondents to a new poll have said... Most raised the idea of having a separate or mixed category for trans athletes to take part in... British Olympian Sharron Davies said Bridges was 'not a woman', called her inclusion in women's sports 'unfair' and claimed that she would herself have be banned from swimming, had she had 'as much testosterone in her system as Emily Bridges' when she competed in the 1970s and 80s. Between 1975 and 1985, Davies missed out on a string of medals while competing against East German drug cheats. She believes there are parallels between the state-sponsored doping campaigns of the Cold War and transgender athletes taking hormone-suppression medication in a quest to win medals in women's categories... 'If we get to the point where we can't talk facts because it might hurt someone's feeling where the hell is this going to lead us? How can we measure feelings? Why is one persons feelings more important than another persons feelings? See… feelings cannot be a measurement of truth.' In March Labour leader Keir Starmer refused to say if a woman can have a penis during a debate about trans rights."
Sport’s trans issue is here to stay. But at last, the debate is starting to change - "Recent studies, though, suggest that significant strength and muscular advantages remain even after hormone therapy. Thomas’s performances appear to back that up. Before transitioning, she was not a serious challenge to male records but is now swimming only 2.6% slower than the current 200‑yard female record. It means, as the developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton points out, Thomas has gained a significant ranking advantage from switching category... Some will argue that sport is never truly fair, that Michael Phelps’s big wingspan gave him genetic advantages too. But male puberty provides such a categorical advantage – in terms of muscle mass, strength, lean body mass and bone density – that it far exceeds the advantage of a few centimetres in arm length... At the Sport Resolutions dispute resolution service last week several experts were able to discuss openly and courteously what sports should do next. It made for fascinating listening. For David Grevemberg, of the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, inclusion mattered most. And if sport had to radically change, then it should. “Are there ways, that are not infringing on human rights, to create a level playing field?” he asked. “Are there other conditions that we can create – for example staggered starts in the 100m? Or delayed starts?”"
Sport is never fair, so there's nothing wrong with doping. Because no one would ever dope to get an advantage, just as no one would ever "transition" to get an advantage.
The shameful silencing of sportswomen - "Two elite British female runners, one of whom is an Olympian, have told the BBC that transwomen should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports... What is surprising, and not a little depressing, is the fact that these two athletes felt they could only state the bleedin’ obvious anonymously. Saying that only women should be allowed to compete in the women’s 100 metres has apparently become too risky for athletes to say out loud. As the two athletes told the BBC, they can’t risk the social-media ‘backlash’ that would surely follow, and the career-ending effect it might have on sponsorship deals. And so they refuse to put their name to an opinion with which the vast majority of the public would agree – namely, that allowing biological males to compete against biological females in women’s competitions is unfair, not to mention palpably absurd. Of course, retired athletes, from US tennis great Billie Jean King to British swimming star Sharron Davies, have bravely spoken out about the destructive impact the trans-inclusion agenda has had on women’s sport. But they have been liberated to a degree by retirement and sporting achievement. They may still be subject to irate op-eds from achingly right-on commentators. And they will certainly get a lot of stick on social-media from those with #BeKind emblazoned on their pitchforks. But they have nothing, sporting-wise, to lose at this point. They’ve already got their trophies and their medals, and no one can take those away from them... Surely, the vast majority of female athletes are opposed to having to compete against biological males. Earlier this year, an anonymous survey found that 92 per cent of elite women’s cyclists are opposed to competing against transgender cyclists. One suspects such unanimity of feeling prevails across women’s sport."
Sex Differences, Gender, and Competitive Sport - "The table below demonstrates the world records achieved in male and female events and the percent differences between them. These results alone should give a solid rationale for why there should be separate sex categories in sport, to allow for fair competition. Confirming this is the fact that within male competition, the world’s best performances by different individuals often fall within 1 percent of each other, sometimes even within 0.1 percent. The same is true of female competition. These results are also mirrored across other sports, such as within cycling and swimming. This clearly demonstrates that there is not a continuum of performance results between the biological sexes, rather the results are bimodal, and the average female and the average male differ substantially. To be clear, this is not a moral argument, or an attempt to justify any one individual being treated differently to another, it is simply a review of the empirical evidence and a rationale for why the different categories exist. It could be argued that even within a given sex there are large differences between individuals, and you may well see substantial differences between ages or races. While this may be true, how far down the intersectionalist mindset do you have to go until you are happy that competition can take place between equal individuals? It is simply not possible, since by definition any single person is an individual, with their own unique characteristics and differences. Even within separate age brackets and races, there are large differences between individuals in terms of physical characteristics and prerequisites to performance. Trying to determine what these categories are and who qualifies for what is a nightmare not worth considering. In this respect, sport proves to be a devastating blow to intersectionalism and its limitations. In fairness to the discussion on differences however, the actual observed variance between races is far smaller than that observed between male and female categories and may only be realized at the very pinnacle of elite sport, such as the 100m final where 100 percent of the champions in the past 30 years have been from West African heritage. However, the top results observed from other races fall within a much narrower bracket around these top results than the results from the opposite sex. There have been many arguments over the years that the differences observed between men and women in sports performance are due to socialization and environment. This blank-slate ideology of human beings appears somewhat naïve to the facts of sexual dimorphism present in all mammals. Despite our common tendencies towards egocentrism, surely, we don’t believe that we are the only species that does not differ through sex?... While there will always be the ignorant arguments that some women are taller than men, or some women are stronger than men, of course what we are talking about is on average. Or, more importantly with regards to sporting competition, the very best men compared to the very best women... Many studies across large samples form different cultures have found men to have 30–40 percent more muscle mass than females... Men and women also vary in the size and structure of the skeleton... men can jump around 25 percent higher than women, can punch around 30 percent harder, accelerate around 20 percent faster, and throw around 25 percent further. And, it is also not just with regards to strength and power that we see sex differences. Men have larger lung capacity, greater cardiac output, and show greater resistance to injury... even before puberty, there are observed differences in many characteristics including body size and shape, and also in levels of aggression. Indeed, it is been highlighted that over 3000 genes contribute just towards muscle differences between men and women... There has perhaps been an assumption that because gender identity may be accepted as somewhat fluid, then biological sex must also be fluid. But someone’s own perceived gender identity is not the same as biological sex. This is an example of someone’s subjective feelings versus objective reality. And while a person is free to believe whatever they choose, their subjective feelings can never overrule empirical evidence. It certainly may be apparent that many of the proponents of inclusion and participation are also the same people who dislike the idea of competition in general. Thus, for them the idea of not being allowed to participate in which every category a person wants is terrible. But this is not what most people think about sport and certainly not at the elite level... This is not just about fairness in competition and the potential earnings at stake. While there are many females who make a living in professional sport, there is a perhaps an even larger danger. This could be apparent in boxing and combat sports, where the higher levels of strength and power could lead to devastating consequences... perhaps there is no need for separate sex categories at all? Well, I think it is clear what that would do to most of the women currently competing in professional sports. While this would also solve the problems of equal pay in sport, it would likely result in far fewer women actually being able to compete at the professional level. So, if we decide not to abandon the sex categories, do we then add a third category of competition? This sounds like an okay solution, but there is certainly the worry here that this in itself would be classed as exclusion. Another option would be to make the men’s category an “open” category, where men and women (including trans) can choose to compete if they wish"
Why So Many Progressives Are Arguing That Biological Sex Doesn't Exist - by Jesse Singal - "Most politicized science denialism follows the same pattern. Scientists claim X, X is viewed as threatening to a moral or political or religious belief held by some group, and so members of that group develop reasons as to how it can’t possibly be true. It’s a neat little pattern that shows up everywhere... the right certainly doesn’t have any monopoly on science denialism. Lately there’s been a spate of it published and disseminated by progressive media outlets and organizations. It’s part of an effort to debunk the concept of biological sex, or at least complicate it so much that it is no longer seen as a reasonably accurate model for carving up the human world into biological males and females. Sometimes this is framed as debunking the concept of “biological sex” itself, other times as dismantling the “sex binary.”... at the end of the day, whether you talk about a binary or a bimodal distribution or whatever else, about 99% of people’s bodies can be straightforwardly and accurately categorized as ‘male’ or ‘female.’... A bunch of journalists and activists have lately sought to muddle all this, sometimes by misstating the science, sometimes by confusingly using different terms and definitions at different times (including in the same sentence or paragraph), and sometimes by simply taking unreasonable approaches to the question of at what level of correlation it is acceptable to posit that two things are so connected they can be seen as roughly analogous... the question of whether biological males have an athletic advantage over biological females is temporarily replaced, by a professor who shows up to defend the sex-skeptical position, with a different question about a “level playing field,” as though anyone involved in this debate is arguing that sports is a “level playing field” in some zoomed-out sense, rather than that there are reasons to separate male- and female-bodied athletes, and then let individual differences, unfair as some of those may be, determine who wins. That same professor then opines that “It’s very hard to single out sex as the only” factor that gives someone an athletic advantage. It’s one of those statements that is kinda, sorta true in a too-literal sense, but also false in the broader, more useful sense that would make it relevant to this controversy. Let’s say I told you I was picking five names at random from a full high school roster, and that I would let you choose five other names non-randomly, but knowing nothing else about the kids in question. If your kids beat my kids in an athletic competition, you live. If not, you die. (Sorry, this got dark!) A thousand times out of a thousand, you will pick male names, and assuming the sex distribution in the class is 50-50ish, this will greatly improve your odds of prevailing given that my names were picked at random and will likely include two or three females as a result. So in many practical senses it does, in fact, make sense to “single out sex,” maybe not as the only characteristic that grants athletic advantages, but as the biggest and most broadly useful one in many contexts. If not, why do we have women’s sports teams at all? None of these pieces ever answers that question... If most people are “unaware of the fact” that “hormone suppression… negates any competitive advantage due to testosterone,” that’s a good thing, because that isn’t a fact. The Nation is spreading false information here. Some of the benefits of going through male puberty do linger even after someone no longer has the same amount of testosterone flowing through their blood, as this excerpt from a chapter in the book Transgender Athletes in Competitive Sports shows:
Male average higher performance is mostly due to the influence of testosterone during development, which causes males to develop larger muscles and a different osteology, such as larger jaws, brow ridges, and tuberosities on bones where muscles attach (Sheridan 2000). Genetic males also have relatively narrower hips, as estrogen at puberty causes a relative widening of the hips in females. The absence of testosterone in post-pubertal MtF transsexuals, while reducing muscle mass, does not reverse the developmental effects of high levels of testosterone and low level of estrogen on the skeleton. Therefore, the osteological advantages that males typically acquire by puberty are retained even after transsexual transition (Reeser 2005). This allows MtF transsexuals to retain an average advantage over biological females in the generation of power in certain specific actions.
I emailed LaVoi to ask her about her claim. “My understanding is that after a year on hormone suppression the advantages of testosterone are mitigated,” she said. “You can watch these Distinguished Lecture on the topic, this is where I learned of it myself.” That was it — she didn’t provide any physiological or anatomical explanation of how all those advantages are mitigated [but provided a 95 minute video]... It is fairly remarkable to see the [ACLU] claim that there is “ample evidence that girls can compete and win against boys” come immediate prior to a mention of Title IX, which exists in part because girls cannot compete and win against boys and therefore, to have the opportunity to play sports competitively, require their own leagues... I emailed the ACLU’s press office twice to ask if they had an actual source for that claim, but I never heard back... Slate published an article arguing that there’s no such thing as a male or a female body... If a baby has a penis, 99% of the time he will grow up to have a body that is, by all the definitions of ‘male,’ male. I suppose one could inflict on newborn infants more invasive testing to make super sure they aren’t intersex, but what would be the point of this? The claim that the “components of sex are far more complex than just external genitalia” is true, but it’s completely compatible with the practice of noting a baby’s sex based only on his or her external genitalia, because the presence of a penis indicates, almost always, that those other components are there, too, or will be after puberty. In what other area of science or life do we not accept 99% as an acceptable rate of correlation at which to conclude that “If X, then Y” is a reasonable approximation for everyday life?...
I just can’t imagine a clearer example of progressive science denialism that won’t help anyone in the long run than the claim that people get to define whether, based on their own identity, they are biologically male or female. Imagine if someone really believed this: It could cause them to seek out the wrong health services, to not understand what biological, well, stuff, they can expect at different stages in their lifespan, and on and on. This also undermines the case for expanding access to hormones and surgery itself. If there aren’t biological sexes, why do trans people need either? What are some of them attempting to get to match up with their gender identity, as much as possible, if not their biological sex? The traditional argument for trans rights and healthcare, that some people just can’t live with their biological sex and will endure great harm if they aren’t allowed to alter it, is perfectly coherent, and is part of the reason there’s such a strong, clear moral imperative to treat trans people with dignity and afford them access to care. Important foundational arguments for not just women’s sports but for trans rights, too, go out the window if you start pretending there’s no such thing as biological sex... This idea, that it’s bigoted to even acknowledge that there could be any competing rights claims here, is really unfortunate"
Virtue signalling only works if the signal is ridiculous
