testosterone - but if you adjust that, what about reach, height, lung capacity - ability to build muscle mass....?
Haven't they recently found (or are researching) that by taking body building drugs there may be a longer term effect on muscle fibre to the degree that even a while after stopping taking the drugs, the muscle still 'builds' faster - so what potential effect testosterone on someone who was male for 20 years and then changes? Do you change gender and stop the effects of years of being by simply altering testosterone levels?
Several cases of "born males" identify female,with neither hormone blockers or gender re assignment surgery, allowed to be incarcerated in female prisons where they have sexually assaulted female prisoners
I think there are more cases of trans women being assaulted by men when they're put in male prisons though so it's not entirely straight forward.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I certainly didn’t realise that low testosterone levels were the only requirement to be allowed to identify as a woman in Olympic sport. If the competitor has not undergone gender reassignment surgery, to me that means they are basically a man with a low testosterone level. Will this weightlifter perhaps now decide to reverse their hormone therapy and revert to calling themself male? Women have fought long enough for recognition in sport, without having men, with all the physical advantages of their development, invading our hard won freedoms. I have every sympathy for someone who feels they are in the wrong body, but I think that the requirement to live as the other gender for years before surgery seems all wrong. Surgery first and then live as they choose. I’d be happy to share women only facilities with trans women, as long as these were ‘p*nis free’ zones.
Caster Semanya is the other famous/infamous example in recent years. They are androgenous rather than transgender, having both male and female 'attributes'. Although externally female, the internal male organs give them massively increased testosterone levels with the muscle bulk etc to match. They were allowed to compete against women for some time, and won just about everything they entered, but then banned because of the high testoserone levels. They had to take medication to reduce the testosterone level and haven't come close to beating other women since.
Competitive sport is the problem. It's a shame that people can't just partake in a sport for sheer enjoyment rather than to be better at it than anyone else.
There isn't a right answer to this one. Whatever decision is made is a compromise somewhere to someone's right to fair treatment. It comes down to which principle takes precedence - that all people have a right to self determination and expression or that all competitive sport should be fair? That everyone should be accepted as equal regardless of their mental, physical, spiritual and sexual or gender identity, or that everyone should be kept safe from those who seek deliberately to do harm to others?
I don't think I know
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
It's amusing when the anti trans activists pretend they care about women, but somehow they don't seem to care enough to address ingrained misogyny within the sport itself. They only care about the specific sport so as to exclude a trans woman. Instead of them focusing on trans people maybe they should spend their time in addressing all the men in sport that have been abusing scores of cis women over the years and get let off lightly by our patriarchal legal system.
So no, nothing particularly controversial has happened and sports scientists will probably be the ones to explain how we create a level playing for everyone.
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I think there are more cases of trans women being assaulted by men when they're put in male prisons though so it's not entirely straight forward.
I have every sympathy for someone who feels they are in the wrong body, but I think that the requirement to live as the other gender for years before surgery seems all wrong. Surgery first and then live as they choose. I’d be happy to share women only facilities with trans women, as long as these were ‘p*nis free’ zones.
I don't think I know
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Great discussion- can't wait for tomorrow's controversy!
Instead of them focusing on trans people maybe they should spend their time in addressing all the men in sport that have been abusing scores of cis women over the years and get let off lightly by our patriarchal legal system.
So no, nothing particularly controversial has happened and sports scientists will probably be the ones to explain how we create a level playing for everyone.