Much ado about nothing. The biggest freak-outs about this tend to be by people who weren’t even particularly good to begin with. Like Taylor Silverman, the skater who lost to a trans woman… And multiple children as young as ten.

If you want to talk about hormone levels and time spent transitioning, there’s a conversation to be had, but the right isn’t having it. For example, the movie Lady Ballers was supposed to be a documentary that proved men could dominate women’s sports by pretending to be transgender, but everybody involved eventually backed out after discovering the effort it would take to actually transition, even for the purpose of showing up the so-called woke left.

During a recent episode of The Ben Shapiro Show, cast member and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro — whose previous credits include spending nearly 45 minutes throwing a tantrum over the Barbie movie’s existence — said that they originally intended to make as a documentary. But then they found out that (gasp!) a group of bigoted cis men in bad wigs can’t simply participate in women’s sports.

“As it turns out, most ladies’ leagues don’t allow any actual men, and [the actors] weren’t willing to go the full distance in terms of what it would require, the actual hormone treatments, to actually play in ladies’ leagues,” Shapiro admitted during an interview with Boering about the film

Of course, those conversations about testosterone levels will also unfairly target black women, who have been targeted in the past by the same shrill white women using almost the exact same tactics as we see today.

Trans women who are using gender-affirming hormones are not “biologically male”. It takes about two years on hormones for their performance to equalise with cis women. The only advantage that remains is greater speed, due to the greater height gained from undergoing a male puberty. There are plenty of tall cis women, especially in sport, so this doesn’t really count as an unfair advantage. And, of course, trans kids who were lucky enough to get puberty blockers in time will fall in the same height range as their chosen gender.

I’m not going to pretend that it’s an easy question. It isn’t, and it’s not unreasonable for cis women athletes to be concerned. But the proportion of athletes who are trans is tiny and the proportion who are champions in their sport is even tinier. I do think that hormonal transition is a pre-requisite (because otherwise they would be “biologically male” with respect to the physical characteristics which matter in sport) but I don’t think anyone should be getting their knickers in a twist beyond that, and they should definitely not be using it as an opportunity to be cruel.

Most of the ‘discourse’ is pure transmisogyny, based on lies and fantasy demons. Most top professional athletes are biologically extraordinary, that’s why they are at the top.

I don’t have much time to hunt out sources but this is a decent thread from my bookmarks.

Just make all sports unisex and it won’t matter. Except it does matter in some cases. Easy pick from the top of the pile is men’s and women’s gymnastics. There are plenty of comparative videos on YT showing one gender being able to do an event and the other being barely able or not able to do it. There are enough physiological divisions, that some movements and performances will be limited or enhanced by ones innate physiology. Skeletal structure, muscle structure, etc. It follows reason then, that a trans person can still maintain these advantages or disadvantages and therefore have an unfair advantage if they choose the related sport.

Honestly though, would really just rather them combine all sports as unisex and see what happens. Women will dominate some, and men others. I don’t see many women as dominating linemen in the NFL, but I likewise see very few men winning medals in women’s style gymnastics. Trans won’t even be a question anymore. Just give everyone the leveled field.

Hi,

@Zeon@lemmy.world please follow the 2nd Rule.

Women’s sports were explicitly created for women. Most men’s leagues allow women, but at the pro level there really aren’t women that can compete at the same level.

I think the focus on winning or trans athletes dominating is overblown and ultimately irrelevant. A Trans women winning an Olympic gold probably never happens, not because of biology, but because it’s mathematically unlikely.

For competitive leagues I think the fairness question is who gets the last spot rather than who wins. Is dropping a cis women for a trans women fair? Is allowing a cis women who took PEDs for a prolonged period, but has been clean for a few years fair? I think it’s reasonable that the answer should be the same to both.

For non-competitive leagues I don’t think it really matters at all.