Alberta seeks to block trans athletes from female competition but can't say how many will be impacted (edmontonjournal.com)

submitted 2 months ago by MapleEngineer@lemmy.world to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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"If just one trans child is harmed it will all be worth it", says Alberta premier Danielle Smith.

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[-] DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 months ago

I love that the league for 1 of 2 of the sports that Canada plays at a high level are speaking against this. The people actually involved with the sports say that it's no an issue, so other than just because you need a minority to bully in order to maintain power with your voter-base, why should we reckon it is?

What about banning tall kids from Basketball or short kids from gymnastics?
Neither are fair for everyone when someone under 1.5m can compete with someone over 2m.

[+] Auli@lemmy.ca -17 points 2 months ago

I don't know this I don't see an issue with. I mean I guess it depends on the age younger doesn't matter but as you get older and if went through puberty it does. I mean the trans athlete in swimming beat the second place by 30 seconds your saying that isn't an issue? Or a trans MMA fighter cracked the skull of a female opponent never heard of that happening before. Also why do we always hear about trans women athletes and never about trans men? I mean I know the most likely reason the trans men would never make it to competition but why isn't that also an issue?

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 months ago

Also why do we always hear about trans women athletes and never about trans men?

That's a matter of the psychology of right-wing hate mongers, and how easy they find it to rile people up about a non-issue.

[-] Evkob@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 months ago

Care to share sources for any of these claims?

I assume by "the trans athlete in swimming" you're referring to Lia Thomas. Here's an excerpt from her Wikipedia page:

In March 2022, Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport after winning the women's 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:33.24; Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant was second with a time 1.75 seconds behind Thomas.

1.75 seconds is hardly "30 seconds" as you claim. Note that this is the only event she won, no one seems to care that she also placed last in the 100 freestyle event, or that even in the event that she won she was over 9 seconds slower than the women's record for 500 yard-freestyle.

As for the MMA fighter, after a quick search I'll assume you're talking about Fallon Fox? It's true she did injure one of her opponents, Tamikka Brents. I don't know much about MMA, but seeing as it's a sport where people punch and kick each other violently, I'd assume injuries happen.

Let's assume she did have an advantage as a result of going through male puberty as a teen. Where do we draw the line in regulating biological advantage in sports?

Caster Semenya, a runner who was assigned female at birth and has lived her entire life as a woman, has higher levels of testosterone than the average cis woman. Should she be banned from competing?

Michael Phelps, a cis man with many Olympic medals in swimming, has an unusually large wingspan, double-jointed ankles, and produces around half the lactic acid of an average person, all of which gives him a biological advantage. Should we rescind his medals?

Why is "unfair biological advantage" in sports only brought up in the case of trans women (or in the case of Caster Selenga, gender non-conforming women who are mistakenly assumed to be trans?)

[-] ramble81@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

I still want to see an “anything goes” category. Let’s see what the most engineered human is capable of doing. I don’t care what their base or biology was.