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Graham Platner welcomes attacks from 'fascists and bigots' over his support for trans rights
(www.advocate.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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Even if trans athletes do have an advantage over cis athletes, why is it the job of politicians to regulate that? There are athletic leagues at every academic level who are supposed to determine what constitutes fair competition and regulate their programs accordingly. Why should federal legislators, who have less expertise than these organizations, be writing their rules for them?
There is no expertise in knowing that boys are stronger than girls. The purpose of legislation is to prevent girls from getting injured and protect girls' sports. Boys who are transgender breaking girls' records would ruin the sport.
Oh, so now it's a safety issue? Alright, well then how far do we take this? Should children be segregated by gender in case the boys accidentally hurt the girls during recess? Should including girls in a pickup game of basketball be considered reckless endangerment? I mean, if professional and academic sports organizations can't be trusted to make these decisions,.why should we trust educators or parents?
As for breaking records, well, if trans girls/women have such a huge advantage (and what little evidence we do have on the subject indicates they don't), again, why is that the government's job to regulate that instead of the athletic institutions? Why do you want the government dictating the rules surrounding this? You know, some schools let upperclassmen playi on the junior varsity team. Should the government be regulating that as well?
It comes down to this; if you trust these athletic institutions to make all of these other determinations about fairness and safety, but feel the government needs to mandate their decisions on trans athletes, it doesn't seem like your issue is fairness and safety. It seems like it's trans people.
No, it's fairness. Women competing against men who are transgender is like women competing against women who use steroids.
Which is why black women are famously segregated to the black-only events.
You know, since they have naturally higher testosterone levels than white women.
And why the Danes are segregated to the Nordic-only events. What with the average height of women in Finland being 6 feet and all.
It's only fair.
Racial differences are not as great as gender differences.
Not really, the differences just aren't that large in general. The average black woman has a lower testosterone count than the average man, but a fairly large portion of the spread of black women is still higher than the average to lower end of the spread for men. And even the spread between white men and women has plenty of overlap where there are women with higher testosterone levels than men, and that's just within one specific race.
Black women have testosterone counts high enough to get them frequently banned from the Olympics. Two time gold medal winner Caster Semenya has been banned since 2019 because her natural testosterone levels are considered too high and "give her an unfair advantage."
Besides, trans women tend to have lower testosterone counts than cis women, because they take medication that reduces your body's ability to intake testosterone as it takes up the same receptors as estrogen. This means that cis women build muscle more easily than trans women.
Caster Semenya has 5α-Reductase 2 deficiency (5αR2D) a condition which results in high testosterone. Consequently, she is not a normal woman.
Still side-stepping the question. I couldn't possibly care less about what you think is or isn't fair. Why is it so important to you that the Democrats adopt this position? Why should the federal government be regulating this at all? Why not trust athletic associations, who's entire purpose is to facilitate fair competitions for their teams and players, to make this determination on their own?
Democrats want to adopt positions that they can win on. It's better to have uniform laws since teams from different schools compete against each other.
What evidence do you have, beyond your personal biases, that, "we are going supersede the judgement of independent organizations in order to dictate policies on trans athletes to them," is a winning position?
Athletic leagues don't operate on a school-by-school basis. There are county, state, and national leagues that are already setting the rules by which schools compete. The NFHS and NCAA, for example, already made the, "uniform laws," you want. Both organizations have already been forced to change their rules on trans athletes in certain states to accommodate anti-trans legislation, and the NCAA changed their national rules to comply with a (probably unlawful) executive order.
This is what's so infuriating about your position. You act as though you're just asking for the government to make rules for everyone to follow, but you're actually asking for the government to overrule the rules you don't like.
Democrats can be favor of the government not making rules regarding transgender men participating in women's sports, but they can be certain that Republicans will attack them on this.
From https://nypost.com/2025/01/19/us-news/nyt-poll-finds-majority-of-democrats-oppose-transgender-athletes-in-womens-sports/
A recent New York Times/Ipsos survey found the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don’t think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women’s sports.
“Thinking about transgender female athletes — meaning athletes who were male at birth but who currently identify as female — do you think they should or should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports?” the survey asked.
Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports.
Every male athlete should be put on estrogen if they want to play co-ed sports. Out of... UwU... fairness.
Tennis mixed doubles. Rec League volleyball. All of it.
In fact, I think we should require everyone in the NFL to be on estrogen, just in case someone snuck in.
No, there are events such as the Olympic mixed relay which deliberately mix men and women.
That pool should be filled with estrogen to make it fair.
I agree with the idea but it should be up to the institutions to decide, not the federal or state government. I'm sure it would be a contentious issue as some schools would allow it while others wouldn't. But let those institutions spend time and money figuring it out, not the government.
The only argument they have is that we need to "protect biological females" but even that is performative bull shit since the right doesn't actually care about women like that. The same way they are "pro-life" until the baby is actually born and they strip any kind of welfare benefits or school lunch programs.
Politicians love this shit cuz they don't have to address actual issues like affordability or taxes etc.