Quote:
Originally Posted by Slighted
"a right" to sports competition isn't a thing at all so that just seems odd to say it let alone attempt to base an argument on it.
why is age and biological sex more inherently fair than say heights, weights, 40 yard dash times, or lengths of your arms, or the amount of testosterone currently in your body? it's all arbitrary. again a trans athlete is potentially excluded from participating in sports contain the gender to which they identify.
our disagreement i guess fundamentally comes down to who gets to choose. you(im paraphrasing, correct me if im wrong) are saying that transwomen(mtf) should be forced to compete in "men's" divisions, and transmen(ftm) should always be forced to compete in "women's" divisions. again i hope you aren't coming from a prospective that trans athletes should be banned all together, like some others are. this "solution" creates the same outcome that people here are upset with just under different circumstances. they will argue that the hormones included in the ftm transition are unfair and those athletes shouldn't be allowed to compete in the "women's" division, (like the mack breggs in texas hs wrestling situation) while simultaneously barring him from competing in "men's" divisions because his original birth certificate said female.
The argument that it is arbitrary works both ways though. You could just as well reason that you should have division based on biological sex, if you accept that it can be arbitrary.
There is 90k cross-country skiing event in these parts, it has open entry. Obviously the top female athletes are incredible, I couldn't hang on for 400m if I tried. In terms of regime in training for these events, they are as diligent as the males. But, if you removed division by sex, the best female would place around position 100. In athletics you push the biological limits, and this is just how these limits manifest.
While I doubt the event will be overrun by biological males seeking to compete in the female class, there is certainly an argument to be made to that the biological sexes should be set to compete against peers. Insofar as there can be money in sports, we can also see the potential for abuse. Even if it is rare, it could be destructive.
I think this one tricky. There is a conflict between the cultural and the biological element here. I don't give a toss about what gender people identify as, if they're happy, I am happy for them. But exactly what classes to divide sports into, I don't see an easy answer there.