I want to drill down on this if you will indulge me.
Conceding the need for hormone therapy is easy. Nearly every trans person will do this anyway and the science suggests that it more or less accomplishes the goal of a gendered sports category to provide women a space to compete fairly.
But this conceeds the point that matters to most non athletic trans women.
Are we? Or are we not? Women?
I am a trans woman if that wasn’t clear.
And if we are women, then what is the problem? What we are seeing is that a large part of our society answers this categorically: no. We are something else, presumably men, in their eyes.
That’s painful, to me personally. It hurts to know that on a very real level, I don’t get that recognition. I haven’t completed in sports since middle school, long before I knew I was trans. But this issue matters to me because it sets out in black and white what my society thinks about me and people like me.
Thank you for this thoughtful reply. I’m sorry for your pain, personally I can’t imagine what societal rejection like that would be like or the damage it must do.
Sadly it seems that this is such a polarising issue that many argue for one person’s right over anothers, I don’t feel this is a path to a happy future for anyone affected by this. I sincerely hope that in the future this entire conversation is moot.
However it’s clear that some consensus needs to be found as, in a society that values every one, no one person should feel that they don’t have a level playing field.
What is a woman and what is a man? I wish I had some clever words to answer this. It’s part of why I wish to have conversations like this. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had a clear way to parse this issue without hatred or suffering being involved.
I’ve been shown some studies that seem to indicate that after a period (two years was what I was shown) the differences appear to be negligible. If that’s the case then perhaps that is the way forward, once transition is complete (complete seems like the wrong word but I hope you understand my meaning) then there really shouldn’t be any reason to stop trans athletes competing, would you agree with this?
I want to drill down on this if you will indulge me.
Conceding the need for hormone therapy is easy. Nearly every trans person will do this anyway and the science suggests that it more or less accomplishes the goal of a gendered sports category to provide women a space to compete fairly.
But this conceeds the point that matters to most non athletic trans women.
Are we? Or are we not? Women?
I am a trans woman if that wasn’t clear.
And if we are women, then what is the problem? What we are seeing is that a large part of our society answers this categorically: no. We are something else, presumably men, in their eyes.
That’s painful, to me personally. It hurts to know that on a very real level, I don’t get that recognition. I haven’t completed in sports since middle school, long before I knew I was trans. But this issue matters to me because it sets out in black and white what my society thinks about me and people like me.
Thank you for this thoughtful reply. I’m sorry for your pain, personally I can’t imagine what societal rejection like that would be like or the damage it must do.
Sadly it seems that this is such a polarising issue that many argue for one person’s right over anothers, I don’t feel this is a path to a happy future for anyone affected by this. I sincerely hope that in the future this entire conversation is moot.
However it’s clear that some consensus needs to be found as, in a society that values every one, no one person should feel that they don’t have a level playing field.
What is a woman and what is a man? I wish I had some clever words to answer this. It’s part of why I wish to have conversations like this. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had a clear way to parse this issue without hatred or suffering being involved.
I’ve been shown some studies that seem to indicate that after a period (two years was what I was shown) the differences appear to be negligible. If that’s the case then perhaps that is the way forward, once transition is complete (complete seems like the wrong word but I hope you understand my meaning) then there really shouldn’t be any reason to stop trans athletes competing, would you agree with this?
Absolutely. I think that is a fair compromise.
Thank you for this conversation, I appreciate you not attacking me for trying to understand something that I’ve never experienced.
My middle son has struggled with his gender identity, still is, and I feel I need to understand.
Talking with you and others has helped me move my opinion forward.