Woman's swimming organization decides to ban most transgendered people from swimming competitions.

 

Lia Thomas. NBC News/AFP.

Woman's swimming organization FINA voted to ban most transgender people from competing in woman's swimming events. NBC News. The members of FINA voted in favor of a new gender inclusion policy with 71.5% of the vote. The policy would ban any transgender person that transitioned after age 12. They noted that they were not encouraging people to transition before age 12, but said any male-to-female transgender person would have an unfair advantage over natural women. FINA is also looking at an open category that would allow transgender people to compete. Other sports organizations use levels of testosterone to determine who can compete. 

My Comment:

This seems like a rather obvious decision as it was clear that a male-to-female transgender would have a huge advantage over normal women. That doesn't mean that they would win all the time, I think Lia Thomas didn't win all the time, but it would mean that someone would lose a spot to someone who is still basically a man. 

Taking hormones and having surgery is not going to change the fact that after puberty a man is dramatically stronger and has about 15% more body mass than the average woman. And many men are even stronger than that. Given that someone like Lia Thomas was a major athlete back when he was still called William, it means that means they would have a major advantage in woman's sports.

I don't think that their should be an exception for someone that transitions before 12 but that's mostly because I don't think anyone should ever transition before puberty. Many children who think they are trans grow out of it and many that do transition end up regretting it. In theory they would not have the advantage over female athletes but even if that is true, I don't think they would be mentally stable enough to compete in the first place. 

Male to female transgender playing in woman's sports has always been unpopular to the point that even many trans people, like Caitlyn Jenner, are opposed to it. It's been a strange alliance as well, as many feminists' are opposed to it as well, along with more traditional conservatives or people just freaked out by the whole thing. This decision is not unexpected. 

I know that there are a lot of women that are sick and tired of MTF transgenders taking over female spaces. I have some sympathy for them as I have seen dating sites for lesbians that have been totally taken over by transgenders. Women fought for gender exclusive places, and I don't think it is wise for people to try and end that. 

The transgender community tries to argue that they are women and should be treated that way, but care little for the costs to others. Woman's sports is a good example of this but far from the only one. I just don't think there is a way to accommodate them on this issue as they would always have an unfair advantage over women. 

The funny thing is that the opposite situation never comes up. You never hear about female to male transgender people trying to compete in male sports and it is pretty obvious why. If you put someone like Ellen, now Elliot, page in an NFL game they would be utterly destroyed. They wouldn't be able to compete and that kind of proves the objection to allowing the reverse to be true. 

I do think there is a backlash against the LGBT community over the T portion of the community is getting larger. Pushing for transitioning younger and younger children and pushing for this is schools has angered a lot of people. And so has things like allowing transgender people in woman's sports. I think people have found their limit of what they are willing to accept and I think things will end up being rolled back...