TheStroBro wrote:
rrheisler wrote:
I certainly hope USAT does *not* adopt this strategy whatsoever.
It reflects panic in the thought process, particularly for age group racing.
I go back to current medical procedure whereby the next generation of transgender women will likely have never gone through male puberty due to hormone blockers, etc given earlier. You've eliminated the primary argument against inclusion to date. So what then? Is it just because they are "other"? Which is offensive on its face.
Everybody gets up in arms about Lia Thomas and we derive shit policy because of it.
Yes, I'm cranky.
Also, a general reminder not to misgender people, please and thank you.
USAT should in fact do Male, Female, Open. Advocating for putting children on puberty blockers is a disgusting thought. (Um, definitely Child abuse)
If you have a Male, Female, and Open category you effectively have a Male, Female, and Male category.
Let's go back to dispassionate fundamentals. Men, on average, are stronger/faster, therefore have an advantage in sport. Looking at bell curves, the average man could lose to the average woman 49% of the time, if there's a 1% difference. At the pointy end of the bell curve, though, that 1% difference manifests as several orders of magnitude greater numbers of men than women. To put it another way, at the 51st percentile, you would expect to find 5000 men and 4900 women. At the 99th percentile, you would expect to find 99 men and 1 woman.
Secondly, research has shown unambiguously that lowering testosterone levels for 12 months retains male-puberty advantage. Further research shows that after 3 years testosterone suppression the advantage is further lowered, but still retained. Admittedly, this is difficult to study due to small sample sizes. (Tangent, one thing we can all agree on, hopefully, the IOC testosterone limit of 5.0nmol/l for biological females and 10.0nmol/l for transgender females is inexplicably ridiculous).
All of this to say, it should be viewed as a proven fact that male-to-female transgender athletes retain a significant advantage over their biologically female counterparts. Without acceptance of this point it is impossible to have a rational conversation.
I propose as a solution a mixed model. At the highest level of sports, let's say (as a starting point) anything with anti-doping controls, monetary prizes, or qualifying slots for higher competitions shall be competed only as biological sex, male or female. At any level lower than this, the gender stated by the athlete shall be assumed to be their gender. For example, a marathon where athletes are seeking OTQ times (2:18 for men, 2:36 for women), anyone can compete as any gender they wish. If an athlete registered as female, only after she runs under the standard is her biological sex able to be verified, just the same as anti-doping procedures.