GOP lawmaker left speechless when asked if he's trans during a hearing
GOP lawmaker left speechless when asked if he's trans during a hearing
He huffed about how the question wasn't "appropriate" even though his bill would result in kids being asked that same question.
A Republican state rep from Michigan testifying about his anti-trans sports bill on Monday was left speechless after an out Democratic colleague began his questioning by asking, “Representative, can you tell me: are you trans?”
A long beat staring down out gay Democratic state Rep. Mike McFall followed, before state Rep. Jason Woolford (R) managed to reply, “Are you?”
“I’m actually going somewhere with this,” he said to lawmakers in the small chamber.
“Because I want to know, how does a 14-year-old girl prove whether or not she’s trans to a 50-year-old coach?”
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I guess I'm out of the loop on this subject and honestly I don't know if the information I have is factual or not.
Do trans women generally have a physical advantage over women? Are there any rules for this kind of thing? Do they need to be transitioning or taking suppression drugs? This is a serious question.
trans people on hormone replacement therapy stop receiving the effects of whatever hormone their body produces naturally. so trans women lose muscle mass, bone density, whatever, and have no benefit from having previously lived as a man.
additionally, im of the opinion that less than 1 percent of child athletes go on to play professional sports, so who gives a shit who is playing who
It seems to me that they should try to pair up these sports teams based on the talent of the individual player rather than their genitalia
Mmr based high school sports is the only true unbiased solution
"Do trans women generally have a physical advantage over women?"
No. Trans women were able to complete in the Olympics beginning in 2004. No trans woman has won an Olympic medal in the woman's category.
There are many studies that compare cis men to cis women and based on that claim trans women have an advantage. Among the studies that actually compare trans women to cis women it is generally found that trans women have no overall advantage.
"Are there any rules for this kind of thing? Do they need to be transitioning or taking suppression drugs?"
The rules and requirements vary by league. At higher levels of competition its generally required to have hormone levels at cis female levels for a prolonged period. Often 6 months or longer. To clarify, getting to those levels roughly takes 2+ years of hormone replacement therapy(hrt). Hrt for trans women generally consist of an anti-androgen, estradiol, and progesterone.
There are many studies that compare cis men to cis women and based on that claim trans women have an advantage.
They also selectively exclude all of the sports where women have distinct advantages, like cross-country. Cis men are statistically better at quick bursts of energy, like weightlifting or sprinting… But cis women are statistically better at endurance sports like cross country. Basically, cis men have an higher concentration of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which use a lot of energy but are more powerful. While women have more slow-twitch muscle, which allows them to last longer while exerting less energy or using less oxygen.
Sports were originally segregated by sex because men couldn’t stand the thought of losing endurance sports to women. It would be wholly undignified for a dainty woman to beat a bunch of big strong men, after all. They broke women off into a separate category, so they didn’t have to worry about it. And all of those endurance sports conveniently get left out of the conversation whenever discussing the advantages that conservatives claim trans women have.
I want to believe you, but the record for marathon time for men is faster than the record for women and the record for long swim events (1500m freestyle) for men is faster than the women's record.
But cis women are statistically better at endurance sports
Maybe you missed the word "statistically"? Single examples of records, which are by nature statistical outliers, don't really address the point.
I mean this is categorically false. The gold medal winner for the women's marathon at the last Olympics had a lower time than the average finisher on the men's side. 10th place in the men's marathon would have won gold in women's by over 15 minutes. Even on a pretty basic level, an 18 year old woman has the same qualifying time as a 60 year old man for the Boston Marathon.
The only time I've seen women compete are when the length of the races get massive. I'm talking like ultra marathons or the moab 240 or something. It is possible to see women legitimately compete with men and even win there but it's still pretty rare (look up Courtney Dauwalter if you want to see something really impressive). It is very interesting to watch the gap close as the length of the races increases tho.
Elite levels of competition like the Olympics are testing those statistical outliers/ extreme ends of the bell curve though.
The answer is more complicated than other comments would lead you to believe. Before I get into all that, please know it doesn’t matter. Especially, when it comes to 14 year old kids who are playing JV sports at school.
First, the problem with studies is that there are very few trans athletes to study. Some studies have only one or two subjects.
Studies show that there is both an advantage and a disadvantage depending on what sport we are talking about and how long the athlete has been on hormones. Weightlifting and other strength based sports do tend to give an edge to trans women. However, cardio sports such as swimming and running put trans women at a disadvantage because they now have smaller muscle mass for their larger frames.
To me, it doesn’t matter. The camaraderie and other things that kids get out of sports is more important than who wins and who loses.
Human beings are sexually dimorphic, but most of the advantages or disadvantages are negligible or can be overcome with training, so it makes little difference. It makes even less difference in middle and high school aged children, since everyone is at (somewhat) different points developmentally anyway.
So in college sports the performance gap is larger and should be considered or no? I also find this hard to believe even at a highschool level. While I was in highschool the advantages of testosterone were very obvious. If it were really the case that it makes little to no difference then shouldn't the argument be to remove gender from sports all together?
negligible or can be overcome with training
I agree on a highscool/grade school level, but not at any extreme competitive level. There's a reason most of the world records for athletics are held by men.
Testosterone doesn't make all men better than all women, but if you take two equally trained+talented people for most athletic events, the men outperform the women.
There is a recent last week tonight with Jon Oliver that explores this topic in a way that entertaining and powerful. Definitely worth a watch.
Hopefully you have a genuine interest and aren't "just asking questions"
I'm genuinely asking. On its face it seems unfair but I also don't understand public schools'obsession with sports that seems to be made worse by the cost of college and sports also being tied to that. At the same time I also know that anything the GOP is throwing a bitch fit about is guaranteed to be a bunch of bullshit. I usually watch John Oliver regularly but I've fallen behind this season. I appreciate the link and I'll give it a watch.
Considering most trans athletes can't best records set by cis women, it seems pretty clearly no
I don't know about performance, or advantage (and I don't think it matters since noone seems to care about the performance or fairness of non-proffesional sports unless it can be used as a bludgeon against trans people), but I happened to be arguing with my neighbor about this a few days and found that, according to the president of the NCAA there are "less than 10" transgender athletes in college sports out of about a half million. I feel like the whole discussion is a red herring. 1
Most likely.