I'm sorry this thread hasn't generated the same outrage and participation as your duplicate thread at ATS but honestly, I'm not sorry in the least.
I had hoped this thread would just die on the vine and I fear my further engagement with it now may defeat that wish but maybe, just maybe I can add a few things for thought there's a remote chance you might absorb a bit of?
Yes, as far as genetics go, there are two sexes and those with differences of sexual development generally referred to as intersex with unusual genetic patterns or anatomy but I will leave them out of this discussion. However, things are a bit more complicated than simply XX or XY.
I am not going to defend "transgender ideology" because I think much of the accepted and promoted trans dogma is pure horseshit but have you ever met or known someone transgender or transsexual or have your opinions been formed by the media, particularly right-wing media and the cadre of those at ATS absolutely obsessed with this topic with their hateful and derogatory rhetoric and slurs?
One of my gripes with the current transgender phenomenon is that the notion of what a transgender person is has become so diluted with everything under the sun falling under the transgender umbrella that the word itself has no real meaning because it is so vast and nebulous and people generally aren’t educated or experienced enough to know that trans is not some monolithic entity. I don’t believe this is the fault of the uninformed because the so called trans activist community advances the idea that they are all the same regardless of background or experience and this simply doesn’t hold water with me.
Although it’s old news here, let me tell you about me. I am genetically XY as far as I know because I’ve never had a chromosome test and by anatomy, I was determined to be male when I was born but from my earliest childhood memories I knew to the very depths of my spirit that a mistake had been made and that I was actually a girl on the inside and I fought with every ounce of my strength to be seen that way. Today I would be recognized as a trans kid but in the 1950s and ‘60s, the world wasn’t quite so aware of these things as they are today so I struggled at an unfathomable level with stress, anxiety, depression and maybe most of all anger at being in such an absurd predicament.
The world around me didn’t understand and I had horrendous social problems because I refused to navigate life as a boy. I was in 14 different schools in 3 different states before the 7th grade because I wouldn’t fit in and my presence was disruptive to others which I never really understood because I was small, quiet, shy and kept to myself but I was also noticeably feminine and girlish in behavior, interests and stature making me the perennial target of bullying and harassment and by the time I was 11/12, strangers couldn’t tell if I was a boy or a girl and most often I was referred to as Miss or young lady which suited me fine.
There was nothing my parents could do to change me and boy, did they try when I was little but they soon figured out I just was who I was so I was given the leeway to just be myself but they never stopped making suggestions or dropping little hints about trying to be more like a boy until I got to high school then they realized it was pointless and only made me angrier. They also assumed I was just gay but let me know I was loved and cherished anyway which was more important than anything the outside world could throw at me.
I had no idea why I was like this or that there was a name for it and figured I was the only person in the whole world with this kind of problem and I was pretty naïve about the whole thing. Kids called me a queer and a fairy and later a faggot and worse and at 15, I was criminally attacked and savagely beaten by a group of homophobic boys putting me in the hospital and out of school for six weeks and for me, this was the turning point where I knew I could not keep living this way. I told my parents I was totally done with this boy façade and they agreed that my prospects for the future were pretty dim and that there was no way I was ever going to grow up and be a man and they were supportive from then on.
I tried living a dual life for a while – a girl at home, with extended family and in all social situations except for school where I was just some freakishly queer boy that looked like a girl and life was pretty hard to say the least and I still thought I was the only person in the world like this and didn’t even have the words or concepts to describe or understand it other than I knew myself to be a girl in spite of my anatomy. Sounds dumb but true.
Now relevant to trans in sports, I like many other “classic” or primary transsexuals was a very late bloomer not really starting puberty until I was 15½ and it was pretty mild but even at that, I was horrified at the thought of my body starting to change. I already had been smaller and curvier than most boys and wanted to stay that way but this fear coupled with the constant abuse at school so by the time I was 17, I was at the end of my rope and just wanted to drop out of school and die.
I had been seeing psychologists, psychiatrists and other doctors from the time I was 10 before I started 5th grade for my "social problems" and found them invasive, annoying and stupid but in my state of suicidal despair, my folks found another one and forced me to go and it turned out to be a revelation and my salvation. It turned out there were other people like me and that there was even a name for it and that things could be done to help.
51 years ago in 1972 when I was 17 before my senior year of high school, I began taking female hormones which in retrospect, were absolutely life saving. They calmed my fears, mellowed my anger and allowed me to graduate high school as a “boy” with long blonde hair down to my waist and with noticeable breasts who didn’t give two shits what other people thought. After that day, I was never known or seen as anything but a girl. Physically, I was around 5’4” and weighed 120 pounds. Presently at 68 years of age, I am 5’5” and have never been interested in sports or the least bit athletic.
I have raised a child that will be 49 this year and am a mom and a grandma. I have been married and divorced and am not publicly out or known as someone of transsexual experience. My body phenotype is outwardly female in all aspects from the way my fat is distributed to my breasts and vagina and the entirety of my late teenage and adult life experience is that of any other woman. I was never seen or accepted as a regular boy and I have never been a man. Even if I was physically capable, I still wouldn’t play sports against other women because I would get my ass kicked.
My point is here is that thinking that all MtF trans people exhibit some innate physical superiority over natal females is a fallacy. Consider that some fortunate trans kids of today are afforded puberty suppression and never develop the secondary sexual and physical characteristics of their birth sex so should they be excluded from sports too? What about trans boys (natal females) that outnumber trans girls 2:1? Should they be prevented from playing on they boy's team if that's what they want to do?
As I noted within, not all trans people are remotely the same so there has to be a better solution than excluding all trans people from sports just because some do have a degree of physical superiority over natal females. There has to be a better way.
My personal thinking is that a more one on one or individual analysis needs to be made of who should be eligible rather than a blanket ban. Those with suppressed male puberty are a no brainer as they have no advantages over their female peers and excluding them from the socialization and camaraderie of school sports is kind of cruel if that’s what they want to do but certainly, those that have gone through male puberty or have ever played on a boy’s team should be heavily scrutinized and disqualified from eligibility for scholastic scholarships. I also believe that those medically transitioning after say the age of 20, which seems to be most of the ones making headlines about playing women’s sports should just stay home and watch sports on TV.
I had hoped this thread would just die on the vine and I fear my further engagement with it now may defeat that wish but maybe, just maybe I can add a few things for thought there's a remote chance you might absorb a bit of?
Yes, as far as genetics go, there are two sexes and those with differences of sexual development generally referred to as intersex with unusual genetic patterns or anatomy but I will leave them out of this discussion. However, things are a bit more complicated than simply XX or XY.
I am not going to defend "transgender ideology" because I think much of the accepted and promoted trans dogma is pure horseshit but have you ever met or known someone transgender or transsexual or have your opinions been formed by the media, particularly right-wing media and the cadre of those at ATS absolutely obsessed with this topic with their hateful and derogatory rhetoric and slurs?
One of my gripes with the current transgender phenomenon is that the notion of what a transgender person is has become so diluted with everything under the sun falling under the transgender umbrella that the word itself has no real meaning because it is so vast and nebulous and people generally aren’t educated or experienced enough to know that trans is not some monolithic entity. I don’t believe this is the fault of the uninformed because the so called trans activist community advances the idea that they are all the same regardless of background or experience and this simply doesn’t hold water with me.
Although it’s old news here, let me tell you about me. I am genetically XY as far as I know because I’ve never had a chromosome test and by anatomy, I was determined to be male when I was born but from my earliest childhood memories I knew to the very depths of my spirit that a mistake had been made and that I was actually a girl on the inside and I fought with every ounce of my strength to be seen that way. Today I would be recognized as a trans kid but in the 1950s and ‘60s, the world wasn’t quite so aware of these things as they are today so I struggled at an unfathomable level with stress, anxiety, depression and maybe most of all anger at being in such an absurd predicament.
The world around me didn’t understand and I had horrendous social problems because I refused to navigate life as a boy. I was in 14 different schools in 3 different states before the 7th grade because I wouldn’t fit in and my presence was disruptive to others which I never really understood because I was small, quiet, shy and kept to myself but I was also noticeably feminine and girlish in behavior, interests and stature making me the perennial target of bullying and harassment and by the time I was 11/12, strangers couldn’t tell if I was a boy or a girl and most often I was referred to as Miss or young lady which suited me fine.
There was nothing my parents could do to change me and boy, did they try when I was little but they soon figured out I just was who I was so I was given the leeway to just be myself but they never stopped making suggestions or dropping little hints about trying to be more like a boy until I got to high school then they realized it was pointless and only made me angrier. They also assumed I was just gay but let me know I was loved and cherished anyway which was more important than anything the outside world could throw at me.
I had no idea why I was like this or that there was a name for it and figured I was the only person in the whole world with this kind of problem and I was pretty naïve about the whole thing. Kids called me a queer and a fairy and later a faggot and worse and at 15, I was criminally attacked and savagely beaten by a group of homophobic boys putting me in the hospital and out of school for six weeks and for me, this was the turning point where I knew I could not keep living this way. I told my parents I was totally done with this boy façade and they agreed that my prospects for the future were pretty dim and that there was no way I was ever going to grow up and be a man and they were supportive from then on.
I tried living a dual life for a while – a girl at home, with extended family and in all social situations except for school where I was just some freakishly queer boy that looked like a girl and life was pretty hard to say the least and I still thought I was the only person in the world like this and didn’t even have the words or concepts to describe or understand it other than I knew myself to be a girl in spite of my anatomy. Sounds dumb but true.
Now relevant to trans in sports, I like many other “classic” or primary transsexuals was a very late bloomer not really starting puberty until I was 15½ and it was pretty mild but even at that, I was horrified at the thought of my body starting to change. I already had been smaller and curvier than most boys and wanted to stay that way but this fear coupled with the constant abuse at school so by the time I was 17, I was at the end of my rope and just wanted to drop out of school and die.
I had been seeing psychologists, psychiatrists and other doctors from the time I was 10 before I started 5th grade for my "social problems" and found them invasive, annoying and stupid but in my state of suicidal despair, my folks found another one and forced me to go and it turned out to be a revelation and my salvation. It turned out there were other people like me and that there was even a name for it and that things could be done to help.
51 years ago in 1972 when I was 17 before my senior year of high school, I began taking female hormones which in retrospect, were absolutely life saving. They calmed my fears, mellowed my anger and allowed me to graduate high school as a “boy” with long blonde hair down to my waist and with noticeable breasts who didn’t give two shits what other people thought. After that day, I was never known or seen as anything but a girl. Physically, I was around 5’4” and weighed 120 pounds. Presently at 68 years of age, I am 5’5” and have never been interested in sports or the least bit athletic.
I have raised a child that will be 49 this year and am a mom and a grandma. I have been married and divorced and am not publicly out or known as someone of transsexual experience. My body phenotype is outwardly female in all aspects from the way my fat is distributed to my breasts and vagina and the entirety of my late teenage and adult life experience is that of any other woman. I was never seen or accepted as a regular boy and I have never been a man. Even if I was physically capable, I still wouldn’t play sports against other women because I would get my ass kicked.
My point is here is that thinking that all MtF trans people exhibit some innate physical superiority over natal females is a fallacy. Consider that some fortunate trans kids of today are afforded puberty suppression and never develop the secondary sexual and physical characteristics of their birth sex so should they be excluded from sports too? What about trans boys (natal females) that outnumber trans girls 2:1? Should they be prevented from playing on they boy's team if that's what they want to do?
As I noted within, not all trans people are remotely the same so there has to be a better solution than excluding all trans people from sports just because some do have a degree of physical superiority over natal females. There has to be a better way.
My personal thinking is that a more one on one or individual analysis needs to be made of who should be eligible rather than a blanket ban. Those with suppressed male puberty are a no brainer as they have no advantages over their female peers and excluding them from the socialization and camaraderie of school sports is kind of cruel if that’s what they want to do but certainly, those that have gone through male puberty or have ever played on a boy’s team should be heavily scrutinized and disqualified from eligibility for scholastic scholarships. I also believe that those medically transitioning after say the age of 20, which seems to be most of the ones making headlines about playing women’s sports should just stay home and watch sports on TV.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.