will born-bio-females be at a disadvantage if born-males can self-identify as women and compete in woens sports? will it hurt born-female athletes chances for athletic scholarships?
will this be abused to get athletic scholarships
will sports become “any gender”?
I hadn’t thought much about that in the context of college sports. I had heard of a female boxer complaining about another boxer who was born male but identified as female. She felt the other person had an unfair advantage, iirc, because males have denser muscle tissue. (??).
Will be interesting to see what happens.
Watching the struggle of two young transgender people in my life, I have to say that people seriously overestimate the number of people who would willingly walk down that road if they weren’t deeply compelled to. It is personally, socially, romantically, and physically taxing every single day.
If the few transgender people who are both talented and determined enough to make it to a professional level compete as their identified sex, I would assume there would be as many competing on male teams as female teams, so wouldn’t that still balance out in the long run?
It is tough for transgendered people (at least it sounds like it to me) and I do think we should have compassion and empathy for others to the extent that we can without having experienced it ourselves.
No, this is yet another straw man argument.
Trans individual do not just “self-identify” as the opposite sex. It is far more complicated than that. They live like the opposite sex and often undergo chemical treatments and surgeries in order to make their bodies “fit” into the mold of their chosen sex.
It’s not like a male athlete is going to wake up one day and say “Oh, I’m a female” and be able to play women’s sports. It’s just not going to happen.
This was posted in another thread, and I am reposting here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19616454/#Comment_19616454
Well if Kaitlyn Jenner had undergone his transformation in his 20’s, it would have been a very big advantage as an athlete. If he won men’s decatholon then, he could have won any number of Olympic medals in the individual sports that make up the decatholon in the women’s category.
The NCAA has already thought about transgender student athletes:
https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Transgender_Handbook_2011_Final.pdf
A list of other sports organizations’ policies can be found here:
http://www.transathlete.com/#!policies-by-organization/c1vyj
What are the rules now regarding transgendered people in sports? Are there different rules for NCAA and states, different rules for high school and college sports? And the Olympics (which would require international agreement).
Has there ever been a case of a transgendered individual competing in the Olympics?
What about the effects of testosterone on muscle density and efficiency?
This is sort of unrelated, but the Kenyan female who won the Boston marathon a couple of years ago - she got into trouble for some sort of blood doping. Some of these enhancements can mimic the effect of hormone supplementation.
I was into strength training for awhile, but no matter how much I train I’m not going to have the muscle mass of a man whose testosterone levels are exponentially higher than mine.
It’s just something I genuinely wonder.
Yes, and I’m remembering the East German women swimmers who were suspected of steroid or testosterone supplmentation.
In case you missed it, see reply #7 at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19616527/#Comment_19616527 .
As of February, I believe:
It is interesting that the IOC recognizes that going from female to male offers no advantage. It’s the male to female category that has all the rules on testosterone levels in the blood.
I DID miss that post, @ucbalumnus! Thanks!
Remember Renée Richards, a transgender woman who played professional women’s tennis in the 1970s.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/transgender-harvard-swimmer-says-he-made-the-right-choice/
60 Minutes did a very interesting segment on a transgender swimmer at Harvard.
I can’t see that this situation is ever going to be an issue in womens’ sports.
If Renee Richards had been a decent professional player it might have been an issue. If a lesser ranked but good tennis player, someone ranked in the 30’s or 40’s in the men’s rankings became a woman and started beating Serena, Venus, Vika, etc. I think there would be a cry of unfairness.
As for the 60 Minutes piece, as I said on the other thread, there was no mention of what happened to the swimmer’s athletic scholarship. She won a scholarship because she was a winner as a woman. Now that she is a man, and consistently struggling to come in other than last in the swim meets, does she still merit the athletic scholarship? Will she be cut from the team?
@TatinG Harvard doesn’t have athletic scholarships