Well, let’s be real, just a teensy bit. If Bloomberg were to run as a republican he’d be in a fight with The Orange One for the nomination, and it’s a fight that he’d be 100% guaranteed to lose. What’s more, his money would not just be going to foil to The Orange One, but also to beat up on the democrats. As a…

I posted this as part of a reply to another Trans-athlete article a few weeks ago. The point stands and is in fact more salient here than it was when I last posted it:

This is what drives me fucking insane as a trans woman. Because on the one side, you have a ton of cis people saying things that are just blatantly incorrect because they don’t understand just how much HRT changes your body, especially if you start young. To give you an idea, I started at 19 and the movement of my…

I think, in the long term, we have to start thinking in the terms you’re describing.

I agree. The “like it or lump it” argument fails, and hands ammo to those who want to push trans folks out of public life at the same time. There are plenty of orgs that have common-sense rules regarding hormone therapy requirements for trans women and girls who want to compete, and I think that that is the winning…

I say this as someone who is a trans reader and longtime commenter here: this article does not really help to advocate for trans issues. The idea of “variation exists, therefore it’s fine” does not adequately address this issue. A better set of arguments is:

I grew up in a family of runners. My dad coached for 50 years, high school boys and girls of every skill level from beginner to national level elites. I personally raced competitively for twenty years (I’m white male, cisgender). And seeing how my fellow runners and athletes have responded to the question of…

They might lose some advantage due to hormones but males retain their advantages in size, stride, reach, muscle mass, skeletal structure, lung capacity, heart capacity, etc. Why not make a trans division and let the real girls have fair competitions back?

If someone has gone through puberty as a biological male, then their lung size, bone density and muscle mass will be an advantage forever. Testosterone is certainly a big part of the picture, but it’s only one piece.

What if we just got rid of boy/girl divisions in sports all together? Surely there’s a better way to even the playing field here. 

What makes this such an insane take on a site that claims to be about women’s issues. Instead of doing a legitimate examination of the situation, no matter what side it lands on, the article instead goes full-on ‘Women be whiners’ attitude about a very legitimate complaint.

And there should be a time limit - meaning you have to prove you have been receiving HRT for at least 12 months or something like that. Not for the past couple of months.

I don’t think comparing a short basketball player to a tall one is the same as comparing sprinters.

Your whole stance of “trans women are bigger, stronger and faster, so just deal” seems very dismissive.

It’s hard to get onboard with this take, having been a competitive athlete. It would be kind of the same feeling as lining up against someone who’s been doping—it doesn’t feel fair in a different way than them having more money, better coaching, better genetics, etc etc. might feel unfair. It’s just not comparable. I…

Even while I was hesitating clicking on the article in the first, I still ended up being utterly baffled by the really twisted logic here. And before anything else, I still have not seen a definite or, to be honest, even indicative research on what is the benefit, if any, of transathletes have in their sports,…

Trans women are women. They deserve recognition as such in the way they interact with the government, for employment opportunities and for educational opportunities. They deserve dignity, and respect.

Nope!

Sorry, but if a person who identifies as a woman is not on HRT and still has the testosterone level of a biological man, they will almost certainly beat nearly every woman in nearly every sport.

No. Men who become transwomen lose significant amounts of their athletic capabilities after they have been on hormones for a year.