this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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With these new rules, FIDE has managed to

  1. Imply the mental inferiority of women
  2. Validate the existence of transgender men
  3. Destroy the integrity of awards record-keeping
  4. Call transgender women men

Very nice, FIDE, incredible mental gymnastics performance! 👏 Add them to the ever lengthening sports federation shitlist.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Just gonna paste an old comment I made about trans athletes. TL;DR: athletic advantages/disadvantages diminish after ~2 years of HRT. There's no good reason to exclude trans people from elite sports. Athletes already undergo testing to make sure their hormones levels are within pre-determined limits.

British Journal of Sports Medicine states 2 years after receiving gender affirming hormones, athletic advantages disappeared with an exception to running, in which trans- women had 9% faster lap times. Trans-men were on par with their biological male counterparts after just 1 year of hormone therapy.

Medscape has an interview with Joanna Harper, and advisor to the I0C on gender and sports about this very topic. In the interview she mentions a study out of Brazil that indicates a further decrease in strength in trans-women (MtF) athletes after 36 months, further diminishing any potential physiological advantage in these athletes.

There's also something to be said about who these arguments are targeting. There are very few elite trans athletes and they already have to conform to strict guidelines on blood hormone levels and other doping tactics, just like everyone else at that level. The arguments are largely against high schoolers (children) who just want to participate in something. No one is taking puberty blockers and gender affirming hormones just to take a trophy home in high school. It's a ridiculous argument through and through. A thinly veiled attempt to further marginalize and discriminate against a vulnerable population

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The issue of transgender athletes was basically resolved several years ago when the IOC decided on two years of feminizing hormones before transgender women could compete in the female category. But due to the re-emergence of the anti-queer culture war, sports federations are re-litigating the issue and throwing science out the door.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'm sure muscle diminishes rapidly after MTF transition, but humans are just very good at losing muscle. Height and hand size are not things that go away after transition. Basketball is obviously one of the sports where MTF people have a massive advantage, although I don't know of any studies on it. It depends massively on the sport.

Of course in professional leagues everyone is genetically unique. Saying "no this particular genetically unique person is unfair" is a bit weird.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

When you start talking about height and hand size, I think you're getting lost in the sauce. Basketball already favors abnormally tall people anyway, but no one is trying to ban Yao Ming from the sport for being 229 cm (7'6").

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah. Pretty much all the transphobic arguments could apply to most top athletes.

"Yao Ming is stealing sports from natural, normal height men!"

"Michael Phelps has an unfair advantage because he has unnatural lungs and bone structure!"

"It's not fair to normal men that they have to compete against Mike Tyson. Would you want your son to have to fight against that?"

The reality is that the top athletes will always be physical outliers. That doesn't mean more average folks need to be excluded from sports nor that birth gender necessarily gives you an unfair advantage compared to the top athletes.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Beat me to the punch. This has been a settled issue for years, the only reason to hammer on about how trans people shouldn't be in sports is either prejudice or ignorance. And having a several comment exchange where sources are already cited kinda narrows that down

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you seen Michael Phelp's hands. The man is an absolute genetic freak with multiple advantages, both in external build and internally (e.g. lactose buildup), there's no way anyone with average genetics can compete no matter how much they train.

And middle of the road athletes competing in the men's leagues don't become top athletes in the woman's league after transitioning, btw. They become middle of the road. Might there be some slight advantage? Dunno, not sure, might be, but it also doesn't matter because noone the fuck is willing to incur gender dysphoria to win a fucking title. Athletes are nuts but not that nuts.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Except they haven't. There are a small handful of examples, that people both greatly exaggerate, and repeat over and over again. Trans people have been allowed to compete for many years prior, and have not overrun women's sports.

Simple math is that even being a small minority, trans people will, occasionally, win things. Even if there are zero competitive advantages to being a transgender woman, some trans women are gonna excel. Finding a handful of examples of trans people being good at sports isn't actually proof of advantage.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

200-yard freestyle race at the Ivy League women’s swimming

Is the type of race that can be totally dominated by up and coming Olympic athletes. Regional/institutional races tend to have quite low records until someone top-tier happens, by chance, to participate in them in the course of their career.

women's indoor 1,500 meter long distance running event for ages 50-54.

My sides. A senior event. At that age the only one you're competing against is yourself.

The Canadian Powerlifting Union announced a gender self-identification policy earlier this year that allowed athletes to participate in women’s competitions on the basis of self-declared gender alone.

Yeah that's bullshit there's a reason the rules set by all other organisations involve something along the lines of a minimum of two years on HRT. Noone at all anywhere is claming that the act of identifying as a woman, alone, reduces muscle mass.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/50097423

move those goal posts

https://www.outsports.com/2022/3/24/22994867/emily-bridges-cyclist-transgender-commonwealth-games

Feel free to provide any actual counter evidence aside from your own personal prejudices and pointless judgements anytime you like.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

In the elite men’s crit at the Loughborough Cycling Festival last May, she finished 43rd out of 45. Her final men’s race was the Welsh National Championship in September. Bridges finished second to last.

Previously, she set national records in the junior male category.

Nice of you to provide your own counter-evidence. There we have it, a top athlete in the men's category, slumping to "does she even qualify?" in the men's ratings, but ranking top in the woman's category -- because she was and still is a stellar athlete.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

athletic advantages/disadvantages diminish after ~2 years of HRT

This is what I keep thinking whenever I hear about this "debate." But I guess if the bigots admitted they know how hormones work, then they wouldn't have an outlet for their transphobia.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It's incredible how a good number of transphobic people just either do not know, or cannot admit, what hormones do.