this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2024

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Alberta seeks to block trans athletes from female competition but can't say how many will be impacted (edmontonjournal.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

"If just one trans child is harmed it will all be worth it", says Alberta premier Danielle Smith.

top 19 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I love that the league for 1 of 2 of the sports that Canada plays at a high level are speaking against this. The people actually involved with the sports say that it's no an issue, so other than just because you need a minority to bully in order to maintain power with your voter-base, why should we reckon it is?

What about banning tall kids from Basketball or short kids from gymnastics?
Neither are fair for everyone when someone under 1.5m can compete with someone over 2m.

[+] [email protected] -17 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I don't know this I don't see an issue with. I mean I guess it depends on the age younger doesn't matter but as you get older and if went through puberty it does. I mean the trans athlete in swimming beat the second place by 30 seconds your saying that isn't an issue? Or a trans MMA fighter cracked the skull of a female opponent never heard of that happening before. Also why do we always hear about trans women athletes and never about trans men? I mean I know the most likely reason the trans men would never make it to competition but why isn't that also an issue?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago

Also why do we always hear about trans women athletes and never about trans men?

That's a matter of the psychology of right-wing hate mongers, and how easy they find it to rile people up about a non-issue.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Care to share sources for any of these claims?

I assume by "the trans athlete in swimming" you're referring to Lia Thomas. Here's an excerpt from her Wikipedia page:

In March 2022, Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship in any sport after winning the women's 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:33.24; Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant was second with a time 1.75 seconds behind Thomas.

1.75 seconds is hardly "30 seconds" as you claim. Note that this is the only event she won, no one seems to care that she also placed last in the 100 freestyle event, or that even in the event that she won she was over 9 seconds slower than the women's record for 500 yard-freestyle.

As for the MMA fighter, after a quick search I'll assume you're talking about Fallon Fox? It's true she did injure one of her opponents, Tamikka Brents. I don't know much about MMA, but seeing as it's a sport where people punch and kick each other violently, I'd assume injuries happen.

Let's assume she did have an advantage as a result of going through male puberty as a teen. Where do we draw the line in regulating biological advantage in sports?

Caster Semenya, a runner who was assigned female at birth and has lived her entire life as a woman, has higher levels of testosterone than the average cis woman. Should she be banned from competing?

Michael Phelps, a cis man with many Olympic medals in swimming, has an unusually large wingspan, double-jointed ankles, and produces around half the lactic acid of an average person, all of which gives him a biological advantage. Should we rescind his medals?

Why is "unfair biological advantage" in sports only brought up in the case of trans women (or in the case of Caster Selenga, gender non-conforming women who are mistakenly assumed to be trans?)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

I still want to see an “anything goes” category. Let’s see what the most engineered human is capable of doing. I don’t care what their base or biology was.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

https://www.gendergp.com/new-report-confirms-trans-athletes-do-not-have-biomedical-advantage-in-elite-sport

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindseyedarvin/2024/04/25/transgender-athletes-could-be-at-a-physical-disadvantage-new-research-shows/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/voices/stop-using-phony-science-to-justify-transphobia/

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The danielle smith government is spending a metric fuckton of money on something that might not affect even a single Albertan. If it affected a thousand Albertans it would still not be worth spending tax dollars.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Right wing virtue signalling.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This sounds like a terrible bill. Also it's sexist as all fuck, why not prevent trans athletes in male sports as welll?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago

The people that are transphobic are often also misogynists.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think the idea behind it is that trans athletes have an advantage in women's sports. That would not be the case in men's sports.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (3 children)

If they are trying to protect women from "men" in sports shouldn't they prevent "women" playing with men? One would think they would be at the same risk...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

See, the problem here is that you're approaching this as a rational skeptic, instead of someone who takes their marching orders from a christofacist subsect of their voters (Take Back Alberta / TBA), and doesn't care about hurting anyone that isn't white and wealthy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

They don't see either as people

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

If you want to be impartial, don't use two different words for the two different groups. You know exactly the difference between protect and prevent. I'm not even defending the law, I'm just explaining why it's a one-sided issue

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

What timing. Canada just put out a statement on Trans and Gender Diverse Inclusion in Sport. So presumably this is Alberta's retort?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

What amazes me is her own child is trans.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Stupid culture war shit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Philosophically, restrictions on trans in sports is the one issue I will concede to conservatives.

That being said, we've got sooooo many other bigger problems to deal with. A government passing laws on transgenders in sports signifies a government that is more concerned with appearances and scoring cheap points than actually helping people.