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Dominoes Falling in the Fight to Protect Women’s Sports
The Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA), which governs international competitive swimming, has come to a remarkably fair and humane conclusion regarding the participation of transgender athletes. A couple of excerpts:
The Science Group reported that biological sex is a key determinant of athletic performance, with males outperforming females in sports (including Aquatics sports) that are primarily determined by neuromuscular, cardiovascular, and respiratory function, and anthropometrics including body and limb size. The extent of the male/female performance gap varies by sport and competition, but the gap universally emerges starting from the onset of puberty.
…
Male-to-female transgender athletes (transgender women) and athletes with 46 XY DSD whose legal gender and/or gender identity is female are eligible to compete in the women’s category in FINA competitions and to set FINA World Records in the women’s category in FINA competitions and in other events recognised by FINA if they can establish to FINA’s comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later. Specifically, the athlete must produce evidence establishing that:
i. They have complete androgen insensitivity and therefore could not experience male puberty; or
ii. They are androgen sensitive but had male puberty suppressed beginning at Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later, and they have since continuously maintained their testosterone levels in serum (or plasma) below 2.5 nmol/L.
The first physical indications of puberty are classed as Tanner Stage 2.
Did we just get a win? I did not see this coming. Slava Ukraina! Nothing like the distant fall of hot metal rain and the prospect of a cold winter to shake off summer dreams, eh?
Published in Politics
I wish they would just enact a ban, period. Forget testosterone levels and this Tanner Stage 2 junk . . .
Think KISS . . .
For swimmers, it’s going to encourage “transitioning” at a younger age with all that entails.
All this “science,” yet a fetus is not a baby, just a blob of tissue.
They had to go to the science (that is a leftest false god) to try and not get sacked by the left. We will see if this works.
Science is pretty good as long as it’s the kind of science obsessed with empirical Truth. I think it would be an OK replacement for G-d as far as it goes.
The swim people made their decisions based on observable and testable reality rather than the whims of corrupt experts who pretend to be scientists.
I thought we were going to talk about pizza. Disappointed.
/jk
I’ll take as a “win” the part that talks about the self-evident differences between biological men and biological women, and that such a gap in achievement following the onset of puberty is pronounced and dispositively in favor of one sex in terms of sports requiring certain characteristics of muscularity, and the strength of the blood pump and the lung capacity. That’s an extraordinarily brave and sane admission in this Year of the Lord 2022.
The rest of it is just creepy.
I’m glad that they carve out a mention of those with 46 XY DSD–(were my family to give this a colloquial name, we might call it Aunt Mary’s Disease), an infinitesimally small number of the athletic population, I’m sure, but the only one which at least comes by its unfortunate difficulties in this instance honestly.
And it does nothing so much as confirm my longstanding belief that there is absolutely nothing natural about the determination of vast swaths of the younger generations of Western children to show their disapproving and judgmental elders that the way they were born just isn’t good enough, or special enough for them, and to mutilate themselves in damaging and freakish ways to make their point.
Yeah, I think this ought to be a concern. I also worry about the weasel worlds “that they can establish, to FINA’s comfortable satisfaction…”
I don’t know what y’all are complaining about. They basically said “If your voice changed, then you can’t compete as a woman.”
And the response to that will be “Do it younger.” Short term win, long term loss.
They aren’t responsible for saving the world, or even solving the transgender plague. They’re policing their little corner unexpectedly well.
Um, what athletic advantage do you imagine boys will gain over girls by transitioning before puberty?
Good article on Outkick.
https://www.outkick.com/lia-thomas-will-not-race-against-women/
That’s a HUGE risk. Pre-puberty, boys and girls are pretty comparable. I’m pretty certain (though not completely) that girls’ muscle development is much faster pre-puberty than post.
Pre-pubescent boys that are mediocre in athletics are not necessarily going to be that way post. And male athletes are infinitely more successful than female ones.
It is bad adult male athletes that want to compete against women. There’s no saying if someone will be a mediocre male athlete when they are 10-11.
Athletic advantage isn’t the point. Making a life changing decision at a young age is.
This is good news. Thanks for posting.
2.5 nmol/L equals 72 ng/dl, these are the units used in the US.
A normal male is 300-900 ng/dl
A normal female, under 80, varying through the menstrual cycle
So 2.5 nmol/L is a reasonable cutoff.
I wish they weren’t cutting things off in the first place.
For my money, the thing should be about…my money. In the sense that opportunities earmarked for members of a specific group either need to lose the earmark, or, you know, actually go to members of that group.
Women/girls who compete for money, prestige, scholarships…pretty much anything other than a ‘friendly game’ of sportsball, should have the expectation that their prize will not be taken by a male.
You wanna chop off the man bits and call yourself a woman? That’s between you and the world. You want to attend a university for cheap by using an unnatural advantage over your competitors? I’m thinking ‘no’.
I really thought it was about the riveting tabletop game.
OK. So you ask the question (in the OP), “did we just get a win?” and when several of your fellow members answer honestly in the comments either “I’m not sure,” or “Well, this bit looks good, but perhaps the rest of it is a pile of crap,” you excoriate them for not falling into line with
theyour received wisdom?Sorry, not sorry.
A good question, and not one that has been studied to my satisfaction. So why let them compete?
I disagree. I think chopping off healthy parts should be illegal and any “doctor” who performs such surgeries should be jailed for a long, long time. That’s how the world should respond to the mutilation of mentally ill people.
Or maybe demon possessed people.
Fair enough. My sticking point remains the part where an XY is ripping off an XX.
Added: As opposed an XY ripping off…himself.
It’s heart wrenching and painful to watch this.
Dominoes? For myself, I have no objection to trans-folk competing in dominoes. Not a problem.
It has been fascinating to watch the argument about men competing in women’s sports in light of the years the country spent arguing over women in combat in the military.
It seems to me that scientists who test people for strength and endurance have definitively answered the question, “Are women as strong as men?”
I should think we would be revisiting any government policy written under the apparently erroneous assumption that men and women have equal strength.
They didn’t write that policy believing women are as strong as men. They’ve been lowering the qualifying standards for years to allow women to pass muster. The claim women are as “capable” which is not the same as strength.
Mods may fix my misspelled title if they want. Thank you @davidcarroll for the correction.
Bravo. Bravissimo.