Biology Wins The Race

[naomi24]

Two transgender teen sprinters come first AND second in the girl's state championship months after one competed as a boy. Fair or not?

Very handy, this fashion for self-identifying.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5836021/Students-parents-demand-rule-change-trans-teen-wins-girls-state-championship.html

[ummmm]

Not fair.

[douglas9401]

Pandering to entitled children with a side order of parents getting attention too.

It will end in tears and possibly violence.

[ummmm]

Spath...in general they are. We're talking competing here not a couch potato V a female racer.

[kvalidir]

No, not fair, I'm all for people identifying as they see fit but this does give them a physical advantage so not fair on all the other girls.

[Sqad]

naomi......to be honest i couldn't care less, as the more I see and hear of this gender/sexual dysmorphism, the more I fear for the human race.
Luckily, I am coming to the end of a lifestyle which i found simple, comprehensible and totally pragmatic.

Good luck.

Is it fair? I have no idea.

[Cloverjo]

I presume the transgender students still have their male parts and the testosterone that comes with having then, so no, not fair at all. The other girls looked mightily peed off, and rightly so.

[sunny-dave]

Easy answer - “If you want to race as a girl/woman, then come back with your balls in a Tupperware box - until then you’re male for competition purposes”.

[anneasquith]

Seriously, could anyone mistaken than young person as a girl ?

[mushroom25]

it's very likely that any proposed rule change as called for would be ruled legally offside for discrimination reasons. if the law says you are what you are because you say so, then that's it. if the competition don't like it, they'll need to man-up, so to speak.

[rowanwitch]

It will always be difficult, unfortunately transition surgery would not remove the physical advantages unless it happened after delaying puberty. A male to female will have a starting point of denser bones, heavier tendon attachments and usually slightly bigger muscles relative to height. You don't get this problem arising with female to male as the only way they can compete is to train and hope to get to some kind of parity. It's not a disability so the Paralympic option will not be an option. At the top level this would not be an issue as gender is confirmed with genetic testing in cases where there is a doubt so you compete as your genetic not identified gender.

[sunny-dave]

My reply was less about ensuring parity and much more about removing tactical/frivolous self-identification. I just don’t think those strapping lads would have gone through with it.

[Sqad]

rowan.....

"At the top level this would not be an issue as gender is confirmed with genetic testing in cases where there is a doubt so you compete as your genetic not identified gender."

Exactly, but i would go further and insist on sexual genotyping for ALL athletes.

[ToraToraTora]

perlease, all the TG cobras is getting out of hand.

[rowanwitch]

It wouldn't be feasible at school or local club level, I think it is up to the organisers to take these young people to one side and explainable while they can compete with the girls as they identify as female it would be unsporting because they have a distinct advantage and therefore any victory would be valueless.

[ummmm]

They didn't win by much though.

[naomi24]

Can’t help thinking some wannabes emulate Kim whatever-her-name-is (her with the grotesque behind), and some like to think they’re Napoleon Bonaparte – but we all know they’re not.