Republican campaigns made it important.
They reversed the question of who was "weird."
"Trans" became a litmus test of common sense for voters. Kamala Harris could not -- did not -- say clearly that there was a difference between the genders that was relevant to athletics. Republicans spent a quarter of a billion dollars driving home that point.
Voters in battleground states would rather elect a felon, a tax cheat, a thief of national secrets, a multiple sexual assaulter of women, and a person who plotted to overthrow an election rather than elect a person who would not say clearly that trans women had an unfair advantage competing in women's sports leagues.
It turns out that gender is complicated. There is social gender (how the person interacts in society); there is chromosomal gender (XX, XY or other combinations); expressed genital gender (i.e., what an infant looks like that gets listed on a birth certificate); there is endocrine gender (levels of testosterone, estrogen, androgen, and other hormones and how any one body reacts to them); and intersex people who are a little of both and neither.
Jack Mullen writes about politics and sports. He argues that the key to fair competition in women's athletics is to test for endocrines, specifically testosterone. Let athletic leagues -- not politicians -- make the rules. That makes sense to me. After all, sports leagues make decisions on what constitutes eligibility on other issues (age, attendance at school) and what constitutes fair play (strike zones, roughing the kicker.) So let them make this decision. It is in their interest to promote safe, fair competition.
Guest Post by Jack Mullen
CHEAP SHOTS
If you thought George H. W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign featuring an ad of a convicted rapist on the loose was bad form, you were right. It was. At least I thought so. Bush played on White alarm that an African American rapist had been let loose somewhere on American streets. It worked. Bush won.
The effectiveness of Bush’s Willie Horton ads could not hold a candle to the Trump campaign’s ads targeting the transgender community, especially transgender athletes.
My autumn weekends are spent watching football, both college and pro. When I should have spent the Saturday before the election knocking on doors, I couldn’t resist staying home to watch the November 2 game between Oregon and Michigan.
While basking in the Duck lead over the Wolverines, I winced at Trump ads mocking the transgender community. Then I realized, damn, Trump officials are playing up to the ‘‘bro’’ voting bloc, the voting bloc with the lowest participation in presidential elections since 1972, back when young males no longer had to worry about the military draft. Trump was riling up the group that, if they actually turned out to vote, could make the difference in the swing states.
Every football game I watched over the first weekend in November featured major teams from swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Donald Trump, the guy who said he would “defend women,” looked strong against Kamala Harris, who wouldn’t address the “hot topic” of transgender female athletes competing against defenseless little girls.
I have no idea how many pre-teens or teenagers have sex-changing operations. If they do, I would suspect they aren't doing it because they want to compete against lesser competition in sports.
The fact is that there are fewer than 40 transgender athletes out of 55,000 who compete in NCAA-sanctioned sports. The NCAA requires an athlete’s testosterone level be tested, and that it not exceed the upper limit of a normal female range. I think that is fair. The normal competitive nature of women athletics is not affected.
If other athletic venues, from school districts to the Olympics, adopted the NCAA guidelines for transgender participation, then girls and women could compete on equal footing and the hysteria can lessen and not be a political football anymore.
9 comments:
“Voters in battleground states would rather elect a felon, a tax cheat, a thief of national secrets, a multiple sexual assaulter of women, and a person who plotted to overthrow an election rather than elect a person who would not say clearly that trans women had an unfair advantage competing in women's sports leagues.”
I think there was a little more to it than that. Voters in battleground states would rather elect an old, deranged criminal than a woman of color who would hold a rich white man accountable for his crimes. But it still comes down to the fact that Trump’s hateful rhetoric, denial of reality and contempt for the rule of law connects with more voters than anything rational (not that all things transgender are rational).
Unintended irony that Mr. Mullen uses “hysteria” to describe a supposed overemphasis on human biology in relation to sexuality and sexual relations?
What’s arguably weird is normalizing people with uteruses counting as men and penises as women in restrooms and locker rooms, in middle schools, YMCAs, prisons and spas—as well as collegiate sports facilities. Personal privacy and security matter along with competitive considerations.
Biology certainly isn’t everything. But the modish view is to consider biology next to nothing, at least compared with social self-identification.
Unfortunately, this debate is the product of states with poor educational outcomes, and leaders who mock education and science as being elite.
Sports participation is a matter for those sports governing bodies, not our government.
Uneducated people who are not affected think this matters. Why, on this one issue, can't we let the market decide?
This issue matters as much to them as the MLB pitch clock matters to me. Which is not at all since I have more important things to do with my life.
Sports are entertainment that have had the artistic impression remived. Sports do not reflect life the way art does.
I forgot to add that in matters affecting public schools let the districts decide. In college and pro leagues, let their governing bodies decide.
Any court case seeking relief should be tossed out. Our court system has enough to do.
I don't think a testosterone test is enough. Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce, stated that she hasn't had testosterone in her body for years, but still has the male body and size that lets her hit a golf ball over 300 yards. She doesn't think it is fair to let individuals who have gone through male puberty compete in women's sports even if their current testosterone levels are within famale range.
Boys turned girls aren’t really girls physically. Emotionally, psychologically they might be girls but restricting them from serious sports seems reasonable. I personally think they should be restricted as a fairness issue.
So, if you're a female, and you've invested 5 hours a day for your entire life swimming to get a college scholarship, or to win a championship, then you have some sick guy who comes along who claims to be a "female" so he can swim against the smaller girls and win, since he was a "nobody" on the men's swim team. That doesn't sound too fair to me.
Anonymous was unwilling or unable to read and comprehend the post. anonymous asserts something quite different from what Mullen said. This is a common device of internet trolls. Possibly they are poor readers. More likely they make stuff up and hope the reader of their post is a poor reader or simple-minded. I published the anonymous post to reveal a tactic, because it was such a good example of it.
It is possible I misunderstand, and that the anonymous post is from someone with diminished capacity and I am being cruel, in which case I apologize and urge the poster to get help reading Mullen’s post.
This is an example of a made- up issue that affects almost nobody. But, if you bring it up often enough and loud enough, it might affect voters decisions. There are many examples of this like Trump claiming all those rapists and murderers coming over the border. That's what Mexicans do. Good Mexicans don't want to come here. Create a problem, then accuse the other side of doing it. Works every time.
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