DL Open Thread Monday June 6 2022
Imagining that teams of teenage boys are transitioning to win the girl’s softball state championship is a “problem” that only exists in the fever dreams of MAGAT nation. No matter,
Ohio House Republicans passed a bill late Tuesday that bans all transgender students from playing high school and college sports, and requires genital exams in any disputes. …
“This is truly bizarre medically and nonsensical, but looking at it practically, this bill means that if anyone decides to question a child’s true gender, that child must undergo a sensitive exam,” Liston said. “I struggle to understand why we keep discussing bills focusing on children’s genitals,” Liston added
The hate is the point.
Here is some other shit that’s happening.
Johnson’s days are numbered. Even if he survives the vote of no confidence, the track record of survivors isn’t great.
What the republicans are doing is basically the same thing that happened back in the 1690s
The one data point I saw w.r.t. transgender and sports, is a transitioned female swimmer who crushed standing records. Transitioned for the purpose of breaking records? No. But until there is more data, there is a discussion to be had, IMHO, on how the influence of medical science and body types from different hormonal life-histories are balanced or handicapped for fair competition (if data supports the need)
With that said, WTF with the GQP telling colleges what they can do? Those are tuition paying adults selecting their schools. They’re free to apply elsewhere if the don’t like their policies. I’m sure if it meant sticking it to MI, OSU would field as many trans ‘ringers’ as they could and GQP alums would be completely stoked. BTW, athletics based tribalism sucks.
Maybe the problem isn’t gender, it’s sports.
“But until there is more data, there is a discussion to be had”. Very reasonable. Who, after all is opposed to “discussion” right? You are just asking the question. Just like Tucker Carlson.
Meanwhile – this bill is about yelling at and bullying people who who are already the most bullied.
It should be call the “Pull Your Fucking Pants Down” bill.
The discussion has been going on for quite some time in the world of sports. Only recently has it become the province of political know-nothings and their fellow travelers.
https://www.11alive.com/article/sports/olympics/black-women-disqualified-olympic-races-high-testerone-levels/85-af3447b3-493e-40c9-9f67-0fae0daa3bbf
The thing GeoBumm calls “one date point” is more widely known as a “cause celebre.”
As noted these laws are based in hatred, hatred of trans people and the absurd idea that anyone would actually go thru transitioning just to get an edge in sports. Don’t get me wrong, if sports ceased to exist tomorrow I would struggle to notice.
Trans participation in gender specific sports is a big issue of fairness and equity.
No way GOP is getting it right but the left can’t ignore the sound reasoning behind separating sports events by gender as based on biology not gender identification in determining qualifications to compete.
Title 9 advanced fairness for female athletics. There is good reason to worry now.
SCIENTIFIC FACT: once a biological male body hits puberty, there is an overwhelming physical advange over biological females no matter the amount of treatment that follows. Gender specific sports will be highly impacted if biological males are allowed to continue to compete against biological females.
Just like wrestling weight classes, separating athletes on a biological basis is necessary for fairness in gender specific sports.
Watch https://www.tmz.com/2022/05/31/nancy-hogshead-lia-thomas-trans-athletes-evidence/
Be a good sport. Don’t support biological males competing against biological femaies.
Nancy is signing up to do genital checks. The women’s IM relay team from Yale is oppressed!
I think it’s unfair that 95% of basketball players are biologically tall. I’m the real victim here
Perhaps the problem lies in caring who wins competitions, when winning them has no greater meaning.
Perhaps if we didn’t give out scholarships to institutions of higher learning based on athletic prowess it would matter less.
Indeed, perhaps nobody remembers that this issue goes all the way back to Renee Richards in the 1970s. At least in that case professional prize money was at stake.
Who really cares about who wins a college swim meet other than the people involved in it, and why should society get involved in a non-public matter like who’s allowed to compete in a private sport? It’s not a government-sponsored meet, other than some of the schools involved might be supported by the state. And I would argue that sports are not the part of public universities that benefit the public, so they’re on the colleges — indeed, the NCAA does the job of policing them, not the government, so it’s none of the public’s business. Settle it yourselves.
Who had Nancy coming out as a TERF on their 2022 bingo card?
See? This is a no-lose wedge issue for Republicans. There is no winning solution so Republicans get to keep pumping it up to a white-hot uproar to drive their base turnout and fundraising. Getting the left to attack each other is a bonus!
The State Auditor has been indicted in Kent County.
https://www.wmdt.com/2022/06/del-grand-jury-hands-down-new-indictment-against-state-auditor/
Thinking trans women should not compete in women’s athletics doesn’t necessarily mean hatred of trans people. There’s no easy answer here. A lot of women’s rights supporters object to it for being unfair to the female athletes. I don’t think anybody is transitioning just to get an edge in sports. If so, that would be a bad motivation. The clear athletic advantage of trans women is just a by-product. And surely there would be some way to test this without genital inspection.
There’s a very easy answer actually lol
And I agree that this should not be a government issue.
Rev – What is that easy answer?
What happens to a democracy in which “governing” is of literally no concern to the electeds? I guess we’ll see after the midterms.
Jason – I imagine you wouldn’t worry about that if the republicans were doing the governing. But I agree that voting is a way to keep bad stuff from happening.
You know Nathan, we’ve disagreed a lot. But I have to agree with your “both sides do it” perspective when it comes to not governing.
What passes for governing for the Republicans is nothing more than tossing an endless supply of red meat to the base. Similarly, what passes for governing on the “D” side is also tossing an endless supply of red meat to the base. The “meat” in the Dems case being tax cuts and the “base” defined as Big Banking and Big Pharma.
When it comes to ignoring the needs of actual voters and berating working class Americans for their sloth – both sides do it.