<div class="header-image"></div> <table class="table-header"> <thead> <tr> <th colspan="2"></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>2024-08-05</td> <td style="text-align: right;"><a href="About.md" class="internal-link">About</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> # Transgender Issues and Gender Disputes in Women's Sport  I think, generally, I'm a fairly polite person. I say sorry when I bump into someone (or they bump into me). I try to stay out of people's way. When there's only a small path to walk on, and I find myself walking toward someone coming the other way, I'm the one who will move off-path first. When interacting with people I take great pains to disregard any differences we may have, and treat them just as I would any other person. Whether that person be beautiful, ugly, fat, thin, disfigured, short, or tall, no matter their race, no matter their dress, or how they talk, I always ignore any of these attributes and talk like I would to anyone. Ten years ago, when the transgender issue was just beginning to enter public consciousness, there was a push to address a person by the gender they were trying to convey. So if an obvious man was attempting to pass as a woman, the request was to refer to that person with she/her pronouns. This request, it really now needs to be said, was only a matter of *courtesy*. There wasn't yet an ideology that stated this was an actual woman in reality. The request was a simple, politically correct evolution in language, similar to disabled people preferring to no longer be called handicapped, or intersex people preferring to no longer be called hermaphrodites. I was, and still am, perfectly okay with this. There was still the understanding from both parties that it's a pretence. We both know the truth, but to alleviate awkwardness, we are going to behave as if I'm talking to an actual woman. I'm not really sure exactly when all this changed. I remember seeing a meme once on twitter where a dude who looked to be in his late teens was sitting on a bench with a sign saying "men can have periods" or something to that effect, and was bleeding through a pair of white jeans. This was a bit of a "what the fuck" moment for me. I didn't understand what it was all about. I shook my head and scrolled on, ignoring it. I didn't imagine that there was an effort to change this bit of politically correct politeness into something that was accepted as reality. Even then, I think at the time, I wouldn't have considered the implications of this. I remember there was some controversy surrounding transwomen being allowed in abused women's shelters. I didn't see the issue with it, and found myself firmly on the side of allowing them in. I never considered that there might be harm done in allowing this to happen. I only saw that, historically, LGBT peoples have been ruthlessly abused by people who don't agree with their "lifestyle." And for transwomen, if they found themselves battered because of who they were, what better place for them to go but a woman's shelter? I didn't even imagine the question "how do you keep out 'cisgendered' men who are masquerading as trans in order to get access to women-only spaces?" I also never imagined that men would be permitted to compete in women's sport--even contact sport. Frankly, I don't think that people fighting for this would have seen themselves on that side of the argument 10 years ago either, for the most part. But it is a very difficult problem. Gay men and transwomen *do* get [horrifically abused and beaten in men's bathrooms](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/transgender-teen-hospitalized-alleged-attack-high-school-bathroom-rcna156105) and prisons. And I cannot condone forcing a five-foot tall transwoman to use the men's bathroom in some weird bar on the outskirts of some small town. But the [ramifications are staggering](https://le.utah.gov/interim/2024/pdf/00000577.pdf) on the other side of the argument, and it really does amaze me that society in general has so readily accepted these changes without considering the obvious consequence, *particularly* when we were in the middle of the #metoo movement while these changes were happening. We now have [men imprisoned in women's prisons, raping other inmates,](https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/man-posing-as-transgender-woman-raped-female-prisoner-at-rikers-lawsuit-says/5067904/) and [highschool girls being raped in gymnasium changerooms.](https://www2.cbn.com/news/us/va-judge-finds-trans-teen-guilty-sexual-assault-loudoun-county-high-school-girls-bathroom) The sports question too, is a strange development. Again, 10 years ago this would have been just the fear-mongering of the religious right imagining outlandish impossibilities to dissuade the acceptance of same-sex marriage. I never would have thought that [men would be winning medals in women's sporting competition,](https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/aquatics/lia-thomas-first-known-transgender-ncaa-swimming-championship-1.6388994) or [teenage girls being pressured to change with them in locker rooms.](https://nypost.com/2022/01/27/teammates-are-uneasy-changing-in-locker-room-with-trans-upenn-swimmer-lia-thomas/) As you might imagine, I, and a chorus of others, felt that this was a step backward for women's rights rather than a step forward for trans' rights. But here again, the situation can be very muddy. Just this week, in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, [Angela Carini of Italy quit against Algerian Imane Khelif](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5678780/2024/08/04/olympic-boxing-gender-controversy/) in women's boxing. Khelif was disqualified from the 2023 women’s boxing world championships, because she did not meet the gender requirements of the International Boxing Association (IBA). The International Olympic Committee (IOC), however, disagreed, and the IBA has not overseen boxing in the Olympics since 2019. This has led to international outrage on behalf of Carini, who quit the match for her own safety, saying she had "never been hit so hard in my life." In spite of the generated outrage over this, and the obvious assumptions, Imane Khelif is *not trans.* She was born a girl, with female genitalia, and is categorised as female on all legal documents (such as her birth certificate and passport). She comes from a country where it is illegal to change sex on these documents. [In a video published Saturday](https://news.sky.com/video/imane-khelifs-father-defends-his-daughter-as-olympic-controversy-continues-13189715) by Sky News, her father, Omar Khelif, said "My child is a girl. She was raised as a girl. She’s a strong girl. I raised her to be hardworking and brave." But she is *intersex* and has XY chromosomes as a man does. She probably has elevated testosterone too. This is why I say that the situation is muddy. From this perspective, the IOC sees Khelif as a woman with a specific genetic advantage. The IBA sees her as a man who only appears to be a woman. In a better world, this would be a perfect opportunity to have a level-headed discussion about these topics. Not every situation is the same as [Lia Thomas winning the NCAA swimming title,](https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/aquatics/lia-thomas-first-known-transgender-ncaa-swimming-championship-1.6388994) and there may be good reason to allow transwomen into women's bathrooms, just as there is good reason to prohibit it. There's a solution to these problems, but we'll never find it without listening to each other. There needs to be calm, factual discussion for these issues, but we live in a time where people lose their shit at the drop of a hat. Calm discussion is a relic of the past, and instead we just insult anyone with whom we disagree. Everyone is either a demonic globalist or a transphobic bigot and there is no in-between.