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Originally Posted by Sliver
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I still have a bias where I actually wouldn't want my daughter to have to compete in swimming or snowboarding (her sports) against a trans female athlete. My concern with this perspective - and why I'm even hesitant to bring it up - is because I've experienced an evolution of my own views on all LGBTQ issues over the years and I have zero confidence in that gut feeling that it actually isn't fair to my daughter if she faced off against a trans female. I understand I may very well be wrong when I think there could be an advantage to the trans athlete. For that reason, I'm taking the weasel way out and just sitting on the sidelines trying to understand this component of this issue, which is probably the main, idk, I guess anti-trans-suppprt view that still rattles around in my brain.
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Lots of good stuff Sliver. Just to discuss this part of it, it's certainly possible it isn't fair. As you mentioned earlier in the post, there are a myriad of reasons. So if we accept the premise that most sports are not completely fair, we open up the possibility that fairness can't matter(it's an impossible ideal). I think in professional sport we should still strive for a playing field that aims for fairness, but acknowledges that advantages inherently exist, and can never be levelled. Which it's why it is important for individual governing bodies to look at their sport, and if advantages can be tempered, as they have for doping, and even things like equipment.
Now the big but...BUT! almost all sport played by everyone everywhere is not professional. The reality of a child continuing to compete in sport at a professional level after high school is small, and after University is tiny. The odds of a trans person ending up there is far smaller. So we can choose to craft a blanket policy that applies to all sport, in the minuscule chance it prevents a real or perceived advantage, or we can accept that everything leading up to that can be far less rigid.
This will inevitable lead to broken hearts and sadness, but no more so than any other advantage or disadvantage kids face along the way. Who hasn't competed in something they cared about, and for one reason or another, don't achieve what they set out to? The benefit is it is far better for kids to grow up in an environment of acceptance, and you see it in the comrade of sport, and where trans kids are accepted and welcomed on a team. It's a learning experience, as is standing on a lower podium step next to someone who beat you for any number of reasons, many of which are "not fair". Life isn't fair(if you think it is, you have it far better than most) and the sooner kids learn to deal with that, the better chance they have in society. And is school not about learning?
The last point is that trans and other members of the community have a hard enough time in life, and most face discrimination in a profoundly unfair way. Is it so bad they occasionally get a win, or a slight advantage? Policies like this just further alien and "other" them.
I think it's also a good lesson for parents, to accept it isn't fair and stop yelling at the refs!
Finally, never give them an inch, and this is giving them a mile.