It's a real shame he deflected, I would have loved to see this argument continue.
this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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trans guys have bigger dicks than republican legislators, so this is a fair question
Last time I was at the gynecologist’s- “that’s unusually big - are you sure you aren’t intersex”?
Nurse told me my dong was big, hehe.
nice
I guess I'm out of the loop on this subject and honestly I don't know if the information I have is factual or not.
Do trans women generally have a physical advantage over women? Are there any rules for this kind of thing? Do they need to be transitioning or taking suppression drugs? This is a serious question.
There is a recent last week tonight with Jon Oliver that explores this topic in a way that entertaining and powerful. Definitely worth a watch.
Hopefully you have a genuine interest and aren't "just asking questions"
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The answer is more complicated than other comments would lead you to believe. Before I get into all that, please know it doesn’t matter. Especially, when it comes to 14 year old kids who are playing JV sports at school.
First, the problem with studies is that there are very few trans athletes to study. Some studies have only one or two subjects.
Studies show that there is both an advantage and a disadvantage depending on what sport we are talking about and how long the athlete has been on hormones. Weightlifting and other strength based sports do tend to give an edge to trans women. However, cardio sports such as swimming and running put trans women at a disadvantage because they now have smaller muscle mass for their larger frames.
To me, it doesn’t matter. The camaraderie and other things that kids get out of sports is more important than who wins and who loses.
"Do trans women generally have a physical advantage over women?"
No. Trans women were able to complete in the Olympics beginning in 2004. No trans woman has won an Olympic medal in the woman's category.
There are many studies that compare cis men to cis women and based on that claim trans women have an advantage. Among the studies that actually compare trans women to cis women it is generally found that trans women have no overall advantage.
"Are there any rules for this kind of thing? Do they need to be transitioning or taking suppression drugs?"
The rules and requirements vary by league. At higher levels of competition its generally required to have hormone levels at cis female levels for a prolonged period. Often 6 months or longer. To clarify, getting to those levels roughly takes 2+ years of hormone replacement therapy(hrt). Hrt for trans women generally consist of an anti-androgen, estradiol, and progesterone.
There are many studies that compare cis men to cis women and based on that claim trans women have an advantage.
They also selectively exclude all of the sports where women have distinct advantages, like cross-country. Cis men are statistically better at quick bursts of energy, like weightlifting or sprinting… But cis women are statistically better at endurance sports like cross country. Basically, cis men have an higher concentration of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which use a lot of energy but are more powerful. While women have more slow-twitch muscle, which allows them to last longer while exerting less energy or using less oxygen.
Sports were originally segregated by sex because men couldn’t stand the thought of losing endurance sports to women. It would be wholly undignified for a dainty woman to beat a bunch of big strong men, after all. They broke women off into a separate category, so they didn’t have to worry about it. And all of those endurance sports conveniently get left out of the conversation whenever discussing the advantages that conservatives claim trans women have.
I want to believe you, but the record for marathon time for men is faster than the record for women and the record for long swim events (1500m freestyle) for men is faster than the women's record.
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trans people on hormone replacement therapy stop receiving the effects of whatever hormone their body produces naturally. so trans women lose muscle mass, bone density, whatever, and have no benefit from having previously lived as a man.
additionally, im of the opinion that less than 1 percent of child athletes go on to play professional sports, so who gives a shit who is playing who
One could argue that having gone through puberty as a male people might have a bigger frame which could be advantageous in some cases (basketball, track) but in my mind, this is more an argument for puberty blockers than against athletics
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Human beings are sexually dimorphic, but most of the advantages or disadvantages are negligible or can be overcome with training, so it makes little difference. It makes even less difference in middle and high school aged children, since everyone is at (somewhat) different points developmentally anyway.
negligible or can be overcome with training
I agree on a highscool/grade school level, but not at any extreme competitive level. There's a reason most of the world records for athletics are held by men.
Testosterone doesn't make all men better than all women, but if you take two equally trained+talented people for most athletic events, the men outperform the women.
So in college sports the performance gap is larger and should be considered or no? I also find this hard to believe even at a highschool level. While I was in highschool the advantages of testosterone were very obvious. If it were really the case that it makes little to no difference then shouldn't the argument be to remove gender from sports all together?
Also sports were never fair to begin with, they are literally competitions of ableism
Maybe but that doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt to make them as fair as possible.
I disagree, especially if it means auditing childrens genetalia to vindicate a chud.
I agree with what you're saying but I also don't think it has to come to that. I guess my point is that if we don't make some attempt to set a standard then we are allowing literally anything. I don't honestly care for sports being tied to school in the first place but are we saying that anyone can claim to be trans and join the other team at any time because we're all too afraid to talk about it or what? If that's the case then it seems like we should just do a way with gender in sports completely.
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Exactly, we're talking about two different things when comparing children's sports and Olympic sports and it's easy to conflate the two.
Olympic competition needs fair rules to ensure the best humanity can produce is rewarded. The rules are already there and they seem to be fair and supported by trans athletes. Politicians need to stay out.
In children's sports it's more important kids learn skills, fitness, cooperation, and find a sense of community. So unless there is a massive outlier, the rules should maximise inclusion over "fairness". Politicians also need to stay out.
Imma keep it a buck fifty, I don't give a chicken fried fuck about fairness in any sport. Let them juice, drug, dope whatever, if they can do it then just document the conditions under which they achieved their times,reps, whatever.
This whole thing is just a fools errand to give chuds a foothold to deny transcare and further trans erasure.
I think you're being a little dramatic. I understand if you personally don't care about the rules but I have to imagine no one is saying it should just be an absolute free for all. Again I don't understand why we link school and sports but we do and for that reason it means a lot to some and nothing to others. I'm completely down for a free for all in professional sports.
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