Disc Golf (?) has banned transgender women from the female division

Yes, this is it. Sporting bodies are at fault here for allowing males into female sports.

Every now and then, the scene from The Umbrella Academy pops into my head - where the black woman enters a cafe in the 1960's. She is verbally and physically assaulted because of the colour of her skin by the majority of customers. I never want to be in the evil, ignorant group. Linking the fight against racism and sexism to gender rights has done a number on me (possibly as designed?) I worry constantly that I am being a bigot, despite spending most of my life as an anti-racist feminist supporting women and girls.

I feel this so, so much. I know my GC views are right and I know female conditioning makes me feel guilt about this. But I still find it difficult to reconcile with being seen as a bigot and even right wing. All my views are firmly to the left and I wouldn't dream of discriminating against anyone, but all those people whose views I normally align with see me as a bigotted transphobe. I find it so difficult to get my head round.

The governing bodies are trying have their cake and eat it - being seen to be 'inclusive' to mitigate the TRA backlash but protect elite sport because they know it's a problem.

This is obviously an approach doomed to failure. Elite athletes come up through the amateur ranks. I don't think amateur players are entitled to any less consideration and safety issues remain in many sports. Also - how are amateur sports supposed to monitor testosterone levels? There is no infrastructure for it in the way there is at elite levels.

Agree - the blanket ban is appropriate.

But they’re fudging it because they haven’t (yet) seen a backlash from those other categories. And because there’s clearly a strong element of the “be kind” BS in their governing body’s approach.

He's got a point, though:

“If fairness was the boards only priority the would have removed all trans women from competition. This decision send a clear message: The board doesn’t want to see me succeed. They don’t care about local trans women or semi pro trans women nor masters trans women."
Why do sporting boards do this? Why do they only ban males from certain levels of the women's competitions? Why not a blanket ban? The males have the same advantages over the women at every level.

Good.

Good. I play disc golf with my husband and although I can certainly compete with accuracy, I can't come close to his power and strength when throwing.

Mediocre men who choose to smash women's records and opportunities and then win prizes do not have my respect. Zero sympathy for any male who chooses this. The male team was open for him to play on. He chose not to join it.

I'm afraid I also agree it is not ignorance of the consequences on others to their actions. Women have been explaining this for years: look up dysfunctional relationships and the kind of person who has been repeatedly told about the harm of their actions to others but goes on insisting they're doing nothing wrong.

Ten minutes on Twitter will demonstrate clearly the entitlement, and many who actively enjoy the domination and deprivation of female people and the feeling of power and triumph involved. See: white women's tears. Women's 'privilege' that justifies taking them down a few pegs to their proper place below TW. 'Old' often pops up in there somewhere. The attitudes do not make for pleasant reading.

I don't think it matters what the motivation of the individual is.. whether they are seeing a loophole and cheating, or whether they genuinely believe themselves to be female and therefore participating in the correct category... the end result is exactly the same, women losing their rights.

I don't care what the motivation is, as that implies that one motivation might be OK. It's really simple. If you are male, you do not participate in female sports.

Don't feel any sympathy for that male at all. Entitlement in every word of that statement.

I think some tw intend to cheat in the traditional sense but there are far more that simply don't care or even think about the consequences for women and girls.

I think 'inclusion' is very much misused in this debate. Inclusion should work for all and not only one group. If Transwomen are included in the female category, females are excluded. Transmen are excluded from all categories because they will never qualify in the male category and can only compete as female if they do not medically transition. Also, the mediocre men who don't claim to be women are forever resigned to the harsh reality of being mediocre. And let's not forget, Transwomen could still compete in the male category while retaining their identity, so no one is actually trying to exclude them from sport as they often claim.

I'm not sure it even benefits transwomen in the long run - yes they will claim the prize money but they will always have the accusation of cheating levelled at them. If transwomen competed in the male category, their achievements would be uncontroversial.

In every sport there are people who cheat - in a variety of ways - so it’s naive to assume that trans women won’t cheat.

Or as the Sport England review concluded - you cannot balance inclusion, fairness and safety. If you want to prioritise inclusion - and some people do - you need to own that you are sacrificing fairness and safety.

[Lia] Thomas. "I was feeling a lot better mentally. I was less depressed."
She continued, "And I lost muscle mass and I became a lot weaker and a lot, a lot slower in the water."

That phrase a lot is doing some very very heavy lifting in that sob story. He meant he lost a 10oth of a second here and there. Catastrophic in the male competition but, when he wasn't deliberately not using his legs, Thomas remains significantly faster, stronger, more muscled - as in he retains 10 - 20% more - than female swimmers he competes against.

Males who choose to compete in female sports know precisely what they are doing.

And who knew there was so much money in skills with a frisbee??

But there is.

And the cycling events can clock up earnings too.

And then we have the NB marathon runners....

"I don't think there's a single transgender athlete who is trying to cheat"

You missed the recent video of the TW cyclist who tried 3 times in one race to knock the female competitor off her bike? They were cheating every which way.

Reportedly this disc golf athlete won $40k. That's not small change.

I cannot believe there is a single TW athlete who is not aware of their male physical advantage compared to women. I say that as someone who has faced TW in competitive contact sports and it certainly wasn't lost on me.

As others have said, it is insulting to their intelligence to think they believe this is fair - whether it is 'permitted' or not.

www.outkick.com/professional-disc-golf-effectively-bans-transgender-players-from-competing-in-womens-division/

Oof at the closing paragraphs there.

I don't think there's a single transgender athlete who is trying to cheat

Have you read about Rachel McKinnon / Veronica Ivy?

"In response to critics who say Thomas transitioned in order to win more swimming medals, she reiterated that is not the case.
"Trans people don't transition for athletics," she said.

Great. So, get out of the female category.

"I don't think there's a single transgender athlete who is trying to cheat"

Seriously? if any of them genuinely "can't see the bigger picture and the harm they're causing" it can only be because they're not looking, they're being wilfully blind to the impact on women and girls.

"In response to critics who say Thomas transitioned in order to win more swimming medals, she reiterated that is not the case."
"Trans people don't transition for athletics," she said. "We transition to be happy and authentic and our true selves. Transitioning to get an advantage is not something that ever factors into our decisions.""

While this may be the case, the sports component is a nice bonus. Particularly if you are getting prestige, even more so if you are also getting cash.

It is a sleight of hand, squirrel tactic.

It simply doesn't matter what their motivation is. The outcome is indisputable, no matter how they try to frame it.

One can only quote Christine Keeler in the Profumo case: “Well he would say that, wouldn’t he.”