To think Laurel Hubbard should not be competing against other women

[Belle82]

I know I am going to get ripped apart for this.

I have no problem with the transgender community, that is your life/body and I am not one to judge anyone else, do what makes you happy.

There is something fundamentally wrong about a person who is biologically a man competing against a woman in sport as significant as weightlifting.
I am not taking anything away from women weightlifters, however when competing in that sport, a person who was born a man will always have an unfair advantage over a woman.

I am all for equal rights but it seems political correctness has now put us in a position that we will only consider the equal rights of those in the transgender community. What happens to the equal rights of all the other women who have worked extremely hard to get to the olympics who should be competing against biological women.

There needs to be clearer cut criteria on entrance requirements to every sport, to give every person the equal rights they deserve.

My heart goes out to all the other women competing who I’m sure must be somewhat disheartened about their chances of success now they are competing against a biological man.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/29/ioc-praises-weightlifter-laurel-hubbard-ahead-of-transgender-athletes-olympic-debut

Terrific piece on this by Jan Turner in today's Times. Worth buying the paper for it.

@H8H8H8

I fear you have truly missed the point of this thread

@LadyGAgain I know you’ve missed the point of that post….

I realised after I re read it! Very clever

YANBU

Inclusivity in women's sports... By excluding women. Great.

It's just misogyny packaged in a different way. Men deciding boundaries, men deciding what women and aren't allowed to have, male feelings coming first and foremost: always.

Janice Turner has written very eloquently about this in The Times this morning.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/1f46e2aa-f160-11eb-8f01-2c678acbb979?shareToken

She's a cheat.
I'm surprised the IOC didn't learn anything from Fallon Fox

www.sportskeeda.com/mma/news-when-transgender-fighter-fallon-fox-broke-opponent-s-skull-mma-fight

Terrific piece on this by Jan Turner in today's Times. Worth buying the paper for it.

Nah, rather not give Murdoch my money.

@tommmanndjjerrry

*You need to be clearer with your language

There should be a male category, a female category, then women's and men's, where any sex/gender identity can compete the women's or men's category.*

Last time I checked, a man is an adult male, a woman is an adult female.

And the categories are 'men's' and 'womens'.

People conflate sex with gender.

They're different.

I am a full time wheelchair user. However my condition is not on the specific list of impairments to qualify for the paralympics

Tough shit for me, I'm not whinging that it's not inclusive.

Its not that hard to see that its completely wrong.
Just look at the world record times.
Or that the Williams sisters were beaten by a man ranked 203rd in the same afternoon.
Look at Yearwood who has interest from American universities to run track and field, not only taking competitions and podium places from woman/girls but a university place as well.
and lets not forget Miller who holds the girls state indoor record for the 55mtr dash.

Forgot to mention on the radio news today they were talking about Team GB taking gold in the "mixed gender relay".

Might as well have fielded 4 blokes then .

The IOC have got this badly wrong.

I hope that the impact on biological women is clearly understood by ALL sport governing bodies after this high profile event.

Arguments about separate categories etc can be had in time.

Women in sport must not be disadvantaged by gender politics.

This is a biological sex issue. Nothing else.

Yanbu. I have a dd who competes in a very physical sport. When she was 8 I remember commenting saying that there wasn't much difference, 8 years on and the physical difference between her and the males at her club is huge. Those a couple of years younger, so similar weight are taller, stronger and make her work really hard in training to compete. If she were to meet them in a competition the odds would be against her purely on the physicality.
Sports should be sex segregated not gender.

Laurel Hubbard probably won't win on Monday, because that will prevent the floodgates opening for other males to compete in women's sports. Plus Hubbard is 20 years older than most of the other athletes.

But it doesn't really matter. Hubbard has already taken the place of a woman by being at the Olympics.

@NotBadConsidering

Transwomen athletes don’t want a separate competition. It’s seen as “othering” and doesn’t give them the validation they want.

They just need to be told “no, you’re not eligible for the female competition.”

Just no.

This.

I'm absolutely all for inclusivity, everyone should be free to live their life as they desire regardless of biological sex.

But you cannot argue with biology. Men and women don't compete against each other in physical sports for very obvious reasons and no matter how you identify, you would still be physically at an advantage or disadvantage if competing against someone of the opposite biological sex.

It's not transphobic, it's just a fact of life.

For that reason I believe transgender people should have categories or they should compete within a category that fits their biological sex.

My dd is a sprinter............she is now questioning what is the point of continuing if someone born male can enter the women's races, it is not fair!!
She has trans friends but feels very strongly that women's rights are being thrown away in the name of "inclusiveness".

@TrifleCat

What is wrong with the so called modern liberals that they are applauding a rich white man cheating poor indigenous women out of a sports competition which could help improve their lives massively

They're doing in it the name of "fairness" and "inclusivity"

How far you have to be removed from reality to agree with that is anyone's guess, but I don't know single person IRL or online who can support this.

Well done to the GB mixed relay team! Look at the difference in size of the men and women. The first leg has men and women directly competing with each other as the teams decide who to go first. Unfortunately there is no way the women can catch the men. Brilliant illustration of why sport should be sex based at the Olympics.

@AwaAnBileYerHeid

I do completely disagree with LH taking part in the womens event. However I'm confused as to why it's specifically a woman of colour that LH is taking a place from. Is it only Maori women who do weightlifting in NZ? Sorry if I've missed the whole story.

There are only a limited number of qualifying places for the Oceania region. Because LH qualified Kuinini Manu'mua from Tonga missed out.

But, hunting down the name of the woman that LH bumped (which isn't that easy, because who cares about the loser right?), I saw that Tonga appealed for an exemption for Kuinini and was successful so she's there!

Go Nini!

@AwaAnBileYerHeid

I do completely disagree with LH taking part in the womens event. However I'm confused as to why it's specifically a woman of colour that LH is taking a place from. Is it only Maori women who do weightlifting in NZ? Sorry if I've missed the whole story.

The young woman that would have got a spot if Hubbard hadn't been allowed to qualify is from a Maori background.

Lh isn't the only cheat

www.outsports.com/2021/5/12/22428082/trans-olympic-athlete-tokyo-ioc-paralympic

@BingBongSong

Forgot to mention on the radio news today they were talking about Team GB taking gold in the "mixed gender relay".

Might as well have fielded 4 blokes then .

Sooner or later at least one country will. Will the IOC start caring when some male athletes suffer a disadvantage due to cheating?

Probably not, more likely the women competitors in mixed relays will be phased out in favour of all male teams pretending they are mixed and we will all be expected to play along.

Maybe the women formally known as athletes can hold the water bottles and towels or something.

@Potteringshed

YABU to post here when there is a whole board for these conversations.

There are plenty of posts in AIBU which should be on the more suitable boards but don't get moved.

The sad thing is, to truly expose the absolute ridiculousness of this batshit situation, Hubbard would need to win and an actual woman would need to lose her rightful gold medal. It shouldn't come to that but I suspect that's what it will take.

Remember the name of Kuinini "Nini" Manumua, whose place Laurel Hubbard took. In compensation, Nini was given a special ‘wild card’ place to compete for Tonga, under a scheme set up to give under-represented states a chance. But Hubbard’s inclusion pushes every young female weightlifter down the rankings. Others whose names we might know if they hadn’t been unfairly beaten.

@Shoxfordian

What do you think the best solution is for transgender athletes? They should compete with the gender they’re born into? Not be allowed at all? It seems unfair to say Laurel can’t compete. Maybe there needs to be extra categories

It’s not unfair at all. He’s 20 years older than the other competitors, he’s been injured. He’s been part of men’s weight lifting in the past and not done well. Tell me why he deserves a place in the Olympics over women who are excelling?

Competitive sport by its very nature, is exclusionary. Not everyone gets to take part.

We need to keep sport segregated by sex. If males who identify as women aren’t good enough to compete with men, that’s not women’s problem to solve. Just like we don’t worry about women who aren’t good enough to compete.