It's not just "safe spaces" where I don't want transwomen

[k2p2k2tog]

I have just had an email from my daughter's school about increasing activity levels in teenage girls, tackling the obesity epidemic, offering experiences to girls to try a new sport.

So the council has teamed up with a local judo club to offer GIRLS of Secondary school age in Scotland (so by this stage in the school year aged 12 to 18) the chance to try judo in a female-only environment, with female coaches. Fantastic idea.

This is the sort of thing where Councils will be be forced to accept boys identifying as girls. Boys who are much bigger and stronger than my 12 year old daughter. So what will happen? The girls won't go to the class, because they're not daft and won't want to be thrown about by a mahoosive 6 foot something transgirl.

We can't go around grounding potentially harmful practice in regulation because it's hypothetical and so a 'safe' way of appeasing people. A) I don't think the likelihood is that low and b) once you make the rule you sanction the possibility.

Maybe the crossover between transgirls and girls' judo is small, buth e crossover between trans people and sports in general is a larger issue.

It's really NOT a hypothetical situation in that sense: the National Union of Students was voting for transgender students not to have to reveal their birth sex on joining university sports teams a year or so ago, because it was felt to be too exclusionary:
www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/04/24/transgender-students-should-not-have-declare-birth-gender-applying/

(Do ignore the weird phrasing 'join the teams they were assigned to at birth'. Even the transgender movement doesn't suggest you are assigned to a sports team at birth.)

That a trans woman would want to work in a refuge or fit bras is a red flag imo

Definitely.

Not entirely hypothetical...

I cannot accept mtf trans athletes even in weight-classed sports. A genetic male will have, pound-for-pound, thicker bones, more muscle and less body fat than a genetic female.

Fallon Fox is 42 years old so unlikely to be trying to make a living from fighting for much longer, thank God. Her first few opponents were not informed that she was trans, and I am appalled that that information was withheld from them. Professional MMA is dangerous, no getting away from it, and having fighters with significantly different physiology makes it even more dangerous.

Fox's record is now 5 wins, 1 loss, if anyone's wondering.

And for anyone who hadn't thought much about combat sports before:

Thicker bones : bigger fists, more impact against your opponent's (thinner) skull.

Weight classes do not remove the inequality between male and female athletes.

There are exemptions in sports. Based on advantage. They are just NOT being invoked.

I should imagine the IOC guidelines were trying to redress the advantage that men have, by focusing on testosterone. But, from what I can gather, that's just them, you don't have to use that as a benchmark.

Here is a link explaining exactly how you can invoke the equality act.

It's a long read, despite being easy to understand.

However:

"EA2010 Explanatory notes says:

614. This section allows separate sporting competitions to continue to be organised for men and women where physical strength, stamina or physique are major factors in determining success or failure, and in which one sex is generally at a disadvantage in comparison with the other. It also makes it lawful to restrict participation of transsexual people in such competitions if this is necessary to uphold fair or safe competition, but not otherwise."

"gender-affected activity is a sport, game or other activity of a competitive nature in circumstances in which the physical strength, stamina or physique of average persons of one sex would put them at a disadvantage compared to average persons of the other sex as competitors in events involving the activity. The fact that transgender people can also be lawfully excluded from a gender-based activity means that their biological sex is the key attribute that must be considered rather than their gender identity or legal sex acquired through a GRC”.

You won't able to exclude a TIM based on your daughter feeling self-conscious, under this particular exemption. As it's about physical advantage.

But I can't see how this isn't explicit, in terms of fair competition.

fairplayforwomen.com/equality-act-2010_womens-rights/

Personally, I think the fact that teenage girls are embarrassed to get flushed and sweaty in front of males because it's 'unfeminine' is far more of an issue than the odd mtf trans teen wanting to join a girls' judo class.

My 15 yr old DD does a boxing martial art with a largely adult, largely male group. There's a lad there the same age as her and he barely comes up to her chin. Should they not be sparring because she's taller, heavier and more powerful than him?

Thanks for that link Datun, let's hope it starts being invoked soon and that other countries follow suit.

@DevilTree Anyone can spar with anyone in club practise. Sparring is about learning, and having fun, and respecting your partner by exercising control over what you do. Sparring and practising with people of different builds is a valuable learning experience, and where you should expect that your training partners will listen when you say "that's a bit too heavy" or "stop". I'm into martial arts and if I didn't spar with men I wouldn't get much practise in, unfortunately. Luckily, in sparring, people don't go all out to hit each other as hard as they can. If they did, I'd be in hospital after every session, and your daughter might find out that even a bloke who looks smaller can hit harder.

The line has to be drawn in competition though. Because it isn't fair that supremely talented women athletes lose out on titles, recognition and sponsorship because they are competing against mediocre male athletes. The MMA example is particularly emotive because of the possibility for the loser to come to substantial physical harm, and the socio-historical context of men using violence to make women subservient.

Unimaginative I totally agree that the line should be drawn in competition, especially in contact sports and martial arts.

I still can't get too het up about a mtf trans teen joining a girls' judo class; most people who join a martial arts class are not interested in competing, and are joining to get fit, improve confidence and learn to defend themselves, I would have thought. And as you rightly said, people who are sparring properly are not going to be hurting each other (although DD seems to amass a lot of bruises!).