2019 Canada Winter Games will allow athletes to compete as whichever gender they identify as.

[happydappy2]

No requirement for testing or medical intervention.

This will work out really well for women competitors-any Canadians on here? Any resistance?

WTAF?

I think this is a good thing. Will bring the issue out in the open surely

That's wonderful!

WTF?!

When are they? This end of the year or next winter?

Can they do that unilaterally?

Fuck, I wish I was a man. I'm shit at sport, I could just self id as female and win myself a gold medal.

I think I'll sign up.

I'll be a trans-athlete with trans-times/speeds/qualifications (as necessary). Anyone who questions either thing is a raging phobe and my self-definition must be allowed to stand.

I won't be able to carry that many gold medals.

Is it compulsory to 'identify as a gender' to be allowed to compete?
If you just possess a boring old bodily sex but have no pink or blue feelz to match or contrast with it are you excluded?

Is it like mandatory religion for sportspeople; choose your beliefs, pink or blue, atheists are disqualified?

They'd be better off saying women, compete as your own sex, you'll never qualify against men.
Men; compete as your own sex, or trounce the opposite sex, you're welcome.

This is (as far as I know) a national, internal Canadian thing, not an international competition, so I guess they can set any rules they want. So basically they have a "mens" set of events and an "open" set of events.

It will be very interesting to see how it works, though I don't suppose it'll get much mainstream attention outside of Canada.

Ok, so this is an internal Canadian event for Canadian athletes, not an international event.

I am surprised that they didn't have to consult and get agreement from the various sports governing bodies for this.

www.cbc.ca/sports/canada-games-gender-inclusion-policy-1.5023596

My prediction (FWIW) of the spin that will be put on it is the following:

Transwomen will only enter a handful of events, but they'll probably win/get medals in those. But the woke types among the commentariat will say "oh look, it's not like they won everything, so everything is fine and dandy..." It won't be until about 10 years down the line that there will be a robust enough set of statistics to show that tranwomen win at a disproportionately high rate and now hold almost all the world/national records. By which time it will be too late.

Is it safe?

I know that a lot of winter sports are solo, but what about ice hockey and games where women are in danger of serious injury, much increased by possibly colliding with bigger, heavier blokes?

Its the beginning of the end of women's sport. That's for sure.

Oh Canada, you've given me a Monty Python earworm:

I cut down trees, I wear high heels, suspendies and a bra
I wish I'd been a girlie, just like my dear Papa

Does anyone know if the athletes live together during the games?

I'm not sure it's even a competition?!
Apparently there's only one team. Did I read that right? Plus this....

Canada. It kind of makes the UK seem sane.

Patriarchy, misogyny, oppression of women, all given absolute free rein under the guise of being ‘woke’.

Women’s rights are being crushed and suppressed and we are being silenced.

"Live and compete"

Some good gc comments on the article

Is it safe?

Of course not, but it's abundantly clear by now that the Canadian authorities do not give a flying fuck about women's safety

With all these "different combinations of sex and gender" , why not just have a single category in each event?

These Games include Judo and boxing, I saw on Twitter earlier. It's not solely alpine sports. So that's nice for the women athletes

So basically they have a "mens" set of events and an "open" set of events.

i shouldn't be shocked or surprised by how far this insanity has gone but like one minute's thought should demonstrate to anyone with a three-figure IQ that it ought to be a women's category and an open category.

And there's no logical justification for it! It's pure misogyny. There's no logically consistent reason to do it this way. But it validates transwomen's fetishes.

How are Canadians managing to persuade themselves this makes any sense whatsoever?

Every so often in this debate you get the feeling of a rug being pulled out from under you. You fondly imagine we're all subscribed to the same set of basic principles of human decency, you know, stuff like "women are human" or "it's good to encourage girls' participation in sport" or "everyone's entitled to set their own sexual boundaries, including women" and then you realise that no, the other side don't believe that. And it's not just the TRAs, that's the worst thing. It's a lot of people in authority. It's a lot of ordinary men. It's a lot of allegedly pro-feminist lefty men. It's even a lot of women who've been raised to prioritise men over themselves. And it's awful. I've been hit by that feeling a few times but it still upsets me every time.

Why even have different categories anymore now that men can take women's places? It's so fucking stupid.