Barack Obama heartbroken by wave of anti-trans bills

[plantanoakhun]

www.google.com/amp/s/uk.news.yahoo.com/amphtml/barack-obama-heartbroken-wave-anti-153244006.html

Thoughts?

I’m listening to his wife’s book at the moment. I wonder if she gets it? Perhaps not. I’m always amazed at how soon those who become Uber wealthy forget the struggles of the people who populated their early lives.

I could say more but really - what is the point?

What a disappointment- and as a father of girls, how does he square that circle?

Bleugh - that’s a PN piece via yahoo so I wouldn’t believe it if they said it was Sunday.

Always breaks my heart when I read that people I admire have been pulled into this circus.

I often wonder though, if they do genuinely have these concerns or if they have no choice but to have the woke stance in this cancel culture age?

He is the ex POTAS - who is going to cancel him from anything! He can say what he likes these days surely?

I have huge respect for this man in general, but not about how he feels over this. A lot of the bills are to protect minors having any form of gender reassignment treatments. He can frankly be disappointed till the cows come home.

These people just aren’t listening to young adults who have been through this and come out the other end - some who have made life changing decisions. How can he be so blind?

Well it's either "anti-trans" legislation or an attempt to get a grip on an ideology that has run away with itself backed by high net worth individuals with vested interests. Not to mention the plastic surgeons etc making a huge amount of money from irreversible abs experiemental treatment on kids. Then there's the travesty of forcing girls to lose to male born people in sports to "be kind". But you do you Barrack.

Until people properly engage brain with the consequences they do say that sort of thing. I hope he comes to engage one day. It takes a remarkable blindness to say teenaged girls should just put up with fully untransitioned males in their sports and spaces. Even if you believe the lies about the effect of transition on performance.

It’s easy for men to give our rights away, they don’t get the abuse when they try and say something is sex specific, their rights aren’t under attack, particularly if they don’t care about fairness in sport and they aren’t the people having to share intimate spaces with someone we cannot help but perceive as male in what we expect to be a female space.
But yes it’s disappointing.

I guess his daughters don't do sports.

Calling them "anti-trans" shows lack of attention being paid.

Unless I've missed something. It's almost entirely been female sport, right?

And some strengthening rights to single-sex spaces?

I'm heartbroken by the number of influential men who are using a mens sexual rights movement to actively removing oppotunities for women and girls.

Unless I've missed something. It's almost entirely been female sport, right?

Believe so. Trans girls/women wanting to take part in girls/women's sports. I know there's also a rugby team where a trans man who has taken testosterone is allowed to play with the women, despite the potential for unfair advantage against opponents:

"Verity Smith with his Rotherham Ladies teammates." www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/sport/view,worth-fighting-for-the-sporting-story-of-transmale-rugby-player-verity-smit_29725.htm

So yeah, always women and girls losing out.

I heard Emma Hilton talking about this the other day - apparently she was involved in drafting at least one of those US state bills.

She finds it rather odd seeing the hysterical US media coverage about "anti-trans" bills, when she knows how much care she took in creating it.

It's about women.

Ah, found my reference. She was involved in the South Dakota bill.

Talking about it here:

I know there's also a rugby team where a trans man who has taken testosterone is allowed to play with the women, despite the potential for unfair advantage against opponents

But isn't the GC position that trans women should play on mens' teams? And therefore, surely trans men should play on ladies' teams?

Not having taken testosterone, as that is usually considered illegal doping in most sport situations.

So... Verity should play on the men's team?

I think it's tricky. In the UK trans people have the same rights as everyone else. AFAIK in the US this is not the case especially as regards healthcare. So I really don't feel qualified to talk about and I wish US posters would be equally as reticent about posting on British sites.

Oh well, I'm sure he'll get over it.

Would the sports ones be about retaining sex classes for competition?

I'm disappointed in Barack Obama if he is opposed to sports competition retaining classes that are allocated by sex or age where appropriate.

The impression that I get from Americans I know is that support for trans people is very much a liberal/left wing totem in much the way that if you were even a little left-leaning in the 1980s say, you supported the miners' strike and didn't ask too many questions about not having secret ballots or whether Arthur Scargill was the right person to lead this deeply divisive conflict.

But isn't the GC position that trans women should play on mens' teams? And therefore, surely trans men should play on ladies' teams?

NO! That is not the GC position at all (although a lot of people seem to trot it out on MN as some kind of gotcha). The GC position is that biological differences exist between the sexes and should not be ignored. Often the male category in a sport is open so trans men could compete with males. Of course, since trans men were born women this is not a problem which arises often as they are at a physical disadvantage against men.

snekkes

"So... Verity should play on the men's team?"

If Verity had decided against taking banned drugs, then Verity would have probably been quite welcome on the women's team, but what Verity has done is the same as doping.
Back in the 90's when I was competing ast cycling, I was diagnosed with low testosterone levels, so my GP prescribed T Patches. I wasn't allowed to compete when I was using these. After a couple of months I gave them up because they were causing arryhythmia. I started competing again the following season.
In the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, there could possibly be nine transgender athletes competing in various sports.
The transmen (female) will be competing in women's category. The transwomen (male) will --- also be competing in the women's category.
I wonder why that is??????