More threats to womens sport - FIFA and FINA

[BatDuck]

Today FINA are due to vote on their new trans inclusion policy following the Lia Thomas scandal. I was hoping for a good outcome until I saw Cathy Devine tweet that the following groups will make presentations before the vote:

1. scientists


2. human rights experts


3. trans athletes

guess who’s missing?

And now I’ve just read FIFA are looking to loosen their approach so every man and his dog can identify into.

www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10930499/Experts-fear-FIFAs-make-easier-transgender-women-harm-female-football.html

I despair.

Don’t despair. Voters will right this imbalance eventually.

It's all just one long misogynist party. I've just seen Willoughby's gleeful tweet joining in with TW who having found a carefully provided gender neutral provided toilet with a note on the door to say females who needed a single sex space needed to walk to another part of the building - all carefully walked to that single sex toilet and used it to demonstrate that males will do whatever the fuck they want, could not give a shit about females excluded, and it's all about their control, their power, their right to take everything from females and no one can stop them. 'Just want to pee' my ovaries.

And this agenda is being enabled by a bunch of equally nasty misogynist idiots. It's male supremacism. That's it. That's all. Good old fashioned boring MRAs.

I am getting exhausted at the half the human race who are passively watching all this happen in front of them, to them, and to their daughters, and have not yet managed to get off their bums and do anything about it. Despite endless attempts to wake them up to it.

It's awful, the world has gone mad.

Grassroots football under FIFA already permits men to play women's football without any testosterone limits. I retired from the more competitive leagues in my mid-forties, but I increasingly see men playing in those games, They're usually easy to spot as they're a foot taller than most of the other players.

I now play in a low-level league that welcomes complete beginners. Women in their twenties and thirties who have literally never kicked a ball. Women who don't know the first thing about the positions or what they are supposed to do on the pitch. Women who are terrified about trying something scary and new but desperate to give it a go. Women who are looking for female camaraderie and support.

Introducing men into that environment will be an unmitigated disaster. The league has consulted teams on transgender participation, but I don't know what their final decision will be.

OP I despair of this too.

The only conclusion to be made is that sports is deeply mysogynistic. Women athletes are not being listened to at any level.

It's plain old sex discrimination, it literally boils my piss whenever I read these stories and actually puts me off supporting any sport - why should men's sports continue unchanged? Why are transmen continued to be allowed in the female category if we also include TW?

I'm not against TM in women's categories at all btw, it makes biological sense but just highlighting this underlines the lack of logic that the women's category accommodates self declared men as well as self declared women.

FINA has come through for women!

This is incredible. They’ve decided that both trans athletes like Lia Thomas and 46XY athletes with DSDs will have to compete in Mens swimming. They have been at great pains to stress that no matter an athletes gender identity or expression they should be welcome in their sport. I can wholeheartedly support that.

Only link I can find at the moment;

www.channelnewsasia.com/sport/fina-votes-restrict-transgender-participation-elite-womens-competition-2756951

yay!

Here's their report:
resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/06/19/525de003-51f4-47d3-8d5a-716dac5f77c7/FINA-INCLUSION-POLICY-AND-APPENDICES-FINAL-.pdf

Not 100% what I’d like:

The new policy will require transgender competitors to have completed their transition by the age of 12 in order to be able to compete in women's competitions.

… so still allowing male bodied people into female events.
However, that’s a lot better than I’d feared.

Good grief!!!!

This is incredible and much welcome. I've only scanned it but they clearly criticise the IOC's inadequate trans captured recommendations. They focus on facts and science and are heading for women's and open categories in the future.
I noticed this:
FINA recognises that some individuals and groups may be uncomfortable with the use of medical and scientific terminology related to sex and sex-linked traits which made me It's the silencing of facts and science that has led to this mess and (unless I'm misreading this) it looks as if the adults have re entered the room (or swimming pool if you prefer).

According to the Science Group, if gender-affirming male-to-female transition consistent with the medical standard of care is initiated after the onset of puberty, it will blunt some, but not all, of the effects of testosterone on body structure, muscle function, and other determinants of performance, but there will be persistent legacy effects that will give male-to-female transgender athletes (transgender women) a relative performance advantage over biological
females. A biological female athlete cannot overcome that advantage through training or nutrition. Nor can they take additional testosterone to obtain the same advantage, because testosterone is a prohibited substance under the World Anti-Doping Code.

That's actual common sense!!!

A child who has transitioned before the age of 12 will have a body that is so fatally compromised physically that they will never ever reach elite standard in a sport like swimming. I suspect it's a token gesture that they know will never become a reality.

The TRAs will meltdown about this.
It's uncompromising about maintaining the separation of Aquatic sports into men’s and women’s categories according to scientifically-grounded, sex-based criteria

They've openly tackled the trans DSD issues and state that swimmers can compete in the competition category that reflects their gender identity based on eligibility criteria that are consistent with and do not undermine FINA’s goals for the women’s category

Thanks to Lia Thomas for idemonstrating to the world so clearly how males who have undergone puberty retain advantages over women in sport.

It comes into force from the 20th June - which is tomorrow. They're not messing around.

Also very good to see the commitment to looking into an open category. This is the only real way forward.

The Appendix 1 disclaimers for TM is sobering reading.

It is isn't it Artichoke. They're also very clear about trans men being welcome in women's swimming subject to meeting various drug requirements.

Appendix 1 is very interesting! All the sports bodies for contact sports currently allowing transwomen to compete in women's categories should get every female to sign one.

Its an interesting point.

The effort is being gone to to ensure that any female injured or worse due to competing with males have no legal claim.

I cannot see that a female hurt by 'being folded like a deckchair' by a biological male in a female sport would have any less claim.

Sense at last. 71% voted for

A token gesture completely. Yes trans people can compete but only if they transitioned under the age of 12.
It stops what needed to be stopped. Adult men who have failed to achieve as a man but are able to win as a woman.

Great, and yes 71% is a great majority vote.

Let's hope FINA carry the can on this and other sporting bodies begin to be emboldened. Will also give competing female athletes in other sports a precedent to claim fairness in their sport.

Finally someone admits the Emperor is NOT wearing New Clothes and suggests he covers up

Thank you Lia Thomas