Disc Golf (?) has banned transgender women from the female division

[ZeldaFighter]

This is the article that piqued my interest in September:

quillette.com/2022/09/28/is-this-the-lia-thomas-of-disc-golf/

I've been keeping an eye on it but this has happened:

www.outkick.com/professional-disc-golf-effectively-bans-transgender-players-from-competing-in-womens-division/

For the record, I feel for the transgender women involved. But the clue is in the words - they chose to change their gender. Sport is segregated by physical sex, not gender.

Don't feel any sympathy for that male at all. Entitlement in every word of that statement.

I don't think it matters what the motivation of the individual is.. whether they are seeing a loophole and cheating, or whether they genuinely believe themselves to be female and therefore participating in the correct category... the end result is exactly the same, women losing their rights.

I don't care what the motivation is, as that implies that one motivation might be OK. It's really simple. If you are male, you do not participate in female sports.

I'm afraid I also agree it is not ignorance of the consequences on others to their actions. Women have been explaining this for years: look up dysfunctional relationships and the kind of person who has been repeatedly told about the harm of their actions to others but goes on insisting they're doing nothing wrong.

Ten minutes on Twitter will demonstrate clearly the entitlement, and many who actively enjoy the domination and deprivation of female people and the feeling of power and triumph involved. See: white women's tears. Women's 'privilege' that justifies taking them down a few pegs to their proper place below TW. 'Old' often pops up in there somewhere. The attitudes do not make for pleasant reading.

Mediocre men who choose to smash women's records and opportunities and then win prizes do not have my respect. Zero sympathy for any male who chooses this. The male team was open for him to play on. He chose not to join it.

Good. I play disc golf with my husband and although I can certainly compete with accuracy, I can't come close to his power and strength when throwing.

Good.

He's got a point, though:

“If fairness was the boards only priority the would have removed all trans women from competition. This decision send a clear message: The board doesn’t want to see me succeed. They don’t care about local trans women or semi pro trans women nor masters trans women."
Why do sporting boards do this? Why do they only ban males from certain levels of the women's competitions? Why not a blanket ban? The males have the same advantages over the women at every level.

Agree - the blanket ban is appropriate.

But they’re fudging it because they haven’t (yet) seen a backlash from those other categories. And because there’s clearly a strong element of the “be kind” BS in their governing body’s approach.

The governing bodies are trying have their cake and eat it - being seen to be 'inclusive' to mitigate the TRA backlash but protect elite sport because they know it's a problem.

This is obviously an approach doomed to failure. Elite athletes come up through the amateur ranks. I don't think amateur players are entitled to any less consideration and safety issues remain in many sports. Also - how are amateur sports supposed to monitor testosterone levels? There is no infrastructure for it in the way there is at elite levels.

Yes, I agree and I think safety is actually more of a consideration at amateur levels - people are less skilled and so more likely to tackle badly / fall over / hit someone with the bat/ball etc

Does this basically say it's OK to injure less competent women but don't break the medal contenders?

Every now and then, the scene from The Umbrella Academy pops into my head - where the black woman enters a cafe in the 1960's. She is verbally and physically assaulted because of the colour of her skin by the majority of customers. I never want to be in the evil, ignorant group. Linking the fight against racism and sexism to gender rights has done a number on me (possibly as designed?) I worry constantly that I am being a bigot, despite spending most of my life as an anti-racist feminist supporting women and girls.

I feel this so, so much. I know my GC views are right and I know female conditioning makes me feel guilt about this. But I still find it difficult to reconcile with being seen as a bigot and even right wing. All my views are firmly to the left and I wouldn't dream of discriminating against anyone, but all those people whose views I normally align with see me as a bigotted transphobe. I find it so difficult to get my head round.

Yes, this is it. Sporting bodies are at fault here for allowing males into female sports.