It's started in Irish dancing too. 14 year old trans child wins world qualifying event

[Greyheart1]

https://tennesseestar.com/news/parents-outraged-after-trans-identifying-boy-wins-girls-irish-dancing-competition-heads-to-worlds/admin/2023/12/10/

This means that the girl outside the qualifying spots in the U14 competition has missed out on her chance to dance at the world championships next year.
Devestating. It is an extremely expensive sport.

Surprised the Daily Mail haven't covered this. They are usually on the ball highlighting the plight of women's sports at the moment

That statement said that the IDTANA is committed to “a culture where every dancer, family, teacher, and volunteer feel safe, respected and valued through creating an environment that provides dancers, regardless of age, ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, income, race or sexual orientation, opportunities to learn and grow as dancers and people.”

When these organisations put out statements like this how do they square what they say with the fact that the girls won't feel safe respected or valued?

Exactly one individuals feelings put ahead of hundreds of girls. The child can still compete in its own birth gender or even better lobby for a trans section in the competition. But no.
The rules of the organisation are not in favour of girls. As the article states was 11th in boys & now winning in the girls & a girl has missed out in a coveted world championship qualifying position.

Yet another organisation that doesn't seem compelled to explain why "gender identity" determines which sex-based category someone enters.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
The parents & dance teachers who don't want this can take a really strong case & boycott. Cancel culture works Can they do anything legally?
Or it will open the floodgates for more boys to start identifying as girls especially if they feel they could win. Who knows but it is very concerning.

I just don't believe even a small part of this boy doesn't feel bad about winning, and knowing on some level he does not belong there. Doesn't that taint the win for any of these people?
How can they actually be proud of the "win"?

Normal people would be ashamed to stand on a winners podium having achieved a medal through unfair tactics.

I don’t think the organisation should allow him/her to compete in the girls category as he had already competed in the boys! That along with the fact it is a disadvantage to the girls who also work really hard to be there

It seems a boy or man is more likely to win when we hear of these events

Physical difference aside for something like Irish dancing where it’s not so relevant is there a we want to be seen to do a good thing

Really not good for the girls or women who get bumped down the ranks by males though

It's an awkward position to be in.. the sport requires females to present in stereotyped costumes, short skirts, wigs, fake tan and makeup on kids as young as 5.. it's like a beauty pagent... and as such I would not usually go out of my way to defend it. I would also question whether there qas evidence of a biological advantage involved.. it's been 40 years since I was anywhere near an Irish dance competition, there were very few male competitors and I have no idea how winners were chosen.

It would be interesting to know the basis of scoring and if it was consistent across the category. Though it would seem from an article I read that males score 900 to win the competition whereas the winning score in the female competition was 700... if this is typical across categories, competitions and years... it would be evidence that there is biological advantage at play.

Alyssa was 11th in the male category earlier in the year (according to an unverified article I read... I took issue with some of the wording used so will not link it) and switched categories to qualify.

The petition is a positive step here. If you know of any other like minded groups who support girls only activities can you share please if it's not too much trouble?

https://www.change.org/p/protect-female-irish-dancers-in-gender-specific-world-qualifying-championships-worldwide?recruited_by_id=f99319b0-9555-11ee-ac90-5977b9ff5c33&recruiter=1323488450&share_bandit_exp=initial-37783623-en-US

Every time this happens, the highest placed non-qualifying female should sue for sex discrimination.

But if it doesn't matter how did he go from 11th boy not even top 10 to 1st girl? Clearly he either has an advantage or the judges favoured him because he is trans?

@Boomboom22 that is another very important factor. It is a judged sport.
Clrg is facing huge law suits at the moment due to last year's judging scandal so all eyes are on the judges at the moment. The organisation has a lot of issues that runs deep to the core.

Slightly off-topic, but for all the people convinced Irish Dancing = Satan’s Own Fake Tan Mitt, lots of people compete under WIDA so no make-up (inc fake-tan) for U12’s & no wigs (then only a bun wig until you’re 15) & once you’re allowed a dress it’s to be of a more traditional style. WIDA have had a “trans non-binary” adult compete - but pretty clearly in the correct sex category. I can’t find anything saying people are allowed to dance according to their genderfeels either 🤔

Returning to our sheep: really fecking hope CLRG & various affiliated organisations turn the ship around & sail back into the waters of sanity. The extra strength, stamina & power boys [& men] have is an advantage, especially in hard shoe dances. Males have more fast twitch muscles which are basically exactly what they need for the small fast steps: it’s the same reason men find petit allegro so easy in ballet & even [relative] beginners can knock out entrechats & sometimes royales with ease.

@NitroNine@NitroNine if there continues there could well be a mass exodus to wida.
I can't understand why clrg can't create a trans catagory, that would keep everyone happy!

@NitroNine everything you are saying is completely correct. The dances are less than two minutes so stamina & power are what's going to be needed most. The only thing this child needed to learn was a slip jig which won't be needed until next summer. The other dances are the same as the girls.

@Greyheart1
I’d be happy (with no dogs in the fight, as it were) to see it - much prefer their rules; & not having a sex scandal is always a bonus 😁
Members leaving might be what does it - having that freedom to choose is where Irish Dancers are ahead of lots of other athletes.

Oh & a trans category wouldn’t make them happy: they want to be “validated” by getting to dance with the girls. In a trans category they’d be back dancing against boys & they might not win, having lost their unfair advantage.

I didn’t realise they’d not even had to learn anything new - that really does make it so much worse!

I follow the dance school's Instagram (a relative does Irish dancing) and it's extremely obvious who this boy is.

It might be both idk

There seems to a flurry of firsts for males in whatever the sport

I don’t agree with any males in female sports

@EasternStandard I'm the same. Women's sports for women only. The push back needs to start in clrg.
1.They have options, change the rules to ensure girls & boys competitions are protected & all entrants dance in their birth gender.

1. Create a third section to accommodate trans kids
2. Make the competitions mixed accross the board.

Option 1 & 2 are the fairest to all.

@NitroNine agsin great points. That is absolutely correct there are at least four other organisations that dancers can easily move to although they would need to research the policies carefully.
That's very progressive of wida to have a trans catagory.

Yes of course, but only certain people...

Ah, sure, lookit. Isn't that it?

On the subject of Irish dance itself - it's not all wigs and fake tan, that's just a highly stylised version of it. And now you mention it, yes it very drag-ish! Ordinary people wearing ordinary clothes also do extraordinary Irish dancing:

On the main topic - I'm in total agreement of course, boys should not compete in girls' competitions, in this or any other arena.