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Originally Posted by Shaun
It has to be a sport by sport basis, really, because there are some where physical differences are so minimal. And then there's team sports... would one member of a (football/hockey/netball/basketball) team, who is trans, make that much of an impact on the entire team game?
The whole issue doesn't take into consideration women (who are "born women") being naturally assigned more testosterone, wider hips, broader shoulders etc. being pit against other women. Or men with more oestrogen, slimmer hips, longer legs, etc. If you take some of the greatest athletes of all time - like Michael Phelps for example - he is basically superhuman and not at all comparable to an average man. His chest size and arm length is colossal. Are those instances still classed as a level playing field? Because right now you could argue that every long-distance or marathon runner has very little "femininity" compared to most.
Like TS said, sports are, by definition, exclusive of most body types and physiology... but I suppose the problem is athletic trans people not having any place to compete, not having any career prospects whatsoever, and being rejected from both gendered fields, and the whole subject seems to heading down the path of "stick them in with the paralympics then", as if trans people are a disability, or possess that sense of "otherness" that alienates them from so much of society. It's unfair either way.
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Obviously there are men and women who are naturally physically superior to other men and women but we're talking here about for the most part biological men are physically stronger, faster etc than biological women, all you need do to see by how much is look at men's records compared to women's, it's the whole reason sex is segregated in the first place because if it wasn't there would be very very few women being good enough to play in mixed sex sports.
In regards to team sports I do think one player can make a massive difference and i do think 1 player could cause more serious injuries to other players too
I get how it's not ideal for genuine transwomen to not be allowed compete with women but it just takes the fairness out of it for biological women to allow transwomen play not least because it leaves the door wide open for people to abuse it (and people would when money and notoriety is involved) I'm not going to post a list of cases where this has already started happening in women's sports because I'm sure I've posted them before