Gavin Newsom Breaks with Dems on Trans Athletes in Sports

Let the irrational liberal shrieking commence!

It's a loser issue. The sooner Dems wrap their heads around that, the sooner we can start focusing on stuff that actually matters and might help win some elections.

The Democrats have provided nothing to counter the issues (imo, mostly lies) the Republicans have raised regarding trans-sexual people.
Yes, people. Regarding the topic of trans-sexual people participating in sports ...
My current view is ... Should the big-business of sports adjust itself to how humans are?
Or should humans have to adjust themselves to how the big business of sports views them?
Stated differently, why are we allowing corporate interests decide who people are?
#2 | Posted by LampLighter

It's not just big businesses that care. Plenty of women sacrifice quite a bit to excel in their sport.

This isn't about kissing Trump's ring. Newsom has national aspirations and even Democrats don't support trans women in women's sports.

NYT poll finds majority of Democrats oppose transgender athletes in women's sports
A recent New York Times/Ipsos survey found the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don't think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women's sports.

Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women's sports.

Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.

Among 1,022 Republicans, that number was 94%.
nypost.com

There is a reason that males and females are segregated in pretty much every sport involving physical strength. If that is not patently obvious, I doubt there's anything I can do to change that (although I once posted a breakdown of the single-digit to double-digit differences in males-females in muscle mass, lung capacity, heart size, height, weight, etc and noted that many sports come down to tenths of a second difference in separating winners from losers).

As Newsom focused on, this is about fairness to the women competitors.

There should be no problem with trans people participating in any sport as long as the transition is complete AND their hormone levels are within the "normal" range for their new gender.
#7 | Posted by FedUpWithPols

'Female' hormone levels don't entirely eliminate sex-based advantages trans competitors have in muscle mass, muscle distribution, height, weight, etc...

Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.
nypost.com

Liberals living in a bubble: "Newsom has no shot at winning Dem support now!"

Shouldn't the muscle mass advantage disappear over time as the amount of male hormones decrease and female hormones increase? And, since muscle weighs more than fat, shouldn't the weight advantage also disappear with time?
#21 | Posted by FedUpWithPols

Muscle mass decreases with lack of male hormones, but it doesn't disappear entirely.

Even after a male has undergone hormone therapy, research shows that, while those biological advantages decrease, they are still far more prominent than similarly aged and trained women. Men have 30-60 percent higher muscle strength than women, and undergoing testosterone suppression decreases that strength by only 0-9 percent - a far cry from an even playing field for even the strongest female athletes.
www.nationalreview.com

I was just giving a few examples of obvious differences. There are many more that make biological males competing in women's sports unfair (e.g., bone density and strength affecting maximum weight-carrying ability, narrower hips allowing for higher speed, longer legs). Those are unlikely to be changed very much by hormone treatment. And those breastseses that biological women carry around are pretty much useless in most sports, just deadweight.

Once again, we're talking about tenths (or hundredths) of a second separating winners from losers. If trans women want to have their own division, have at it. But claiming that they are in the same position as biological women just because they had hormone treatment seems incorrect.

Actually most "normies" don't give a ---- about this nonissue and realize that these kinds of things will always work themselves out.

I think sports are vaguely interesting in terms of record performance or watching Muhammad Ali in his prime dodging punches and dancing around the ring in a superhuman fashion, but that's about it. No idol worship from me over folks chasing a ball around. Unfortunately, our society is really into bread and circuses, and this resonates with the large portion of our nation that value this activity.

I promise you that four years from now this will be a complete nonissue and totally forgotten especially compared to what we all will be dealing with by then.
#18 | Posted by donnerboy

Yes, people voted on this issue because Dems did a decent job of making the rest of our society and government function. Global inflation did them in, but Trump's malicious destruction of our nation might restore some perspective for the next couple elections.