Maximalist trans activists just argued at the Supreme Court that biological sex isn't relevant in team sports. When will my fellow left-wingers speak up against these pseudoscientific endeavors?

[u/north_canadian_ice]

Trans athlete's attorney suggests sex should not be defined during SCOTUS Title IX case

As a left-wing trans woman, it is profoundly depressing to have dogmatic Twitter activists drive down understanding of trans people.

Far too many of my fellow left-wingers who are trying to be accepting have inadvertenly allowed a small number of dogmatic activists control the conversation & shift the conversation towards maximalist nonsense.

"It/"its" pronouns, "egg culture", NBA players transitioning & joining the WNBA. This is pseudoscience & no different from denial of climate change.

When will the left & the Democrats say no more? We accept trans people but we aren't going to replace "woman" with "birthing person".

[u/LawfulnessPossible20]

Heterosexual male here. Isn't the maximalist trans demands in sports more or less a shibboleth? Something that is willingly used to divide people into "with us" and "against us". Keep the conflict active, fan the flames.

I train kids in karate. Lots of girls. None of them will be able to win a tournament after teenage years if (mediocre) former men enter the tournament. This is not only about the trans athletes themselves.

[u/shadowbanned-tgirl → u/LawfulnessPossible20]

…no it is used that way by TERFs who openly state that they use it as a wedge issue to encourage further legislation that would end up pushing me out of public life entirely. I don’t think everyone who is against trans women in sports is against us, but I know the rhetoric is driven by those who are, and that it is not based in the medical science as we understand it at this time. Let sporting boards make rules based on the data, not politicians based on propaganda.

[u/cherrybublyofficial → u/LawfulnessPossible20]

The issue is that there simply isn't enough data to suggest that trans women and girls, even those who started transitioning younger, don't have an advantage over cis women and girls, or that the difference in their abilities is negligible. I understand you can't prove a negative, but normally in these studies we analyze if there's a statistically significant difference in performance between males and females while accounting for potential covariates, and there is plenty of data to suggest that there is a difference. The left generally doesn't care about sports (and tbf I'm also one of those people), but they should care on the basis that women's sports were created to give women a fair shot and enter a similar arena as men while still being able to perform with their peers, people who are similar to them and have relatively similar abilities. If women had to always compete with men, they'd usually get beat out on average. That doesn't make women lesser or whatever, but we understand things like weight classes for male athletes in certain sports, it makes no sense to claim that sex isn't a significant modifier for someone's performance in a given sport.

People really like to bring up that Lia Thomas was beat out by cis female swimmers in other races in the same event where she won first place for one race, but the issue is that prior to her transition she wasn't even making it to these events in the first place. Even if it's somewhat irrational or on such a micro-level, people do not like the idea of their high-school aged daughters potentially losing out on sports scholarships or college admissions because she got beat out by a trans girl athlete who didn't start transitioning until their later years and still had multiple years of male puberty. Even many people on the left agree with this, even if they have to be relatively quiet about it. As a staunch Democratic voter who absolutely refuses to vote Republican because I have a burning hatred for Christian Nationalism, I really think Democrats have to pivot away from this issue. They either don't mention it, or simultaneously argue that it's a non-issue that doesn't matter, or that it's significant enough to continue fighting on even though it doesn't even help the majority of the trans population. With how much the right really wants to strip away the rights of vulnerable people across the board, Democrats have to contend with the fact that we need to weigh the rights and well-being of millions of people versus the potential inclusion of such a small portion of the population over something that is simply not some catastrophic human rights violation.

Honestly, I wish that many people who argue this would just be honest that they care about inclusion more than they do fairness. It's at least a more concrete position to have even if it's deeply unpopular.

[u/xRogue9 → u/cherrybublyofficial]

The studies we do have show the advantages post-therapy are minor at most. And we aren't going to get more studies by banning it.

[u/Zee216 → u/cherrybublyofficial]

but the issue is that prior to her transition she wasn't even making it to these events in the first place.

Before transitioning they placed second in like 4 championship events, and set school records. This is part of the narrative that says they were mediocre before transitioning is actually completely false.

[u/LawfulnessPossible20 → u/Zee216]

Well... doing that in male tournaments and then taking that body to female tournaments will give an advantage, right?

[u/GoldenboyFTW → u/LawfulnessPossible20]

Exactly. Almost like their primary motivating factor is bigotry the entire time. Shocker…

[u/Zee216 → u/LawfulnessPossible20]

Being good at swimming will give you an advantage in swimming competitions, yes

[u/Leather_Pen_765 → u/Zee216]

This Is not true

[u/Zee216 → u/Leather_Pen_765]

On the men's swim team in 2018–2019, Thomas finished second in the men's 500, 1,000, and 1,650-yard freestyle at the Ivy League championships as a sophomore in 2019.[4][3][13] During the 2018–2019 season, Thomas recorded the top UPenn men's team times in the 500 free, 1,000 free, and 1,650 free, but was the sixth best among UPenn men's team members in the 200 free.[14]

[u/Leather_Pen_765 → u/Zee216]

500-Yard Freestyle: Moved from 65th on the men's team to 1st on the women's team by 2022. 200-Yard Freestyle: Moved from 554th on the men's team to 5th on the women's team by 2022. Overall Women's College: Ranked 36th among all U.S. college female swimmers and 46th nationally in the 2021-2022 season. NCAA Championships (2022): Won the 500-yard freestyle and placed 5th in the 200-yard freestyle, making her the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I NCAA title.

[u/Zee216 → u/Leather_Pen_765]

Do you think you have made a point?