Ivy League swimming champion becomes target of transphobic rhetoric
Lia Thomas, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, has become the most recent target in the heated debate about trans women athletes.
www.nbcnews.com
Okay, this '3rd grader' level 'narrative' of 'you're either with us or against us' between allegedly '2 sides' has to end. So here me out.
First off, I am a huge Endurance Racing fan. I watch FIA Production-based Grand Touring (GT) and Le Mans Prototype (LMP) endurance racing. The cars are on the track simultaneously, during the same race, but are classed differently. This way everyone participates, but finishes are recorded differently. Why? Because of the specifications. So ...
Secondly, I am a long-time, classic American Libertarian, pro-LGB[[[TQ]+]IA] (from '90s to now, as the acronym has evolved) advocate. I believe in the right of Lia Thomas to compete as whomever she states she is, including as a woman. I am utterly for this, along with Women serving in Marine Expeditionary Forces/Units (MEF/MEU) and Transsexuals serving in the US military, and so many other things.
But just like with the ability to do things like 'carry a 155mm shell' in the MEF/MEU for women, and 'medical readiness' (such as after 'gender reassignment surgery') being a factor for transsexuals, you have to have empirical, 100% science -- 0% political -- evaluations and realities involved. And that means, just like in Endurace Racing, the reality that you have multi-class participants to ensure 'competitiveness.'
Lia Thomas has a right to compete as a woman, with women. This is just reality. We have to accept it.
But for sheer Title IX realities, Lia Thomas must be classified differently -- by literal 'specifications' -- when it comes to records. This is just reality. We *also* have to accept this.
This is not 'bigotry,' this is still 'inclusion,' but yes, it's 'classification,' while not full 'seggregation.'
We have 'full seggregation' for men and women's sports. Why?
Because without 'competitiveness,' women sports will not exist, if they have to compete with men. We purposely 'seggreate' for this reason.
We shouldn't 'seggregate' transgender women (born men) from women. We must 'include' them. But we should 'classify' transgender women differently.
To not do so ... will kill women's sports, and utterly undermine Title IX. It's not bigotry to point out this reality, it's evaluation.
Everyone needs to stop making this a 3rd grader argument with labels. We need to be objective, open minded and not 'cancel' anyone who has such a science-based, empirical viewpoint.
SIDE NOTE: Now 'unequal compensation/exposure' is still an issue with 'seggregation,' and that's a greater issue that I'm actually in the camp with women on, especially as many of their sports are extremely popular. Sadly, very popular women's sports, and even their officials and other participants (non-players), are not being rightfully compensation either. But putting that aside for this issue ...