Texas Law Targeting Transgender Athletes Takes Effect Tuesday

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Greg is ignoring the Texas power grid and COVID to push this crap

Link to tweet

As of Tuesday, Texas athletes must compete in the sports that align with the birth certificate that was issued at or near their birth.

That specificity of when the birth certificate was issued is the significant change that was implemented with the Texas legislature passing this new law during the third special session called by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

The University Interscholastic League, which oversees school sports in Texas, says that a student’s gender is determined by their birth certificate. But until now, the UIL would accept updated birth certificates, where someone had their sex legally changed to match their gender identity.

Under the updated law, a transgender girl who previously competed in sports against other girls in Texas must now compete against boys.

[Casady1]

1. I know this is not popular around here

but it is unfair to the women competing that a transgender person can compete with the women. The physical advantages are too much. I started to compete against the rookie of the year in the original professional women's basketball league in 1982. . I played 2,000 games with her. I played the point many times and set thousands of picks for her. She shot 80% from almost 20 feet. As good as she was if I wanted to I could flat out dominate her in the post. I was 2 inches taller and 25 pounds heavier. I was an okay player but the difference in physicality size is too much.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Yes, one player can certainly dominate another, no matter what gender either one is.

Transgender women are women competing against other women.

[Casady1]

4. Bull

men are physically stronger than women. Did you ever compete against a women in a physical sport like basketball.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. We've had this conversation before. What does it matter?

men are physically stronger than women

By some measurements, sure. By others, they're not. In any case, it doesn't matter, because trans women are women, competing against other women. Some women are stronger than other women. It happens.

[iemanja]

23. Record times for men are better

in all sports, bar none.

[North Shore Chicago]

9. +1

[phylny]

6. I agree.

I read a great article on the Washington Post about a transgender woman who was competing in collegiate swimming. She was ahead of the other swimmers by huge margins. Several people stated that once a person goes through puberty as a male, several advantages remain even after transitioning (broader shoulders, slimmer hips, larger hearts, stronger muscles), and it was totally unfair to other female athletes. They also said that girls and boys who swim are about equal in time until about age 12, when boys have a distinct and growing advantage.

[North Shore Chicago]

7. +1

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. When it comes to unfair advantages, wait until you hear about Michael Phelps'.

[Casady1]

11. This paints liberals in a bad picture

with almost every group. If you are getting pushback from your fellow liberals I can guarantee you moderate people think we are nuts.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. Other people can speak for themselves and as I wouldn't describe myself as a liberal or moderate,

I figure they can hold and defend their own positions.

[Casady1]

14. Great comment

sarcasm

[LiberatedUSA]

17. South Park covered this topic.

Quite well.

[iemanja]

24. and if Phelps competed against women

How fair would that be? This is a difficult issue. I don't see it as a problem for kids, but when it comes to professional or Olympic level athletics, it's trickier.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

25. Phelps, a man, competes against other men.

[FreeState]

26. Is it an issue at all?

Trans people have been able to compete in the Olympics since 2004. In that time, around 50,000 athletes have competed in the Olympics. No trans person has won a medal of any kind in that time. Not only that, no trans person has even qualified for the Olympics during that time. In fact, only two trans people have even qualified for the qualifiers, and neither of them got through. Now sure, trans people are a small minority of the population. But the argument is that they have an advantage, which means that it shouldn’t take many at all. If trans women have an advantage, then it should only take a single trans woman who was skilled, but not world class before she transitioned to absolutely smash up the women’s competition in the Olympics. Where are they?

[iemanja]

27. I didn't realize

that transpeople were already completing. Thank you for the info.

[North Shore Chicago]

10. +1

[womanofthehills]

31. Some new studies are out - from Guardian

The research, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that before starting their hormone treatment trans women performed 31% more push-ups and 15% more sit-ups in one minute on average than a biological women younger than 30 in the air force – and ran 1.5 miles 21% faster.

Yet after suppressing their testosterone for two years – a year longer than IOC guidelines – they were still 12% faster on average than biological females.

The trans women also retained a 10% advantage in push-ups and a 6% advantage in sit-ups for the first two years after taking hormones, before their advantage disappeared. But the researchers say they “may underestimate the advantage in strength that trans women have over cis women … because trans women will have a higher power output than cis women when performing an equivalent number of push-ups”.some hn

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/07/study-suggests-ioc-adjustment-period-for-trans-women-may-be-too-short

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Shameful.

[hunter]

13. All seven of them, maybe?

These young transgender women playing high school sports must have some kind of awesome superpowers to scramble the brains of conservatives and monkey wrench Texas politics like this.

[Casady1]

15. how about those

two swimmers now competing in women swimming?

[hunter]

16. I'm probably the wrong person to ask.

The only reason high school and college sports should receive ANY public or private funding is to promote active lifestyles.

I don't give a queer flying fuck which team wins.

Personally I thought all sports sucked until I played co-ed recreational softball in college. It was fun and it got me out of the computer lab.

I also ran a lot. Back with most of the girls.

[Casady1]

18. I believe ot was in the Ivy league

A transgender competed against the women and smashed the records by seconds. It was not close to fair.

[hunter]

19. You can put in asterisk in your personal record book. And sponsors will sponsor who they sponsor.

The "fair" that matters most in high school and college sports is that everyone has a venue to play in.

[FreeState]

20. How did he have an advantage?

Assuming your talking about Iszac Henig?

Before you answer he hasn’t had surgery and hasn’t taken any hormones.

[iemanja]

28. Serious athletes don't compete in the Ivy League

They go to schools with strong programs in their sport.

[Casady1]

32. Kyle hendricks

best pitcher on the Cubs- Dartmouth
Ron darling- Ivy league
Ryan Fitzpatrck- s QB NFL

Mark DeRosa- Atlanta Braves.
serious to make money playing sports

[vercetti2021]

21. As a transgender

I'm not gonna comment whether kids can be comfortable with their assigned team. Kids are not adults. They do not have the muscle mass. Especially if a boy goes on puberty blockers and such. Most trans women are weakened by blockers and HRT. Lot of them might not be trans, but using it to their advantage in certain sports. Because anyone who is and still is going through transition change structurally as well. Kids should not be punished for being them. But to be honest? Most transwomen are not gonna take part in sports for this exact reason. Scrutiny and such.

[FreeState]

22. +1 n/t

[Zeitghost]

29. In a sport like swimming

When every major record is held by a person with XY chromosomes, will we have true equality?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

30. Trans kids and supporters say new Texas law will keep them out of school sports

Link to tweet

Last year, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 25, which requires that student athletes play on sports teams that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificate, and the certificate athletes present must have been issued near the time of birth. The law went into effect Tuesday, making Texas the 10th state in the U.S. to enact similar legislation.

Supporters of the law argue it is necessary to protect women’s sports from what they deem unfair competition. State Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, said one of her main reasons for authoring the bill was to “protect girls’ safety.” She did not respond to requests for comment for this story, but in a news conference Tuesday, she hinted at introducing future legislation that would expand sports team restrictions to the college level.

“We have got to come back and protect our college girls in the next session,” she said.

HB 25 targets transgender youth, a rather small slice of the state’s population. Data shows less than half of LGBTQ youth participate in sports, and it’s predicted the number of transgender youth is even smaller.

[Torchlight]

33. Abbott needs this type of hot button topic to distract voters from his energy failure

Abbott's policies resulted in the freezing deaths of over 200 people and Texans are still talking about that today. So of course he pivots to a topic that compels the milquetoast to follow him and pretend concern for the rights of straight white male from a non-existent threat.