Utah to scrap body measurements from transgender sports bill

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Utah to scrap body measurements from transgender sports bill

By SAM METZ
March 2, 2022

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Transgender kids wouldn’t be required to report certain body measurements to play sports in Utah, but their participation would still be up to a government-appointed panel of experts under a proposal moving through the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Rep. Kera Birkeland, a Republican who coaches junior varsity basketball, said Wednesday that she was in the process of removing a list of physical attributes from her proposed “School Activity Eligibility Commission,” which would have used criteria such as bone density, hip-to-knee ratio, and oxygen saturation to determine eligibility.

The list of physical attributes provoked an outcry from parents of transgender kids and LGBTQ advocates, who fear student-athletes would feel body-checked and targeted by the commission.

“We are still working on a couple of details. We just want to make sure that it’s legally tightened up and we address as many of the concerns that we can,” Birkeland said, adding that she expected the changes to be introduced in the next day or two.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/sports-utah-45b2882a40905394b58f21b0e149a270

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. All of this transgender hysteria in sports.

Just how many transgender kids are out there trying to play a sport?

I'll admit to being rather ignorant of the whole topic, although I will say that I actually do know a transgender woman. We're not exactly friends, but I see her occasionally, and while I'd love to ask her various questions, I am very aware that those questions could be offensively intrusive, so I don't ask. She is always kind and gracious to me, in our brief encounters.

But back to the topic at hand. How many transgender athletes are really out there? How much difference do they make in the sport?

[I_UndergroundPanther]

2. Transwomen

Should be able to participate in female teams.
Likewise transmen should be able to play in mens sports teams.


Its only us transpeople singled out by these toxic republican perverts for body inspection.


Being a non binary transman I would be horrified by such body inspections and would skip gym and might even forego school altogether it would be that upsetting to me.

When I got to middle school I was still female bodied and was bullied relentlessly. I quit gym. I hooked classes where the teacher let transphobic slurs go unpunished.

Later I quit school and got a GED. Scored in the top 1%in Maryland.To me the test was easy and I wondered if I could have spared myself decades of discrimination and abuse if I took it and passed it in the 4th grade.

Sometimes I wish kids who are being abused at school and discriminated against could get out of middle or highschool by getting a GED.

I know alot of transgendered and non-binaries and bi or gay people would like that option especially in repuke states.

I just couldn't take the gender bullshit at school anymore. It was literally making me crazy.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. I cannot begin to imagine.

I am an ordinary heterosexual woman. I was born with a female body, and while I'm quite willing to complain about male dominance, I have never once wanted to be male. So I have at best a vague understanding of what it might be like to be trans.

Completely aside from this issue, I honestly think that the GED test should probably be the leaving school test. Some would pass it far earlier than others.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

5. My mom didnt understand either

She did not reject me she actually paid for my top surgery when she was in her 80's.

I put it to her like this:

You are a girl happy being a girl,like doing all the girly stuff. You feel safe in your own body. Ypu are excited about becoming a woman.

Than
Imagine as that young lady, just about to step into adolescense suddenly waking up one day with a penis.

Thats the turning point that she began to understand me.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Thank you.

I cannot begin to imagine what it might be like to no longer feel safe in my body. I am a woman despite my screen name,and I've been pretty much happy my whole life with being female. Oh, I can complain about male privilege, but that is not what we are really talking about here. I do try to honor and respect those who are different. At my age (73) it can be a bit tricky, but I understand I have a lot to learn.

I will simply say that I appreciate everyone here, and I sincerely hope I never misunderstand or disrespect anyone here.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

11. And we appreciate you

Both on being supportive, and doing your best to understand.

One thing we face is knowing a lot of people don't totally understand. And maybe it's not possible to understand unless you've gone through it first-hand. But I imagine I speak for many of us when I say we do appreciate people like you who try, and, we definitely appreciate your compassion and kindness.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

7. Absolutely

If they want to institute a rule concerning "body measurements" for athletes, then it has to be ACROSS THE BOARD. Ciswomen along with transwomen. Otherwise, it's just blatant bigotry.

As some of us have tried to tell some people here: I have seen more than a few ciswomen built like Lia Thomas, or that are even bigger than her. I've met and been around ciswomen that make me look tiny - taller, broader, bigger hands, you name it. I actually used to go to social events where people mixed up who was cis and who wasn't - they thought a ciswoman with a protruding Adam's apple was trans, and thought I was cis because I don't have one.

There is no "one size fits all", even with cisgender people. Anyone wanting to bitch about Lia Thomas' shoulders, or thinking there need to be size requirements? Then you apply it to ciswomen too. Any ciswoman who's too big? Then hold them to the same narrow-minded standards. That's the only "fair" answer. Otherwise, one set of rules for trans and one set of rules for cis is just bigotry.

I feel your pain. While I wasn't quite out yet, while I wasn't even quite sure what I felt, I was bullied relentlessly for not being "masculine" enough. That started in junior high, and got worse as I went through high school. I endured homophobic slurs, verbal abuse, even physical assaults. I took the CHSPE (CA equivalent to a GED) in 1992 and got the hell out. I couldn't take it anymore. The inner turmoil, and the external abuse, had me such a mess I couldn't even function in class. My GPA went from 3.8 the year before to 1.6 the next year, with some of my teachers bending over backwards to give me a D instead of a F knowing there was something up here besides "Student isn't learning and not making an effort."

That very fall was when I finally learned the word for what the hell I felt and came to grips with who I was. It makes me even more glad I tested out. I can't imagine trying to endure my senior year being out.

This is why some of us snap at all of this. Because we know. Because we've walked the walk. Because we know how damned hard it is walking the road toward understanding and being ourselves - and how much worse it's made when people are throwing tantrums about bathrooms or sports, or pulling the kind of shit Abbott is.

To those who want to support the trans community, and care and have our backs? Thank you.

To those who don't? LEAVE US ALONE. We are having a hard enough time as it is without your hate and abuse making it even worse.

No. We can't make the bigots and transphobes like us. But we sure can - and now need to - tell them all to back the fuck off.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

6. Not that many...

Last edited Thu Mar 3, 2022, 03:13 AM - Edit history (1)

Really. Too many people - Republicans and TERFs - are trying to act like this is some sort of major issue, and an army of Juwanna Manns are trying to take over sports. But that's not the case, considering that trans athletes are a small minority of athletes.

Of course, the real issue here is daring to live while trans. That is a major, major issue to the QOP and QERFs. They want to scream about trans athletes dominating, even though there is one mere example. They want to scream about trans athletes taking over and taking spots, even though they honestly may be 1-2% of those participating in sports.

If not a single trans person wanted to be in sports? They'd find something else to unleash their inner Nazi over. Public restrooms? Being out in public dressed and presenting as their chosen gender? Taking hormones as a teen? Taking hormones as an adult? Breathing while trans?

They don't make a difference, except to the fascists who are furious that trans people exist. This is just the newest issue for them to have a snowflake meltdown over.

[cbabe]

3. This obsession with children's bodies is very creepy. Pedophiles anyone?

[IngridsLittleAngel]

8. Of course it's creepy...

You cannot spell "creepy" without the G, the O and the P.

Plus, for all of those concerned about young women... Who was it again that liked to invite himself into the women's dressing rooms? Oh. Yeah. Tronald D. Jrump. Just another run of the mill creepy Republican.

[vercetti2021]

9. Just a hot button topic for the cult

They take something that is less than 1% and turn it into a big deal for their stupid moronic troglodytes to eat up and shit out later into false outrage. Fucking pervs, I do not want some crazy Ken or Karen to pick in my undies to see if I have a penis or not (spoiler, I do have it still) but the fuck if I'd feel comfortable some creepy ass adult peaking at me because they feel in the right to do so. I feel for these kids.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

12. I dare them to try

Over the years, I've taken the plastic tips on the heels of some of my boots and replaced them with metal ones. I like the sound much more. I also have had a few fools tell me that they're painful to be kicked with.

Some jerkass who thinks they're entitled to inspect my private regions? They'll be the next to tell me that they hurt.

We sure do have some real psychos (and sickos) in this country, though. More than happy to want to inspect our genitalia... Couldn't care less how many concealed weapons a person has on them.