Does talent win every time? No. There are many talented, tall, strong athletes and theres more to it than genes when on the field competing. Except when male vs female heads up you can count on the Y over the X every time Track, football, basketball, baseball, golf, hockey, lacrosse, soccer...the male athletes will defeat the female athletes every time when competiting at same age groups or levels and not handicapped, which is why its not fair if a kid born as a boy competes with girls and claims titles. Maybe there will be a trans division one day and solve any issue.
I mean I could probably put together a team of dudes running around East Knoxville that would be willing to play for the WNBA league minimum and start a dynasty the likes of which the sports world has never seen.
But would they be willing to trans to women for 57,000 a year? I doubt it. I still don't like the idea of trans boy->girl playing with girls.
Most sports listed are team sports, so the odds of an entire team being chromosome Y playing in a women's division is astronomically low. Which means we're really looking at just individual competition, where a genetically superior female will beat an average female every time. And where a genetically superior male will beat an average male every time. So we're not talking about anything different, unless the argument that an average male will beat a superior female every time, and that average male also happened to identify as female. Which would defy the meaning of average.
Meh. People "compete" (even the ones that make it to the college level) for less than a fifth of their life span. It's really only the ones that sucked that can't seem to let it go, and put too much emphasis on it later in their life, when they're beyond competition anyway. Let the kids do whatever. It'll work itself out in the end.
I don't think this problem is at all unique, if you reduce it down to its essence. This is why there is 1A, 2A, 3A, etc. This is why 6'4 kids don't play running back on the 7th grade team. This is why wrestling has weight classes. Make the point of divisions meaningful, and move on. "Boys" and "girls" was never the extent of the divisioning, and as has come up in both women's basketball and women's track, the terms aren't always as cleanly binary as they are presented when you start considering larger and larger pools of individuals.
If they are just playing pretend, they aren't trans (not that you have to have surgery to be trans). It wouldn't be something they just leave in the locker room and resume the identity of a man when not at work.
That was not my experience in high school track (the only "solo" sport I did in high school). There was a ton of parity in the sprint events (100m, 200m, 400m, hurdles, etc.). I wasn't top 5 level competitive, but there were a number here was a small period where the best hurdler, who was, at the time, one of the best in the country and setting and breaking state records left and right, picked up the 100m as an extra event. He ended up winning it at the local level (and maybe even state level... can't remember), but it wasn't a foregone conclusion, by any means, that he was going to win it, even at the local level. There were 3 or 4 guys that everyone knew had a chance, even if the hurdler was the favorite.
Is it though? I'm sure a lot of people are looking at this from the perspective of a parent whose dejected daughter is getting her ass kicked, repeatedly, in her preferred sport by a trans person who was born a boy. I'm not saying that it will happen frequently or anything, but I'm not sure why that would matter. Either it's an unfair advantage or it isn't. I lean towards it is, especially in some of the more physical sports like boxing, weightlifting, etc.
I don't look at sports as having the purpose to win. I look at it as building oneself up, which is a lifelong skill, that isn't concerned with wins and losses. The dejected daughter getting her ass kicked, repeatedly, by a person born a boy probably is getting her ass kicked by more than just that person as well. And in the event that they aren't, they haven't lost anything. The #2 female hasn't lost anything to the #1 trans-female. It'll work itself out in the end. Just compete to the best of your ability. Self improve. And play the sport for the love of the sport, not the love of winning. And if the #2 female is playing just to win, welcome to life. Sometimes you lose, because shit isn't fair.
Also, the scenario just describes is the reverse of what the situation is on the highest profile trans athlete story in the US. Mack Beggs is a trans boy who is being forced to compete against girls, and is dominating: https://www.denverpost.com/2018/02/22/mack-beggs-texas-transgender-wrestler-state-title-defense/ He WANTS to wrestle other boys, but your position is exactly what is keeping him from doing so and creating the situation of a bunch of girls getting dominated. So, that's ironic. NOT letting people self-identify is causing the very situation you are saying you wish to avoid.
Lol, please. Wanna see how easy this is to solve? Let any girl or trans boy who wants to compete against boys do so because there is no inherent advantage for that girl or trans boy. See how easy that was? Let people self identify and compete against the opposite gender all they want, as long as doing so doesn't put them at an advantage over the other people they are competing against.
All competition has advantage over others. That's the nature of sports, since it deals with people. All we're doing is creating little localized categorizations and saying what thing conveys an advantage, and what doesn't. Competition is always going to be inherently unfair, since it deals with people. It would be best, but impractical, to say someone who won their "class" has to move up a class.
You're using the word "I" a lot. Just because you view sports one way doesn't mean everyone else does or should view them the same. How has the dejected daughter, who has only gotten her ass kicked by a trans person who was born a boy, not lost anything? The girl who places second at state, losing only to a trans person who was born a boy, is losing out on a state title. That's a big deal. State titles, and any title, really, takes all kinds of effort, perseverance, and commitment. Why do we even bother to separate male and female sports? Why not just combine them? How does your argument about a single trans person competing with the opposite sex of which he or she was born not also make the argument for just combining men and women's sports altogether? Again, why do we bother dividing men and women's sports as is right now? The average NBA player is 6'7. The average WNBA player is 6'0. There is a reason they don't play against each other. There are clear, consistent physical and physiological differences between men and women that will, on average, lead to VASTLY different performance outputs from each. That's why my college roommate at a DIII school could compete with the women's world record time in the 100m. If a person who was born female wants to compete against male opponents, no problem. I'm all for it. If it's the other way around, I don't think it makes sense.
It isn't a big deal to lose a state title. Everyone but one in each category does it every year. You are correct, though, winning any title does take all kinds of effort, perseverance and commitment, and that goes for the trans person as well. The second best person hasn't lost anything. We should combine them. I don't bother. The average NBA player and the average WNBA player are away and better than just about everyone else. You're comparing space shuttles to paper airplanes. That's also a team sport, where the odds of everyone crossing over is low. But if a female wants to jump into the male's league, I don't see an issue. They'll make it, or they won't. It'll work itself out, as will all the rest. If a male wants to jump into the female league, I don't see an issue there either. I doubt a male NBA player would want to take the pay cut to play in the WNBA, and since those are private organizations, I doubt the WNBA is going to just hire out a random dude. And a dude capable of getting to the WNBA, as a trans, is probably capable enough to get to the NBA. Maybe not a dominate NBA player, but on a team, or a practice team, making more than the max WNBA salary. So there is no benefit to it.
It absolutely is a big deal to lose a state title, especially if you only lost it because the person who won it was born a member of the opposite sex. Did you play sports in high school? If so, which ones and were you competitive? I don't understand how you can sit here and say things like "the second best person hasn't lost anything." I wasn't even competitive for top 5 in my city in the 100m dash in high school, but I would have won the girls 100m at state and posted faster times than the girl's state record. And it didn't take me all kinds of effort, perseverance and commitment to record those times. Because girls/women are built differently than boys/men. Combining women's sports with men's would be incredibly detrimental to women and girls. You're being ridiculous. The average WNBA is not away and better than just about everyone else. Don't be ridiculous. If a female wants to jump to the male's league, I've got no qualms. If it's the "best" league, the best should be allowed to play. Though I'm not sure who, if anyone, would make it, even as a bench player. The biggest problem with your post is assuming that a dude capable of getting to the WNBA as a trans, is probably capable enough to get to the NBA. You're vastly underestimating the difference in talent, size, and skill between WNBA and NBA players. I'd be willing to bet if you opened the WNBA up to dudes, and they hired based solely on talent, you likely wouldn't see any women in the league..
I played golf and ran a little cross country. I played for state in golf. I made varsity in 8th grade. Trust me, it isn't impressive. I wasn't super competitive at cross country, either. They were just sports. Had we won state in golf, I think my science fair placement would still have been cooler. The second best person hasn't lost anything. Let's look at states. If someone in state A ran their 100m dash 10 seconds slower than someone in state B, is state A's title as impressive as state B? What if the third person in state B would have beaten the fastest time in state A. Is state A's fastest time still impressive, even though they got smoked by the 3rd fastest person in state B? It isn't a big deal to lose a state title, because they are just regional goals. Run the best you can, and compare yourself to the total, not some compartmentalized crap. It would not be detrimental. You just think of it as one big pool. It isn't difficult to class individual sports, and have people move up a class, as their abilities become larger than their current class. Then the WNBA would be reformed, as the WWNBA, and it would take care of itself. Because a thing can always be separated into a new category. And the cycle would repeat itself, and take care of itself.
