Three Connecticut high school girls claim that allowing transgender athletes to compete against them is unfair "cheating" and depriving them of "their" right to fair competition

 

A couple of weeks ago, three female track athletes filed a federal lawsuit to prevent transgender athletes to compete with the girls in Connecticut high schools, representing three different schools. According to the Associated Press, they argue that “allowing athletes with male anatomy to compete has deprived them of track titles and scholarship opportunities.” One girl, Alanna Smith, said “Mentally and physically, we know the outcome before the race even starts. That biological unfairness doesn’t go away because of what someone believes about gender identity. All girls deserve a chance to compete on a level playing field.”

The girls’ attorney, Christiana Holcomb, claimed that allowing transgender athletes to compete with girls forces them to become “spectators in their own sports” which is “completely at odds with Title IX. Connecticut’s policy violates that law and reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.” Title IX should be called what it is—a sacred cow affirmative action program for mostly white females, but here they have a point, in a fashion.

Ok, now let’s take a step back here and examine what is being talked about here, which seems fairly straightforward on its face. Recently I mentioned how this past December former actress Ellen Page deciding to start wearing ties and taking the name of “Elliot.” I mean, a lot of women dress like men these days and still view themselves as women, but in the case of Page it just seemed to be a rather hypocritical “gimmick” to provide “normality” to what had been previously identified as her lesbian partnership. But this “transgender” isn’t on the same “Page” as what the female athletes are alleging, since “he” isn’t “competing” with the boys on the field or playing them in movies, so what his point is beyond a political show only “he” can explain.

For historical reference, “transgender” is a relatively new term. Back in the day, people who felt psychologically that they were not of the gender type they were born into and wanted to present themselves to the world in the way nature had actually “intended,” they were said to dress in “drag,” and males who dressed as women were known as “drag queens.” The actor whose stage name was Divine and appeared in a couple of John Waters films was just one of the better known. Before even that, however, there was Ed Woods’ 1953 “cult classic” Glen or Glenda, when switching gender identity was coyly referred to as “cross dressing.”

During the 1970s the term “transsexual” came into vogue, which referred mainly to males who underwent surgical procedures and/or hormonal therapy to literally transform themselves physically into the body they felt they had been wrongly not placed in at birth. The best known case of this was physician and tennis pro Richard Raskin, who after a sex change operation emerged as Renee Richards, which caused a bit of stir when she was “outed” by a local California news anchor named Richard Carlson, who happened to be the father of someone we all know as “Tucker.” 

The U.S. Tennis Association and others responded by requiring a special “test” to determine gender, which was later overturned in court. At the time Richards was already in her mid-40s, but she played competitively against the top women players, although she never won a tournament. Of course the other “famous” case is that of Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner, who also underwent cosmetic and hormonal “sex reassignment.”

However, the term “transgender” came into usage because it is an “inclusive” term, meaning that it includes both those who underwent sex change procedures, and the vast majority who have not, who have simply changed clothes and given themselves a different name, and who are the people that the above complainants are talking about. Now, I have read that one rationalization for why these girls should accept this situation is because it is a “teaching moment,” meaning that it “teaches” them to be tolerant and accepting of the “choices” some people make. But in their minds they are being asked to show “tolerance” for cheating, and that is not exactly kosher by the “rules.”

The usual suspects in the gender politics wars claim it doesn’t matter if a “girl” or “woman” has all the physical characteristics of a male; if they say they are female then that is your tough luck if you have to compete head-to-head with them in sports. At a meeting debating the Connecticut law allowing transgender athletes to compete with girls, a mother of one those in the lawsuit was shouted down when she and others tried to speak by LGBTQ hecklers. In an op-ed piece in USA Today, she insisted that

Women’s sports were created to give girls a fair chance at competition. That includes fair victories and fair defeats. Girls deserve the same opportunity as boys to excel, to advance to the next level of competition, to win, and to stand on that podium. But allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports shatters girls’ dreams and denies our daughters equal opportunities.

There is a counter-argument, of course, and that is that the number of transgender athletes are not widespread enough to create havoc on female sports, and just a few jurisdictions are actually “threatened.” Of course we know about how back in the day Soviet block Olympic female athletes were drugged-up with testosterone and other chemicals, and it was a bit of a joke how some of them looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger. But there are now drug tests to weed out the “cheats,” and it will take just a few cases where a transgender athlete wipes out a field of biological females for this to become something more than a social oddity, but a political campaign ad.