Our Bodies, Our Sports

Okay, I'm expecting a lot of hate towards this one. It's just going to happen. People are going to take this as hateful and discriminative. I'm going to work hard to make sure that those comments are unwarranted.

Guess what guys? This article doesn't only discuss trans women competing in women's sports, it actually comes up with a solution!! I'm not even joking when I say you should be excited about it. And if you think the solution is terrible, then please let me know if you have a better one and please tell me about it. I would love to have a constructive conversation in the comments.

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I heard this story about Riley Gaines, and you may have heard about it too. Riley tied with a trans woman (a biological man who identifies as a woman) named Lia Thomas for fifth place in a swimming competition.

She said she was excited for all the other women who had beaten Lia and thrilled that she had tied with her.

When they went back behind the podium to collect their trophies, Riley discovered that there was only one fifth-place trophy. She understood.

However, they gave it to Lia. When she asked why they chose Lia, they replied, "Well, we’re just giving the trophies out in chronological order.”

But they tied. How is that chronological?

When she pressed further, they replied. "We have to give the trophy to Lia but we respect and admire you so much." They told her she would receive it in the mail (minor note; she hasn't gotten it yet).

So basically, they were giving it to her because she was trans, and they were trying to save face.

She held the sixth-place trophy in the photos, which, may I add, is also unfair to the sixth-place winner.

Gaines continues, “The thing I’ve learned the most throughout all of this is to use your voice. Before I said anything publicly a couple weeks ago, with myself being the first or second to protest this, I have realized there are so many girls who feel the exact same way as I do but are told they can’t say anything, or they’re scared because today’s culture is ‘cancel culture’ and they don’t want to risk their future in athletics or future career. There are so many things that can be taken down with it."

So first of all, I've already kind of written about "cancel culture" before. A twelve-year-old wore a shirt that said, "There are only two genders" and was sent home from school because people were offended by the words on his shirt.

Everyone deserves to feel loved and accepted. But does this mean that we have to let biological men take women's trophies, which so many women work for years to get? We're just supposed to lay down and show our bellies as they beat us effortlessly?

Males are biologically different. They are faster and stronger than women. Why are we supposed to let them compete with women?

Another story I've heard of is the story of Austin Killips. She won a women's cycling competition, but she is biologically male.

Riley Gaines spoke about this too, "Our bodies, our sports. We are standing up for women and demanding the UCI and USA Cycling stop discriminating against female athletes and establish rules to distinguish between the sexes to give women cyclists a fair chance on the road. There's no equity, fairness, sportsmanship, or opportunity for women to succeed at an elite level without sex-based categories. Allowing male athletes like Austin Killips to compete in the women's category is an infringement on female cyclists."

What I've noticed is a lot of people on the left say, "Our bodies, our choice." I say it is fair this applies here.

Hannah Arensman said, after losing to Austin Killips, “Over the past few years, I have had to race directly with male cyclists in women’s events. As this has become more of a reality, it has become increasingly discouraging to train as hard as I do only to have to lose to a man with the unfair advantage of an androgenized body that intrinsically gives him an obvious advantage over me, no matter how hard I train.

“I have decided to end my cycling career. At my last race at the recent UCI Cyclocross National Championships in the elite women’s category in December 2022, I came in 4th place, flanked on either side by male riders awarded 3rd and 5th places. My sister and family sobbed as they watched a man finish in front of me, having witnessed several physical interactions with him throughout the race."

Not only do men compete... they win... and are celebrated.

Honestly, how are we supposed to be surprised that a biological male beats a biological female? They clearly have an advantage, and it makes me so sad to see so many women lose their winnings to men. Hannah Arensman would have gotten third place, rightly and fairly, but instead, there were two biological males competing with her. Males who had the advantage. She managed to come ahead of one, but could not beat the other.

People claim that all the records that are being broken are just milliseconds faster than the last one and that women have a chance. But if you look at the highest male records compared to the highest female record set by biological men, they are ranked hundreds below the men's record.

They stood no chance in men's competitions... so they decided to turn to women's.

Now I'm absolutely not saying that all of the biological men competing in women's sports are just doing it so that they can win, but that is definitely a possibility.

And keep in mind, biological females almost never compete in men's sports because there's virtually no chance for them to win.

So, the solution?

Make them compete with their biological sex? That's not validating their identity!

Bar trans people from sports? That's discriminative!

Well, those are not the solutions I had in mind.

I say we start a trans-Olympics, one for those who are biologically female, one for those who are biologically male, and one for those who are nonbinary.

This gives everyone a fair chance to compete. And if you claim that this solution is also discriminative, please share if you have a better idea. I'd love to hear it!!

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Thanks for reading!! Please don't leave hateful comments. If you do not agree, please let me know in a respectful manner and share your own solution.