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In reversal, James Talarico says he opposes trans athletes in girls’ sports “if it risks safety or fairness” (www.texastribune.org)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/texas@lemmy.world
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DALLAS — Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico on Wednesday said he opposed transgender student-athletes competing in girls’ sports “if it endangers safety or fairness,” reversing course on previous positions he took while in the Texas House opposing restrictions on trans athletes.

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[–] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but he's not wrong, is he?

In lieu of gender-based leagues (a flawed concept in the first place), sports should probably be divided into physical weight/height classes in order to make sure that people of various builds have a fair shot and aren't going to be murdered in a big rugby tackle or whatever. That's not an unreasonable or anti-trans position to take.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    And then you’ll hear complaints when smaller-built guys start getting classed with women

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago

    Used to happen (and prob still does) in HS wrestling. There were never enough girls so they'd just wrestle with boys, and since it was by weight class they were almost inevitably with the smaller guys.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    People will always find something to complain about, but classes based on objective and quantifiable metrics like weight and height would be more fair and safe than subjective gender identity-based classes, and there would be very little room for debate.

    Small guys (and girls too) can always bulk up if they want want to play with the heavyweights. It's the obvious solution to this trivial and mostly imaginary "problem".

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    sports should probably be divided into physical weight/height classes

    The issue with that approach is that women who are the same weight and approximate leanness as a given man are nowhere near as strong. I used to compete in a weight category sport and was genuinely surprised at the strength difference I had over similarly sized (absolute ass kicker) ladies.

    I had just assumed we'd be comparable given we were fighting around the same weight and they were lean as fuck.

    I'm guessing the main conservative talking points are around trans women having an unfair advantage based off that strength difference when they were pre-transition. I've no knowledge or understanding of whether the drop in testosterone / rise in oestrogen would maintain any advantage over time (and if anyone does know I'd love to learn).

    Edit: I see OP posted another comment with links to studies basically saying the edge deteriorates to zero over time. Not sure what the fucking problem is then except for pearl clutching.

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