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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* (8 children)

All he said is that it "needs to be fair", and that is so obvious it almost goes without saying. Sports do need to be fair; it's why even Men's sports sometimes have weight classes. Like it or not, his answer is reasonable.

And, yes, it's ridiculously melodramatic to call that "evil" or "being thrown under a bus".

This entire topic of conversation is so stupidly hypothetical and hyperbolic, not to mention practically irrelevant to the job of a US Senator.

But of course, how could I forget that every 2 years people have to take the bait and start arguing over asinine culture war wedge issues while the rich and powerful fuck us in the ass and rob us blind...?

It's bait. It's a non-issue and a fake problem. He fell for it. You fell for it. And I'm sure a bunch of dumbass Texan voters on both sides will fall for it too. Happens every time. Hook, line and sinker.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    You fell for it.

    Uhhh I was replying to you but okay I guess. Other comments have sufficiently explained why sports aren't fair or safe so I won't retread that but yes the real issue is that he took the bait and threw trans people under the bus for basically no reason.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    His answer is not reasonable in the slightest because he also implied that there are situations where transgender participation is 'unsafe', perpetuating the false and transphobic stereotype of transgender women being men trying to assault women.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    It's still a fake non-issue. I used to fall for the anti-trans propaganda because I do watch and have participated in women's contact sports, so I know how already inherently unsafe it is, and the only reason it does not matter is because the percentage of trans women in sports is negligible so it's exceedingly unlikely to be a problem. It's not a real issue that affects me or you, most likely, so there's no point in engaging with the hypothetical at all. Trans people deserve human rights, respect, dignity, and privacy, and sports organizations and schools should figure out their own rules that work for their own communities.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago*

    It's still a fake non-issue.

    Even if minute in terms of the number of athletes affected, each person that cannot participate is being denied equal participation in society. More broadly, the same people pushing to ban transgender sports participation are seeking to remove transgender recognition from society as a whole.

    Trans people deserve human rights, respect, dignity, and privacy, and sports organizations and schools should figure out their own rules that work for their own communities.

    Letting local communities selectively deny transgender people equal rights is not acceptable. Civil rights are not something that should be optional. No school or sporting organization in any state should be discriminating against transgender individuals in any capacity with respect to their gender identity.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    perpetuating the false and transphobic stereotype of transgender women being men trying to assault women.

    That is not at all what was said or what was being implied...

    Sports can be dangerous in and of themselves, which is why there is an entire field of sports medicine, as well as safety guildlines for just about every professional and amateur sports league that exists.

    It's not unreasonable to think that a circumstance could arise where two people of the same gender identity fall into radically different body weight/height classes. And in that circumstance it would not be safe or fair for those to people to compete. (This is why boxing, for example, is already broken up into weight classes.)

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago*

    I will concede that this issue is complicated.

    However, I'd like to note that sport is fundamentally not "fair", however you define it.

    If it is supposed to be about "the person who does X best wins" there would not be gendered leagues or weight classes or doping regulations, and there would only be one champion per sport who would die of performance enhancement drug overdose shortly after winning.

    If it is supposed to be about "everyone gets an equal chance at winning" it would be a lottery.

    Fundamentally ("the purpose of the system is what it does"), professional sport is first and foremost about entertainment and not fairness. Humans like to watch other, more skilled/fit humans do stuff, this is why we have all those competitions in the first place. There needs to be a component of skill/effort and unpredictability for it to be an interesting competition to watch. The reason gendered leagues, weight classes, paralympics etc exist is for representation of those classes of people in this (very important) genre of entertainment. Which is awesome.

    However, what becomes obvious is that by denying trans athletes the chance to compete with people of their gender, you are denying those trans people representation of their identity. I also understand that in this particular situation, allowing trans people to compete could take away representation from cis women which I understand and is a valid concern of a disadvantaged group. But (at least from my cis-male perspective, so take it with a grain of salt) it generally doesn't, because there are very few transfem athletes, especially at professional sports levels, and years of transitioning generally take away enough of their performance for it to still be an interesting competition between AFAB women and AMAB women.

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