This was an incredible weekend for sports. You had March Madness going on with a bunch of upsets. Great NHL and NBA games. And the NCAA Wrestling Championships. But judging from my social media feeds, the most popular sport (at least to my conservative friends) was…the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championship. I did not realize so many of them were such swim fanatics.
It seems they were all watching Lia Thomas, who became the first transgender woman to win a championship. Naturally they lost their minds over this. The conservatives have decided to take up the cause of women’s rights. At least that is what they are claiming. Most of us can see through their bullshit. Funny hearing people scream about women’s rights when they are the ones constantly trying to take rights away from women.
Before I go any further, I need to say that I am not best when it comes to the trans debate. I use the wrong terminology. I have probably made plenty of jokes throughout the history of this blog and definitely in my own life. So no need to go searching through old posts to find me saying anything. I believe all people should be treated fairly and respectfully. I am trying to be better.
Okay, back to swimming. Well technically we need to head to the world of running. The problem I have with so many of these people saying that Lia Thomas is not a woman and that it is unfair that is competing against “natural women” is that none of these people ever came to the defense of Caster Semenya. Let me remind you of who she is. She is a runner who has internal testes, which produce testosterone. She has a vagina and is a woman, according to the parts she was born with (that we can see). But the governing body of running decided that she had an unfair advantage and made her take drugs to suppress the testosterone. So where were these people demanding that she be allowed to run with her natural body?
The other thing that drives me crazy about this debate is the misinformation. The first part is that Lia Thomas was some below average swimmer who could not compete with men so she decided to cut off her penis and become a girl in order to win some races. Just goes to show their mindset of winning at all cost that they think that is how everyone else would think. Anyways, Lia went to the University of Pennsylvania to swim. As a guy, Lia finished with the sixth best time in the nation in the 1000-yard freestyle.
Once she began to transition, the hormone suppression drugs slowed her times down and she did not finish as well previous years. Once the transition was complete, she began to compete with women. Again, here comes some more misinformation. The conservatives act like she absolutely dominated every event. She did not. She won one event (500-yard freestyle) and while her time was very good, it was still nine seconds slower than Katie Ledecky’s college record.
The other piece of misinformation is about Lia’s body. They will point to the picture of her with the other medal winners, they are at a distance and she seems to loom over them. First of all, she is on top of the podium. So naturally that makes it seem higher. Plus, she is only 5’8. Katie Ledecky is 6’0. If you listen to right-wing media, they say she is 6’4.
The sad thing about this debate is that there never seems to be a solution. They just do not want transgender people to play sports. Or maybe they just want the trans community to go away. I think that is it more likely. But they started this conversation, so maybe it is time they start answering questions. What constitutes an unfair advantage? Should male athletes have to be tested to see if their testosterone levels are unnaturally high (but not nearly as high as when steroids or other drugs are involved)? Maybe we could have a basketball league where everyone is the same height. It does not seem fair that some guys are taller than me.
This is a complex issue and I understand there needs to be discussion, but the disingenuous argument happening currently is not helpful. Making jokes about Lia Thomas “being a man” is not going to move this conversation to a healthy place. And what it does is make it harder for young people who may be struggling with their identity to feel comfortable enough to be who themselves.
