Just declare yourself a woman and beat all the women in the women's competition:
Transgender Kiwi weightlifter Laurel Hubbard's first win in an international competition has ruffled feathers across the Tasman.
Hubbard was competing at the Australian International event in Melbourne on Sunday and shot out to an early lead in the women's over 90kg division.
The 39-year-old lifted 123kg in the snatch discipline, and then produced a clean-and-jerk lift of 145kg for a 268kg total - 19kg better than the second-placed competitor.
Hubbard was congratulated by her competitors after the ceremony.
However, afterwards, bronze medallist Kaitlyn Fassina was less effusive.
"She is who she is. That's the way the politics...and what the New Zealanders have decided. I can't say much more than that. She is seen as female and that's the way it is."
Two-time Olympian Deborah Acason went further.
"If I was in that category I wouldn't feel like I was in an equal situation. I just feel that if it's not even why are we doing the sport?"
Weightlifting New Zealand's Emma Pilkington said Hubbard was feeling "overwhelmed".
"She's so genuine, she loves all her team-mates and her teammates are all really supportive."
That result will give Hubbard a major claim for selection for the NZ weightlifting team for next year's Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia.
It's understood Hubbard, who once competed at national level as Gavin Hubbard, transitioned in her mid-30s.
I think there is a legitimate concern, at least if one is concerned with the rules of competitive weight lifting. (which I am not) I liken it a bit to that amputee runner with the blades.
I agree with Vander. Once a person goes through puberty, their body takes on all the characteristics of whatever sex they were born with, including bigger bones and stronger muscles. So if a male has a sex change after puberty, the former "he" will have a competitive advantage, because even suddenly taking estrogen does not negate all that pubescent hormonal growth. Now if the sex change was made before puberty, none of that will apply.
Cat (n.) A bipolar creature which would as soon gouge your eyes out as it would cuddle.
I suppose the ideal solution would be to, instead of having two categories, male and female, have four categories, male -> male, male -> female, female -> male, and female -> female, if not for the disproportionately small amount of people in male -> female and female -> male.
It's strange how some innate things are seen as fair advantages and some are not. If you're short, you're going to be at a handicap in many sports, but if you're cisgender, then that is not seen as a similar kind of handicap.
Even if we do nothing to change the rules, and even if transgender people dominate female athletics, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. After the integration of the NBA, it became dominated by black athletes, and this was probably even one of the things people against its integration feared happening, but now we don't think anything of it.
I think it's important to not just be against change for the sake of it. If someone were to make an argument for transgender people competing being unfair, I think they would have to also explain why allowing tall people to compete isn't just as unfair.
Vander wrote:I think there is a legitimate concern, at least if one is concerned with the rules of competitive weight lifting. (which I am not) I liken it a bit to that amputee runner with the blades.
Of course there are legitimate concerns and no easy answers to them, but simplifying them down to an ignorant fear of what's different a la the OP is the most nonconstructive way on the planet of resolving them.
And to our lovely moderating staff, your enthusiasm is commendable, but at what point do we maybe give any consideration to the random passer-by who happens to be Muslim or trans or whichever other group TB's currently shitting on and sees him continuously doing so with impunity? It's a pretty terrible look for whatever's left of this community.
Vander wrote:I think there is a legitimate concern, at least if one is concerned with the rules of competitive weight lifting. (which I am not) I liken it a bit to that amputee runner with the blades.
Of course there are legitimate concerns and no easy answers to them, but simplifying them down to an ignorant fear of what's different a la the OP is the most nonconstructive way on the planet of resolving them.
And to our lovely moderating staff, your enthusiasm is commendable, but at what point do we maybe give any consideration to the random passer-by who happens to be Muslim or trans or whichever other group TB's currently shitting on and sees him continuously doing so with impunity? It's a pretty terrible look for whatever's left of this community.
I would say permaban, but the last time he was kicked; all he learned was: 'don't post graphic photos'.
Look down the folder index right now. He's made somewhere around 2/3 of the threads on the first page. And out of those, there's what, a single one that's locked? Hardly a rejection of bad-faith discussion.
Spidey wrote:Well if you took some kind of height enhancing drugs…instead of it being completely natural…
If you were born with your advantage, or worked real hard on it...I don't see a problem...that's what competition is all about.
I agree, but in this case the drugs that she takes are performance inhibiting, not enhancing. I suppose the contentious point may be "born with your advantage," where you may try to argue that she was not born this way.
Vander wrote:I think there is a legitimate concern, at least if one is concerned with the rules of competitive weight lifting. (which I am not) I liken it a bit to that amputee runner with the blades.
Of course there are legitimate concerns and no easy answers to them, but simplifying them down to an ignorant fear of what's different a la the OP is the most nonconstructive way on the planet of resolving them.
And to our lovely moderating staff, your enthusiasm is commendable, but at what point do we maybe give any consideration to the random passer-by who happens to be Muslim or trans or whichever other group TB's currently shitting on and sees him continuously doing so with impunity? It's a pretty terrible look for whatever's left of this community.
Call NS out all you want. Debate him with counter facts and good arguments like a civilized person, even though that seems like an impossible and irritating task at times. Just don't throw a bunch of nasty insults just to make yourself feel good. That never solves the problem and it only causes everyone to devolve into a insulting screaming matches. Sometimes, albeit rarely, NS does start a thread that evolves into a coherent discussion. But NS has also had his share of trash posts deleted too, including entire threads. In fact, he probably holds the record for deleted threads. As for a permaban, that will be up to the admins. The mods are just referees.
Cat (n.) A bipolar creature which would as soon gouge your eyes out as it would cuddle.
for some reason, I actually re-pondered the entire premise from the initial post. I was a mediocre golfer amongst decent males growing up. Got the handicap to maybe 1, but mainly a 2 or 3 handicap at age 17. A sex change would have made me pretty competetive especially off the Ladies tees, in Women's golf. Not for one ★■◆●ing moment would I EVER consider transgendering, and if one is doing so for 'competitive spirit' that is a psychological issue I would presume ANY doctor treating her would grasp.
Now, the matters around fairness in competition, muscle mass, effect of hormonal treatments, etc, are ALL perfectly valid, what is ludicrous is that the gender switch was prompted by athletic competitiveness. That is, to be honest, a blatant insult to the intelligence of any it would be suggested to.
"The Party told you to reject all evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
George Orwell---"1984"
Maybe it doesn't even make sense to have male versus female sports. If gender is on a spectrum, then how is it any different than height? Why not have an NBA for short people too?
Jeff250 wrote:Maybe it doesn't even make sense to have male versus female sports. If gender is on a spectrum, then how is it any different than height? Why not have an NBA for short people too?
frankly, at a professional level, I'd agree. In scholastic sports, participation and other factors in personal development are involved, so I can see the need for 'Womens' and 'Mens' sports divisions. With the advent of modern gender transformation medicine, with hormonal and other pharmacological assists, you get into the infrequent messy call. This is one of those. For the overall interest of folks who once were trapped in a body that didn't match their self identification, the tradeoff is worth it, I suspect.
"The Party told you to reject all evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
George Orwell---"1984"
I don’t find the Op’s idea ludicrous, perhaps a little silly. If it were to be known that this person was competing as a man at one time, and was really frustrated with losing all of the time, or some such, that would lend much credibility to the idea.
I have heard of people doing much crazier stuff than that, but my first leaning is that the idea is just NS’s little personal spin on the issue.
Ok…now you get to insult my reasoning abilities, like always.
Spidey wrote:I don’t find the Op’s idea ludicrous, perhaps a little silly. If it were to be known that this person was competing as a man at one time, and was really frustrated with losing all of the time, or some such, that would lend much credibility to the idea.
I have heard of people doing much crazier stuff than that, but my first leaning is that the idea is just NS’s little personal spin on the issue.
Ok…now you get to insult my reasoning abilities, like always.
Identifying as a different gender just to get a competitive advantage....?
I don't know. It's a lot of effort to change your gender and besides some of it is almost irreversible. If a person was a man and then changed into a woman just to compete in some sport, there are a few side effects during the process, like getting breasts, which leave scars if they were to be removed later on. Would that be worth it for just a couple of years of winning in some competition? And I don't know why a woman would change into a man for the same reason. The voice changes and hair growth would not be something they'd want permanently unless they wanted to actually live as man.
Cat (n.) A bipolar creature which would as soon gouge your eyes out as it would cuddle.
Are there any laws regarding what kind of treatments must be undergone to declare yourself trans-gender?
Beyond that, I don’t really understand your argument, are you saying people don’t do extreme things?
Do you know students in Japan kill themselves because of getting bad grades or being bullied? And last time I checked…killing yourself is kinda un-reversible.
But again...JFTR…I am not saying that is what is going on here…I just don’t find the idea so far fetched, due to the number of stupid things people are known to do.
Spidey's right. There technically is no actual legal definition of a transgendered person that I could find online. Sure, you can find all sorts of laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender and gender identity, but we seem to have put the cart before the horse. The law itself doesn't have a set definition on the books and that's an issue that can hurt the whole transgender movement. For example, there's nothing stopping some man from dressing as a woman and sauntering into the woman's bathroom to get a peep show. Only if he's caught does it matter, because there ARE laws for that very issue, but it kind of late when someone's caught after the fact. This link below is clearly conservative, but it does make the point.
no surprise, TC, being 'transgendered' is a rather new status. Since time immemorial, we always had ranges of gender behaviors with physical traits limited between essentially male and female archetypes at birth. Done. Some males cross-dressed, some born female passed as males in society. Then modern science and medicine obtained the technology to hormonally undo some of the physical aspects, and modern plastic surgery handles the rest, for a fair bit of cash. Those folks, and those alone, undergoing the pharmacological conversion therapy(with or without the reconstruction) are what are rightly referred to as 'transgendered' or transgender individuals. J Edgar Hoover was a cross-dresser. Bruce/Kaitlin Jenner is transgender.
Thus, with such a new concept, a lot of rules and definitions are yet to be set. Nothing shocking there.
"The Party told you to reject all evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
George Orwell---"1984"
Tunnelcat wrote:For example, there's nothing stopping some man from dressing as a woman and sauntering into the woman's bathroom to get a peep show. Only if he's caught does it matter, because there ARE laws for that very issue, but it kind of late when someone's caught after the fact.
There's typically no law preventing a man from sauntering into the women's bathroom regardless though, regardless of how he dresses.
I've seen women sneak into the men's room all the time at big sporting/public events where there were insane lines. No one ever called the cops on them.
Tunnelcat wrote:For example, there's nothing stopping some man from dressing as a woman and sauntering into the woman's bathroom to get a peep show. Only if he's caught does it matter, because there ARE laws for that very issue, but it kind of late when someone's caught after the fact.
There's typically no law preventing a man from sauntering into the women's bathroom regardless though, regardless of how he dresses.
You're right on that count. It does depend if a man can actually pull off looking like a woman just to get away with being a pervert in a woman's bathroom. Most men usually look like a man wearing woman's clothes, like throwing a saddle on a dog and calling it a horse, so it usually doesn't work out and most women will complain about it to authorities. The tired old conservative saw about men in woman's bathrooms is really not an issue in real life. They usually get caught if they're that stupid and doing it for voyeuristic reasons. On the flip side, most transgendered men, or MTF's, go through the long process and effort to feminize themselves in appearance and mannerisms. It's not something done on a whim. If they've gone through all that trouble, they're very serious about their gender identity and probably have no more desire to look at a woman sexually than another straight woman, especially in a gross public bathroom. Right now, the bigger problem is men going around up-skirting women with cameras and in most places, even that act is not really illegal, except in some states.
