Every choice in life involves a trade-off. The choices we make are reflective of our priorities.
As a former athlete I had to make choices between competing activities. I was a 3 sport athlete in high school. I was active in church activities and youth groups, played cornet in the band, and was a Boy Scout. Something had to give. I reached a point where I never practiced the cornet, and never had weekends open for camping with the Scouts. I quit Band and Scouting to focus my time on sports.
I never felt that there was any unfairness in that decision. I never complained that I was being deprived. I never believed that I had a right to have it all. I reached a fork in the road, and the road that I chose was a function of my priorities.
As an adult I became a teacher and coach. I coached 3 sports, including 20 plus years coaching women's track and field. I knew when I made the choice to enter the teaching profession that I wasn't going to get rich at it. I prioritized the profession over the income. I can lament all I want about how teaching is undervalued, but in the final analysis I went into it with my eyes open and I made my own choice based on my own priorities.
I can go on and on with the number of athletes I coached that had to choose between sports. Dozens of girls who were great softball players and also great runners that had to choose because both sports were in the same season. By now you see the pattern and get the point.
I was blessed to have the opportunity to coach women's track and field. I'll resist the temptation to take this commentary too far in that direction (priorities, after all) and finally get to the point.
I coached men who played in the NFL and even medaled in the Olympics, but the most athletic person I ever coached was a woman and the most fierce competitor I ever coached was a woman. Without true Women's Sports neither would have had the opportunity to really compete. The physical difference between the sexes is simply too great for them to have overcome.
My heart goes out to trans people. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to have a mismatch between mind and body that significant. I won't claim to understand the choice to transition. It is a choice, though. Not the gender/sex mismatch but the choice to adopt a different name, different pronouns, and different lifestyle. A trans individual who also happens to be an athlete is confronted with the same decision making process that I've discussed above. What are your priorities? Transitioning or Competing?
No one suggests that a trans woman shouldn't be allowed to compete, but fairness demands that they prioritize and choose. If transitioning is a higher priority then she can choose to live as a woman but compete as a man. Yes, hormone therapy will disadvantage her in competition but she will get to live her life as she chooses. If competition is a higher priority, she may have to forgo hormone therapy till her competitive days are over.
It's a harsh reality. Maybe you see it as unfair. I don't. I see it as a simple matter of choices and priorities. Every decision in life involves trade-offs. No-one gets to have it all.
My priorities place a woman's opportunity to compete against women higher than a trans woman's avoidance of natural trade-offs. If you can watch what happened to Angela Carini and still disagree, I think you should reconsider your priorities
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