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Here in Australia we are in the middle of a general election campaign (federal) which corresponds to the presidential campaigns in the USA and the general elections in the UK.
Suddenly the question of participation in sport by transgender women has been elevated to a campaign issue that is being pursued by several members of the current majority party, mainly because one of their high-profile candidates in a vital marginal seat has been self-identified as a TERF and made many derogatory comments about transgender women and in particular the "unfairness " of transgender girls competing in women's sports The issue has been eagerly taken up and magnified out of all proportion by organisations like the Murdoch media, with enthusiastic support from our current Prime Minister, who sees it as a potential vote-winning wedge against the so-called "left".
To put it into perspective (and based on the recent Canadian figures) the actual percentage of transpeople of all stripes in our population is probably about one percent. Let's assume that 80% of these are potential MtoF, so we're down to 0.8% of our people. I would think that at least 75% of those are mainly interested in being comfortable in their own bodies and leading a quiet life without making too many waves.
That leaves us with 0.2%. Now very few are champions in sport, whether male or female. If we are generous one in 100 is of Olympic standard, so the "dangerous" ones number 0.002% and that is assuming they are interested in competing and in a sport where their residual male attributes give them an advantage.
Talk about bullshit politics.
Comments
Much ado about nothing
but anything goes to get a few more votes in an election...
I start with the view that every time a politician opens their mouth they are going to lie to us. Then it is up to them to prove otherwise.
Samantha
It happens all over
Rich folks want to control the narrative through their money to push their narrow minded agenda.
It is happening all over with the conservatives pushing their bullshit narratives to create stupid divisions between people.
We are a 'safe' target by the very fact we are very few in number so they don't care if they lose our votes and it can only endear them with the so called 'libertarians' who are at their hearts just conservatives who want to lie to themselves about their own bigotry and resent people rejecting their narrow minded view points.
They only want the 'freedom' and right to be assholes and repress minorities and people who are different from themselves.
When these folks like the anti-vaxxers yell 'cancel culture' it is again all about being assholes who willingly lie to run the world with their asshole views.
This just goes to show that Chamberlaining these assholes by voluntarily not competing with them would never work. It will never win good will with them because they will find some reason to hate us anyway.
There are folks on this site who actually support us NOT competing AT ALL or 'not win too often' or it will make us look bad if we 'win too much'.
Bugger that.
If we don't fight for our own rights to compete fairly and with clear rules that don't just get arbitrarily changed on us by the 'majority' as the political winds change or some whining under performing women who would've lost to other cisgendered women anyway starts complaining about unfairly losing then they will just use that as a sign they can arbitrarily take away more and more of our rights for self-determination just because they don't like us.
Non-existent problem
ginned up by ideologues who never cared about women and sports. Kentucky has a population of over 4.5 million people, and they just passed an anti-trans athlete bill. They have ONE girl banned from competing at the middle school level for the Field Hockey team SHE helped star. Tennessee did the same, with sponsors of the bill completely unaware that NO trans girl athletes are competing in their state. NONE. Other states call for criminal penalties for anyone enabling a trans girl to compete.
AND States are passing laws that criminalize medical care of any kind for transgender kids' health issues; thus preventing a solution to the very problem they fear; 'boys' will be forced to endure male puberty with ZERO help. At least two states besides Florida are passing legislation to prevent discussion of any kind with kids who are trans in elementary school; going so far as to criminalize said discussions. An eight-year-old trans girl will be unable to seek any kind of help from her teacher, and teachers will be placed at risk of losing their jobs or worse if they don't OUT these kids to their parents, FUCK
Love, Andrea Lena
For progressive countries....
You would think they would be... I dunno, progressive?
The UK, USA & Australia..... some of the most progressive countries & they are littered with terfy politics.
Why???
With Love and Light, and Smiles so Bright!
Erin Amelia Fletcher
Progressive?
Where'd you get that idea? I'm of two minds about Australia, UK I doubt, and as for the U.S.? No Way, Jose!
Oklahoma has taken four giant steps backwards just this year alone, closely copying Texas. A no-CRT bill, an anti-trans athlete bill, A Texas-style abortion bill*, and a restrictive bathroom bill on the way that the governor has said he'll sign. My local school board just revised their bathroom policy after a not-so-friendly letter from the AG.
*Prior to this, one state legislator, lamenting how easy it is to drive to Oklahoma from Texas, proposed a task force stationed outside Okla. abortion clinics near the border to log all vehicles there with Texas tags to be reported to Texas authorities.
I said long ago that, in the absence of an overriding federal law that would pass the Supreme Court, all our gains in the courts were as flimsy as the paper they were written on. Sadly, I was right.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
A socialist friend of mine
A socialist friend of mine told me that a mainstay of conservative politics is "divide and conquer" . So it's a case of
"look I've saved you from evil trans people ruining your sport. Vote for me!"
Leeanna
Just ask Aussie politicians about
climate change and their policies and biodiversity, they have made a bigger mess than most developed countries, while half of NSW burned down a few months ago. They're also logging in conservation areas and generally messing up the environment. People should be complaining or asking questions about this not trans issues which are negligible to most people.
When I visited Aus in 1994, I found most of the people in WA to be relatively okay about things including gay issues. I didn't disclose that I was TS and seemed to be accepted by those not in the know as I presented. Don't think they'd have cared anyway, mind you I was a bit younger then and slightly less fat, grey and wrinkled.
Angharad
So Last Year
Ang, the fires were two years ago, and our esteemed Prime Minister went on holiday to Hawaii without telling anyone. When asked why, he famously replied "I don't hold a hose, mate!".
This year it has been floods in northern New South Wales and southern and inland Queensland.
What the government is trying to do is divert attention away from the rising cost of living, rampant corruption in the form of pork-barreling, the shambles that is our aged-care system and imminent rises in mortgage rates, etc.,etc. What better way to do that but raise the spectre of all those big hairy transgirls beating all the delicate female flowers in our national obsession with sport?
Public awareness of environmental matters and the government's lack of action is also one of the major issues in the campaign but is continually characterised with a sneer at Greenies. That sneer will hopefully get wiped off their faces in three weeks.