LRC note. We changed the title of the thread to make it more clear what exactly happened. The thread was initially entiteld, "Transgender sprinter wins Oregon girls' state championship 200". Moving forward, you must be a registered user to post.
Booing a teenager because you don’t agree with the state’s policies is pretty low, and I’m someone who agrees that trans athletes who are not on hormone blockers should compete as their biological sex. Getting booed by hundreds of people and having to get a security detail because people are threatening you over the Oregon High School 200m title is way more damaging to someone’s psyche than getting a silver medal and a college scholarship.
The real villains in this story are the bureaucrats and purple haired weirdos who never played a sport in their life and aren’t willing to accept the science that goes against their worldview and the grown adults booing/threatening a child. I accept that people can be transgender, as there is thousands of years worth of evidence of humans practicing/experiencing gender fluidity over centuries. Treat transgender people with respect and accept the validity of their identity. I also accept that not everyone has to be catered to and there should be some things that transgender people just can’t do the same as cisgender people. There’s some critical thinking and rationality that’s missing on both sides.
Good for her. It is truly great to see people able to live and compete as their internal gender identity.
As a reminder gender is a made up construct and there is no reason to force people to live as the gender that matches their sex. In life it is gender that matters and that is true if competition. That is why I support trans women living and competing as women.
Having the genders separated anywhere, the boardroom or the athletic field, is sexist.
If a woman can match up against a male in the race for CEO they can do the same in a track race. Winning against only part of the population isn't really winning.
Good for her. It is truly great to see people able to live and compete as their internal gender identity.
As a reminder gender is a made up construct and there is no reason to force people to live as the gender that matches their sex. In life it is gender that matters and that is true if competition. That is why I support trans women living and competing as women.
you want to vote your dem party in, let antifa run wild, give free booze to the homeless, let your cities be dumpsters, then this is just a small part what you get
“Are we supposed to believe that someone who started competing in track and field two months ago, who is male in every way besides identified gender, is the fastest girl to ever come out of Portland, Oregon? Or is it more likely, in a track and field context, that Gallagher's ability level falls in line with other 10th grade boys and that she is someone on the cusp of making district finals and could have a bright future racing the appropriate competition?”
you want to vote your dem party in, let antifa run wild, give free booze to the homeless, let your cities be dumpsters, then this is just a small part what you get
if that’s the case, you can’t boo this kid
its not their fault. It’s yours
I am way liberal, vote Democrat, but believe most of their policies especially internationally, are far too middle of the road / centrist. I would vote Green or socialist if I thought it would serve any purpose politically. But having biological boys competing against girls like this is just plain wrong. And it kills me that it somehow aligns me on this issue with the lunatic right-wing nut jobs. There has to be a better solution. I don’t believe biological males are identifying as female for a sporting advantage. I believe trans girls and women should have virtually every right and protection to allow them to live as girls and women. But on this issue I think we’ve got it wrong when we see examples like this.
Good for her. It is truly great to see people able to live and compete as their internal gender identity.
As a reminder gender is a made up construct and there is no reason to force people to live as the gender that matches their sex. In life it is gender that matters and that is true if competition. That is why I support trans women living and competing as women.
You are being sarcastic, I get it. But the problem (which you are pointing out so clearly), is that sports are not "gender" contests. They are sex and age contests. So a man who is "emotionally immature" can't just choose to compete in an under-16 girls softball league (wrong sex, wrong age). Some sports also have weight divisions. You can't "identify" as a different weight than what you are.
None of these things are "constructs" at all. They are pivotal factors when creating "fair and safe" competitions for as many people in our society as we can. We can make more (or fewer) divisions, but it is not valid to assume all divisions are just based on social constructs. Age, sex, and weight are measurable.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
you want to vote your dem party in, let antifa run wild, give free booze to the homeless, let your cities be dumpsters, then this is just a small part what you get
if that’s the case, you can’t boo this kid
its not their fault. It’s yours
I am way liberal, vote Democrat, but believe most of their policies especially internationally, are far too middle of the road / centrist. I would vote Green or socialist if I thought it would serve any purpose politically. But having biological boys competing against girls like this is just plain wrong. And it kills me that it somehow aligns me on this issue with the lunatic right-wing nut jobs. There has to be a better solution. I don’t believe biological males are identifying as female for a sporting advantage. I believe trans girls and women should have virtually every right and protection to allow them to live as girls and women. But on this issue I think we’ve got it wrong when we see examples like this.
This is the problem right here…you are a grown up and you reduce people with different opinions and values to comments like this…
It’s the problem with our entire country right now…
Oregon high school track and field will eventually go on to be dominated by trans women
Oregon is not as woke as California or Washington, but a lot of people are chicken to speak about anything for fear of being fired, canceled etc. Government and courts are controlled by wokes and the governor is woke AF
Schools are bound by ADA and Title IX legislation. This is a no-win situation for ADs and Pincipals. They may 100% agree with you but there is no benefit to risking their careers for the outcome of the girls 200m championship in Oregon.
This is what I’m so confused about on this topic. Go read title XI. It used the verbiage of sex. Not gender.
Doug Binder was at the meet and has written a really good editorial on this at DyeStat -- very measured and sympathetic to the athlete, but firm on the need to prevent this from happening again.
I LOVED THE EDITORIAL and have featured it on the homepage as the QOD.
Moving forward, we will require registration to post in this thread to make it easier to moderate.
PS. There was one thing I didn't agree with logically on the editorial. He says because the trans athlete needs police protection that the current policy isn't safe which is in the Oregon HS statutes.
I don't like that argument at all - we aren't a country where the mob rules (can you imagine if this logic was used in the 1960s for integration?). And the safety in the sports statute is meant to be for the other female competitors.
But I'm pleasantly surprised fans in Oregon haven't been afraid to boo. It's about time people stood up for common sense but they need to be respectful of Gallagher who is a vulnerable teen. I have no problem with the boos as you are booing the policy - not the person.
The best part of Binder's article was clearly this, "Are we supposed to believe that someone who started competing in track and field two months ago, who is male in every way besides identified gender, is the fastest girl to ever come out of Portland, Oregon?"
This post was edited 5 minutes after it was posted.
PS. There was one thing I didn't agree with logically on the editorial. He says because the trans athlete needs police protection that the current policy isn't safe which is in the Oregon HS statutes.
I don't like that argument at all - we aren't a country where the mob rules (can you imagine if this logic was used in the 1960s for integration?). And the safety in the sports statute is meant to be for the other female competitors.
But I'm pleasantly surprised fans in Oregon haven't been afraid to boo. It's about time people stood up for common sense but they need to be respectful of Gallagher who is a vulnerable teen. I have no problem with the boos as you are booing the policy - not the person.
Yeah, I agree with both your points here. The "safety" point really comes into play more with contact sports (and there've been numerous publicized cases where it already has), but the "fairness" aspect is more than important enough even on its own.
And yes, I think little if any of the actual blame should go to Gallagher, who's only a HS sophomore (and has been given who-knows-what kind of guidance in life). It's the adults who created this situation and need to fix it. I'm confident that sanity will eventually prevail -- it's already begun to even in places like the UK (as the whole fallout from the recent Cass Report attests) -- but I have no idea how long that will take in states like Oregon, and my fear is that in the meantime, increasing numbers of (biological) female athletes will miss out.
"Listen to the mother of a female runner in Oregon speak to the threats these girls + their families face if they even dare to speak out about the injustice of undeserving men stealing women's titles."
Monsters never show care or even interest for girls' and women's sports except when trans is involved. Because trans make them feel weird feelings. Just look at the abuse allowed on women athletes over the years here. All these white knights come lately were okay with that.
Good for her. It is truly great to see people able to live and compete as their internal gender identity.
As a reminder gender is a made up construct and there is no reason to force people to live as the gender that matches their sex. In life it is gender that matters and that is true if competition. That is why I support trans women living and competing as women.
Why stop at respecting someone's "internal gender identity?" What about the "internal sense of guilt" of criminals? If those convicted of crimes come to believe that they are innocent, shouldn't we respect that, too, and free them from their penalties?