From a scientific perspective, and not politics, there have been varying degrees of true masculinity or to be feminine. That has and is a scientifically supported for as long we have been diving into genetics going back into the 1950's. Politics, society and culture? Not so much.
I don't think it is as easy to say... if your prescribed gender at birth is x....then you play with x. I understand for certain political types, and people like JK Rowling, that is very simple political discussion and solution. I work in high schools, coach, and have LGBTQ family members. I've seen first hand the impacts of a world that simply wants to pigeon hole our children into very neat boxes, when our children very commonly don't fit neatly into boxes our world designs. Generally we have very, very negative outcomes for those children. Whether they are transgender, gay, autistic, of different race or creed, not neuro-typical or whatever a person my ascribe to be. Those kids know they are different, and not being allowed to very political reasons to be the best version of themselves and that is disheartening.
There is merit to a conversation about playing fields look like, but the principle operating question is whether it is a conversation about our collective paranoias and fear or what is best for our individual children. My daughter isn't going to be challenging for a spot at the Womens Amateur at Augusta, and isn't likely going to be in a space to lose a spot at a college scholarship.
I do submit if our high school and youth environments were vastly less high-anxiety/competition based and focused on developing a healthy relationship with sport, we wouldn't give as much of a shit whether fields were full of transgender kids or not. That isn't to say that sport shouldn't have higher competition levels, we shold. At the same point we are exiting out a lot kids because it isn't a safe or enjoyable space regardless of gender to explore the great benefit that individual and team sports have to offer. The outcome is that fewer and few kids play and we have fewer kids reach the zenith or apex of the sport, because they simply don't want to be there. My boy was a decent baseball player, but mal-adjusted parents and their spawn ruined baseball that he didn't want to play anymore as an 12 year-old. My general belief, as a 20+ year coach in football, basketball and baseball at the high school level we are doing a pretty good job as a society of make youth and highschool sports as unenjoyable as humanly imagineable. I could give a shit to be honest what the make up of my teams look like.
Maybe the NCAA needs to address potential loopholes to eliminate bad actors, but I still don't think the threat is as existential as many think it is. There is so much more that we don't know, and I think it is unfairly limiting to simply make declarations that fit a political perspective but not one that fits the reality of our world. That is of course my opinion formulated through my lens of experience.
I don't think it is as easy to say... if your prescribed gender at birth is x....then you play with x. I understand for certain political types, and people like JK Rowling, that is very simple political discussion and solution. I work in high schools, coach, and have LGBTQ family members. I've seen first hand the impacts of a world that simply wants to pigeon hole our children into very neat boxes, when our children very commonly don't fit neatly into boxes our world designs. Generally we have very, very negative outcomes for those children. Whether they are transgender, gay, autistic, of different race or creed, not neuro-typical or whatever a person my ascribe to be. Those kids know they are different, and not being allowed to very political reasons to be the best version of themselves and that is disheartening.
There is merit to a conversation about playing fields look like, but the principle operating question is whether it is a conversation about our collective paranoias and fear or what is best for our individual children. My daughter isn't going to be challenging for a spot at the Womens Amateur at Augusta, and isn't likely going to be in a space to lose a spot at a college scholarship.
I do submit if our high school and youth environments were vastly less high-anxiety/competition based and focused on developing a healthy relationship with sport, we wouldn't give as much of a shit whether fields were full of transgender kids or not. That isn't to say that sport shouldn't have higher competition levels, we shold. At the same point we are exiting out a lot kids because it isn't a safe or enjoyable space regardless of gender to explore the great benefit that individual and team sports have to offer. The outcome is that fewer and few kids play and we have fewer kids reach the zenith or apex of the sport, because they simply don't want to be there. My boy was a decent baseball player, but mal-adjusted parents and their spawn ruined baseball that he didn't want to play anymore as an 12 year-old. My general belief, as a 20+ year coach in football, basketball and baseball at the high school level we are doing a pretty good job as a society of make youth and highschool sports as unenjoyable as humanly imagineable. I could give a shit to be honest what the make up of my teams look like.
Maybe the NCAA needs to address potential loopholes to eliminate bad actors, but I still don't think the threat is as existential as many think it is. There is so much more that we don't know, and I think it is unfairly limiting to simply make declarations that fit a political perspective but not one that fits the reality of our world. That is of course my opinion formulated through my lens of experience.
