I guess it would be most accurate to say I'm very, very skeptical about medical transition for minors. I'm not a doctor of course, but I've spent my career as a high school teacher and coach and I know that many teenagers are often confused, trying to find who they are, and highly susceptible to trends. I'm not doubting that some people really do have a mind that would be more comfortable in a body expressed like the other sex, because there are historical examples from before it became a hot topic (see, for example, Laurence Michael Dillon). I'm sure some of these people realized what was going on in their minds as teenagers. I also don't doubt that the recent trend toward greater acceptance of LGBT people has meant more people with true trans minds feel safe to transition where they wouldn't have before, which explains some of the increase in number.
But I also think that there is a trendiness right now to being trans for teens, usually awkward teens who aren't getting enough attention or who don't have enough friends -- see the recent New York Post article on detrans teens, for example. People don't like to talk about that, because it's seen as degrading to LGBT people, but I would argue the opposite -- using an LGBT identity as a trendy thing ought to be seen as degrading to actual LGBT people. I'm almost 99% sure that the current medical philosophy is to simply believe the patient and push them to transition, though that may vary from place to place. Largely, the by-word is "affirm, affirm, affirm." I'm not comfortable with that, and I'm not sure that's the best approach for minors, who may be end up doing something they seriously regret later, and which is not always as reversible as trans activists like to argue. If it's just a weird phase, but you pumped the dude full of estrogen, that won't have zero effect. We don't indulge teen's worst impulses in any other area, but we seem to have lost our stomach for it when we might have to question whether a teen is really making the right choice with his/her body. At 18 and beyond, it's their choice, and my concern here goes away.
So all that to say, yes, I'm skeptical of medical transitioning in minors. That, in part, leads to my belief that there is no safe, sensible way to have trans girls play sports with girls, even at the high school level. We've already seen that, even with medical transitioning, the new woman tends to place higher among women than she did among men, even if their performances decrease somewhat after transition. See June Eastwood, Lia Thomas, Cece Tofler (sp?) That should raise some serious suspicions on its own, and this would not surprise any of us track types; many of us men on here, myself included, have PRs that are better than the women's world record in the event. (Mine were run in the 1980s, if that matters). So even with medical transitioning, it can't really be said that it's going to be fair. Without medical transitioning, it's just going to be a joke. Just as red states are lining up to ban trans competitors, blue states are going to, if they aren't already, say that medical transitioning is irrelevant, it's all how you identify. That's going to be an absolute disaster, and if you don't think your little Melanie's volleyball team is important, as Rapinoe suggests, I wonder what you think of little Melanie overall. There have been articles recently, and posters here, saying that life isn't fair and teen girls need to learn that lesson, but sports already teach that lesson perfectly: we've all been in the race against someone who is just straight up better than we are, who we will never beat, who we see run away from us at the start and never see again. Insert other examples: the football team that's just too strong for your team, the basketball team that's got a bunch of D1 offers, etc. etc. We don't need to throw boys into girls sports to teach them this life lesson. And it strikes me as misogynist to demand that girls be taught this lesson by boys, or boys-to-girls, specifically.
As to school, there are plenty of examples of how to treat trans kids in an empathetic way. We're already pretty much letting them use the locker rooms and bathrooms of their choice. They can generally dress how they want, act how they want. There are probably examples of non-sports school groups and clubs that are "for girls" or "for boys" that, whether competitive or not (i.e., a girls drama competition?), do not give a huge advantage to trans girls over girls, or which do not have the equivalent of roster limits that mean taking an opportunity away from somebody by joining. Most importantly, teachers have to be willing to stand against bullying of trans kids, just as we had to learn to stop looking the other way when kids used that longer F-word that refers to gay boys and was used as a generic insult not that long ago, to the secret horror, I'm sure, of the closeted gay students.
Finally on the sports front, I guess one way I differ from many is that I DO think high school sports are important. Each high schooler's quest to make varsity; make the starting lineup; help their team win a conference title; regional title; state title; is a valuable thing IN AND OF ITSELF, to say nothing of the life lessons we all know sports can teach (such as resilience and dealing with failure, since most will NOT win a state title and many will fall even shorter in the line of goals I just wrote) plus the physical and mental health benefits. I don't like those who say "it's just sports, it doesn't really matter." Yes it does.
I don't want to tell a girl, "yeah, you wanted to win this state title, but there's a boy in your event this year, you'll have to wait for college to win." And I think many trans activists, for high school sports, really do want to just let boys in, and I use "boy" here in the sense of a boy IDing as a girl who hasn't done anything medical.
It's a tough issue, and I don't envy anyone who has to tell a kid "no," but I hope I'd be able to. Trans kids already know they are different, and we've seen, for example, Izaac Yorks the Yale swimmer, or Keelin Godsey the hammer thrower from a decade or so back, who recognized that they needed to wait until after their athletic career to medically transition. Trans kids know they are different than cis kids. It's not that crazy to say, "you can join any club you want, but it's a bit different for you when it comes to sports." One poster asked me about what I'd do with a trans 7:30 miler. In my program, at least, the boys and girls run "together" in that we all start from the same place. On easy days they're free to run whatever route, alone or with others, and sometimes they run in mixed-gender groups. They usually self-select; the boys who have state dreams generally don't run with the girls. On workout days, we're all at the track at once, and I've had a couple female studs over the decades who could run near the upper-level boys. It's really only sex-segregated completely on race day, and that's only in the races themselves, they're all at the meet and they all cheer for each other. I would tell a 7:30 miler that he/she will compete on race day with her biological sex as part of what is, essentially, a co-ed team and group of friends. I really doubt that this hypothetical person could have an issue. Maybe I'm wrong, we'll see if it ever comes up.
To end a very long post, I'll also say I recognize that it won't be my generation who figures this out in the end. I'm coming up toward retirement and most likely will step aside before the 2020's are over. It'll be incumbent on the younger ones to figure out a sensible set-up for what is fair, and what balances the mental health needs of trans minors. I reiterate my position that the "think of the suicide rates!" argument tends to be used like emotional blackmail, but it does hint at an important need underlying this issue, which is the mental health of trans teens. I think society will come to grips with this issue eventually and create a system that makes sense for everybody. Anyway, if you made it through this, thanks for reading.
