Journalism is dead. San Fran Chronicle: "(It's) difficult to determine if trans women actually are faster or stronger."

The idiot who wrote that piece has probably never competed in any athletic endeavor in her life. Absolutely ridiculous!

I had an amazing conversation with Chatgpt about it. While I couldn't get it to admit that trans had an advantage over females, I could get it to admit that if there was an ingredient in food that caused illness or death as often as trans win races or break records, that ingredient could be considered a dangerous ingredient. Absolutely 100% true story...

The article is actually making a very good point. Most men who want to be women are not great athletes. I know there are exceptions. But most are not.

Wrong! They aren’t great male athletes (except maybe Caitlin Jenner). But most are exceptional as female athletes Lia Thomas, Renee Richards, Connecticut kids, Cece Telfer, etc. One can instantly be transformed from middle of the road to a national title contender overnight.

You are obviously incorrect. You are trying to name the exception to the rule. Intelligence matters here.

You’ve obviously never been to a middle school track meet if you think those are exceptions to the rule. The top 14 year old boys in the world are faster than the fastest females on the planet.

Sorry you aren’t very bright. That is not the argument. Nobody is making the argument against the fact that males are on average better athletes. Odd that you think that is the argument.

That isn't the point it is making. It perpetuates the myth that trans women are women who are being unjustly persecuted.

I read the article and the author is stating that it’s not clear how much of an advantage a transgender women’s had after testosterone suppression. She is not saying that men are not better athletes. She seems to define a transgender athlete as someone who is taking hormone treatments which is why she says the success of California runners might be misleading. All in all, it’s a pointless article.

Not being a sheep, I have zero interest in repeating anything you say.

I looked her up. Erin Allday. She writes mainly local interest stories, but has taken an interest in trans rights and issues recently. She is listed as a health and wellness reporter. She is not a sports reporter, and as far as I can tell, is not someone with expertise on athletic performance. She is also not an expert on gender, except perhaps she has some knowledge where gender and health issues coincide. I question whether she is qualified to have written this piece: https://www.sfchronicle.com/science/article/trans-athletes-18121625.php

No one can read it anyways, its behind a paywall.

I live in the SF bay area and there are probably more trans people around here than anywhere. There is a part of the town I live in where it seems that a lot of them live. There are a few members of a local running club that look trans to me, but sometimes its hard to tell if they are in their twenties and flat chested. Some are competitive locally but would still get beaten by the fastest women. Potentially a trans woman could be faster but I have not seen that here. I also know at least one trans male runner and am connected with one on Strava who used to present as a woman when I met him initially but now has lived as a man for several years. He is not fast nor competitive, and runs for fitness.

So it's her uneducated opinion falsely presented as facts.

Business as usual for THIS argument.

There was a thread on letsrun about a F2M NCAA swimmer. This swimmer went from being a steady performer on the women's team to pretty far back in men's meets. There are very few f2m athletes. Stories about trans athletes are almost always about m2f athletes competing for awards against biological women. Rarely do we hear about the plight of f2m athletes struggling to maintain a spot on a team, getting blown out at meets.

In short, biological differences between men and women make such a difference at a high level that allowing trans to compete for awards against women turns the sport into a farce. What is it going to take for people to realize this - a school with a roster full of m2f athletes? A championship podium with no one who was born female?

You have heard about those people because they won something important. You don't hear about trans athletes who are totally unremarkable after transition.

For example, look at the mediocre statistics of this Juco volleyball player. .175 hitting percentage and 0.45 blocks per set as a middle blocker.

sacdons.com

Chloe Anderson

Chloe Anderson

Open link

She made it to a D3 school but played very little.

ucsantacruz.prestosports.com

Chloe Anderson

Chloe Anderson

Open link

There are other athletes like that in both college and HS. You would never hear about most of them.

The point is, there are very few studies on the relative performance decline of taking T blockers because there are so few athletes taking T blockers.

It's not about if they have an advantage, it's about how can we accurately quantify the advantage so to make good policy decisions.

There's a lack of research in the strength differences between an athletic male and a silverback gorilla, but we do have (limited) research to suggest their testosterone levels are around the same (if not slightly lower) than a human male, perhaps gorillas should be allowed to compete in strength sports?

The athletic differences go well beyond mere testosterone levels.

Just as an example. I occasionally lift with a lad who was on hard PEDs for most of his 20s. At 28 he came off them. At 31 - over 2 years later - he's just had his testosterone levels checked, and they're 100 ng/dl - less than a third of what they should be. 30 ng/dl above the maximum reference for a woman. His free T is in the gutter. And you can bet his levels were even lower 1-2 years ago.

We were both surprised by this. Aside from sex drive issues he says he hasn't noticed any major downsides. He can focus on his work more, is more mellow (but not depressed), and his strength has held up remarkably well - just last week he benched 3x5 with 145kg, completely unpeaked. He weighs 110kg, and has retained much of his size. He's 5'9.

I’m tired of having to constantly state my pronouns and do other woke BS at my company. This is the perfect way to help expose the flaws - even the most devout wokes think it’s unfair, but why would they think that’s the case if it’s just women competing against women?

The frustrating thing is that it's a tiny minority of people pushing this nonsense. Everyone else goes along with it to keep them happy, either out of fear, out of empathy, to get the social kudos, or merely because it makes their lives easier than complaining about it. Which, ironically, is a strong refutation of the central premise of the movement regarding power structures: if that world truly existed, then people wouldn't be conforming to it.