There is a lot of money in sports, from amateur to student to professional. There can be considerable corruption, too.
We saw the corruption scream out loud with the NFL and the Boston Patriots. Then there was the issue of steroids. The all American pastime. What was the cultural slogan? “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.” Then there is player violence, often domestic and even street violence. Don’t leave out the gambling on human beings either.
In all these decades and all the scandals the sports have never set a standard that defines their sport. The Olympics may have, but, American sports in general do not. If an athlete can make the cut they are recruited and they play.
There is a case before the Supreme Court concerning transgender women athletes. It is a very interesting case to me because it cuts through all the bias and discrimination, including childhood treatment. I have stated before children can express their understood gender and receive support successfully so they can grow up with an understanding of their identity. Just because the Supreme Court said the practice of obstructing such medical skills is legal does not make it the law of the land. It is called conversion therapy.
The really interesting aspect of this case is that the women identified as female as early as three years old and received appropriate intervention during their childhood and adolescence. They grew up within their understood identity and not wishing they were girls or women. They grew up without ambiguity. Mentally healthy and athletic. A parent’s prayers answered when they worried about such reality in their children. But, I guess that is just me in my hopes for families facing such challenges.
This case clearly illustrates the neglect of sports professionals to define the standards of their profession. The women in this case are women. Their physical stature, muscle strength, and talent are all definitive of a woman sports professional. So what’s the problem?
I remember reading about Ida. I forget her last name. She could pitch a baseball at 91 mph. She rivaled every man in the sport. The only reason she could not play professionally is because of her gender. She was female through and through, but, she could play. I think her talent came from the mentoring of her father who also played baseball.
But, she didn’t play professionally because at the time there was no professional league for women. I think she scared the guys.
Gender is an interesting concept. Sex is different from gender. With women the sex is determined at birth, but, gender identity extends from the girly girls to the tom boys. Does one have more right to exist than the other?
Sex is also an interesting science. DNA is very sticky stuff. It has been relatively easy to move from exploration to the development of miracle drugs. The best example of that is the treatment of melanoma of the Late President Jimmy Carter. One day he was dying and the next relieved of disease.
DNA is very sticky stuff because it is relatively simple. There are double digits in the number of base pairs that comprise DNA, not millions as the lay people may think. Under a microscope it can be manipulated. It can be combined with chemo drugs to target the very cells of cancer without causing wide scale suffering to beat the cancer and continue to thrive as a human being.
The nature of DNA is not molded by standard but by the combination of base pairs in the uterus of a female. There are genetic variations of every scale including the very familiar Trisomy 21.
As a society we are attracted to the struggle of genetically different human beings to have them do as well as us normal folks. Why? Because happiness matters. So why then do the transgender female athletes not receive the same empathy and rightful places as others genetically challenged?
These women as women. The failure is not theirs or their parents or family, it is the failure of the sport professionals that line the halls with their paychecks. They don’t care, not really. If the government allowed designer test tube babies to comprise sports there would be teams of the best clones.
The failure is that of the sports to define what comprises a female athlete and is not found with a well developed native clitoris.
There is definitely the understanding of men and women and their stature and bodies. A transgender in the USA exposed to rigid standards growing up will always be at a disadvantage. They will not experience growth and development as they should. They will never fit the mold. The standards need to be flexible enough to recognize the normal growth and development of the spectrum of gender. To limit sports to men and women in the understanding of the Olympic model, there has to be clear lines denoted as human male and human female.
The women involved in the Supreme Court case should be competing within their gender identity in their chosen sport.
