Back in late 2020, I wrote my first "non-binary games" blog post.
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/12/non-binary-games.html
I mentioned the controversy of transgender athletes playing on female events and the size disparity of transgender athletes vs cis-gender female athletes.
Then I mentioned this
I'm tempted to say let's have a non-binary category for sports, so that there's male sports events, female sports events, and non-binary sports events. That might be simple for individual sports like track, swimming, or mixed-martial arts, but it gets more complicated for team sports. At most schools, there's most likely not enough non-binary students to fill a basketball team, and even more unlikely to have enough for a tackle football team. Probably the best case scenario would be to combine non-binary students from nearby schools to make a basketball team.
I did come across a great blog post today from a father and his experience with his daughter playing against a team with a transgender athlete
Rhein, Walter. "My Daughter Played Basketball Against a Transgender Girl and This Is What Happened." Medium. March 10, 2023. https://aninjusticemag.com/my-daughter-played-basketball-against-a-transgender-girl-and-this-is-what-happened-a011c6d0130e
At one of my daughter’s non-competitive tournaments, she went up against a team that had a transgender girl, and…
IT WAS TOTALLY FINE! There was no problem at all. The little girl was out there having fun with her teammates and she felt accepted and loved. I approved of her participation 100%.
and this
When you talk to authoritarians, they always act like a transgender basketball player will be a seven-foot-tall, 300-pound mass of raging testosterone who utterly dominates.
That wasn’t my experience at all.
The girl my daughter played against was the smallest player on the court. Actually, she didn’t handle the ball very well. Kids commit a lot of turnovers in middle school basketball. Who cares?
She tried her best and always had a big smile on her face. She was clearly having fun.
She obviously felt accepted and was a valued member of the team.
and the article gets even better
For some reason, people in the United States can’t seem to understand that the transgender athlete might not be the best player on the court. The discussion is fixated on one type of player and absolutely fails to recognize any diversity in skill levels.
I didn’t put my daughter in girl’s basketball to dominate. I put her in there so she could be part of a team.
Only one team wins the championship. For every other player on every other team, it’s just a bonding experience.
Detractors are fixated on a scenario that is statistically irrelevant. We have to expand our viewpoint to include the whole picture.
“But what about…”
Authoritarians say nonsense like, “But what about later in life? What about when your daughter is competing to win the state title? What if she gets physically dominated by a player who was born a male? What if that stops her from getting a scholarship? Do you see? We’re the ones who really care about your daughter! Not you! We are the ones who know what’s best!”
That’s how they justify walking onto the court of a 3rd-grade girl’s basketball game and physically dragging the smallest player away. That’s how they justify sending that child home to bury her face in her pillow and cry herself to sleep.
One could make the case that cross-dressing in his free time didn't stop Dennis Rodman from dominating in men's basketball, so "why can't all the transgender athletes do that?"
But you know what? If a transgender athlete wants to play on a woman's team, let them.
I mean, I'm an average-sized male, but there have always been female athletes who were way better than me in PE.
If those female athletes can handle me in PE, then the top female athletes in high school could definitely handle playing against a transgender athlete for an entire game.
I think we'll eventually get used to seeing a transgender athlete playing on female teams.
Transgender (or others in the non-binary category) are only a tiny percentage of the population, so they're not going to drive the overwhelming majority of female athletes out of competitive sports.
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The only thing that might still be awkward could be in the locker room where people have to shower and change clothes.
But I believe ALL LOCKER ROOMS should have private stalls to give privacy to anyone while showering and changing clothes.
I mean, I'm an average male, and I don't even like showering or changing in front of other males, or anybody else. I want privacy and so should everyone else!
I wrote about the locker room and private stalls at
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2016/05/private-locker-room-stalls.html
and about gender-neutral restrooms at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2016/05/gender-neutral-restrooms.html
