Transgender Athletes
As for Caster Semenya, I am upset that people were so jealous and insensitive towards her. This woman came up from a poor farm town in South Africa that may or may not have running water to be a world champion athlete! She deserves respect and has earned mine. Honestly, if they should test her for anything it should be steroids.
I found the third article to be the most interesting. The Stella Walsh case was especially perplexing. The autopsy found male genitalia and Stella also had the male XY chromosome. Based on this I would consider Stella a man and a cheater. It is perfectly fine to be transgender but one must compete within their gender to be fair. To lie or hide your gender in order to win is cheating. Schinegger was born intersexed and I think if he would have not transitioned to being male, he should have been able to compete as a woman. He could not help that he was born how he was so he should not have been denied rights.
Although society's reactions to these cases do upset me, they do not surprise me. This is the world we live in. Society has a slow way of transitioning into new things such as interracial marriage (legalized just over 50 years ago), gay rights, and even the legalization of marijuana. I believe that it is easier to change the policies than it is to change the people. Hopefully, if the policies change then the people will to. An open mind and a little bit of tolerance can go a long way and we as a society can too.
Jeremy Shay
ReplyDeleteI agree with this, I think that no matter if you are transgender or not that you should be able to complete. With the LPGA and Lana Lawless I don't think there was any advantage to her playing in there, it would have only got the number of people watching that event up. The more cases that are happening with this the more they are pushing away those athletes who are transgender away from the game that they love to play. They don't want to go through the same thing as all of these athletes are and have people tell them that they are not able to play because they are transgender. I also agree that if they are going to test a transgender for something it should be steroids. That is a great point and I have never thought about testing them for steroids.
Wesley,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that this article also opened my eyes to the struggle that transgender athletes go through. My personal opinion is that it should not matter if someone is transgender. Although this is my opinion I believe that it will always be this way because that is just how our society is. There are some things that are socially acceptable and some things that are deemed by people as socially unacceptable. I also agree that the LPGA needs to take another look at their rule book when it comes to these transgender athletes. I do not think that this will ever happen but it is definitely something that I would like to see.
-Logan Walker
Wesley,
ReplyDeleteI also have to agree that this article opened my eyes up after reading it. It is just a shame on what transgender athletes have to go through in order to participate in any sports. If someone is transgender or not they should still be able to participate in sports and to continue on with doing what they love and have a passion for. Even though this world is messed up there will be a lot of people out there who will think it is socially unacceptable for transgender athletes playing but it isn’t their life and shouldn’t judge someone for doing what they love and for being a transgender. When I took Sport History with Dr. Spencer I actually did a project on transgender athletes playing and Lana Lawless was one of the athletes that I mentioned during my report and how she was denied to play during the LPGA tour. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous and cruel for not letting someone participate.
-Lindsey Landversicht