There is immense danger in using the word “never” in your vocabulary. As soon as that word leaves your lips, you can start counting down until your actions defy whatever statement was made that included that word.
I have had many of those experiences in my life. Adamant against giving in and defying whatever belief I had about certain situations, I – of course – gave in and conformed.
This was going to be different, however. I defiantly refused to ever join any type of social media platform. No Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat … and whatever else you young people have come up with these days.
Didn’t care to see where people were vacationing or eating out, what type of plants they were planting, how I could refinance my car, my home, my pets, my golf clubs without any damage to my credit and at no cost.
You know what’s coming – I folded. I gave in. In my defense, I let my niece open a Facebook account for me because I thought it would be good for my career. I almost became the shortest member of social media by deleting the account within the first 24 hours. As of today, I’ve been a member for almost two months now.
Within the first few days, I had to ask someone to make the horrible videos I was getting go away. I’ll just say these included women doing things I didn’t care to see. Those are gone.
The best thing I can say about Facebook is I do enjoy the videos of dogs and cats doing funny stuff. (I generally prefer animals to people). Then, the other day, I scrolled through and saw a picture that caught my eye and impelled me to write about something I have been avoiding.
In the picture was a group of large, burly, hairy men wearing red, white, and blue two-piece uniforms with a caption that read: “The USA Women’s Volleyball Team.” It was time I decided where I stood on the transgender athlete situation.
I sided with Martina Navratilova back in 2019 when she voiced her opposition in an op-ed in London’s Sunday Times, discussing the hot-button issue of transgender athletes. In it, she argued that male athletes who transition to become female athletes but declined to undergo gender reassignment surgery should not be allowed to compete against women. “I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers,” Navratilova wrote, “but I would not be happy to compete against her. It would not be fair . . . It’s insane and it’s cheating.”
Her point was that identifying as a woman should not, in itself, bring about the right to compete in women’s sports. She believed that transgender athletes who take hormones but have not undergone sexual reassignment surgery are conferred an unfair competitive advantage against a field of females, mostly because of their muscle mass.
This from perhaps the first athlete to come out in the prime of her career. In addition to receiving forceful and vicious response, the gay-rights titan was dropped by Athlete Ally, an LGBT advocacy group, over her “transgender” take.
Two things were particularly interesting about Navratilova’s stance: first, this was coming from perhaps the world’s most famous openly gay athlete. Second, among those standing by Navratilova was her former tennis coach – the former Dr. Richard Raskind.
In 1975, Raskind underwent male-to-female sex reassignment surgery and became Dr. Renee Richards. After Richards won a women’s tennis tournament, a reporter’s disclosure of her sex reassignment surgery put Richards in the national spotlight. Denied entry into the 1976 U.S. Open by the United States Tennis Association, the New York Supreme Court ruled in her favor in 1977.
“It is just biology,” said Richards. “Men have 10 times the amount of testosterone that normal women have. Now you want to get rid of that testosterone? O.K., but then it is going to take a couple of years for that to equilibrate. And men still have a larger frame with a larger cardiac output, a larger lung capacity.”
While the topic of transgender athletes competing as women is nothing new, it has not – arguably – been as prominent as it is now with the story of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas shattering women’s records at the University of Pennsylvania.
Thomas, who competed for three years on the Pennsylvania men’s team, has said she is taking an ongoing regimen of estrogen and testosterone blockers. Under NCAA rules, she is eligible to swim in women’s collegiate events after taking one year of testosterone supplements.
“The fact is that swimming is a sport in which bodies compete against bodies,” said Cynthia Millen, the USA Swimming official who resigned in protest of Thomas. “Identities do not compete against identities. Men are different from women, men swimmers are different from women, and they will always be faster than women.
“I told my fellow officials that I can no longer participate in a sport that allows biological men to compete against women. Everything fair about swimming is being destroyed.”
I believe men and women are physically different. Women’s tees are ahead of the men’s tees in golf. Men play baseball and women play softball. In Grand Slam events, men play best-of-five sets while women play best-of-three sets (yes, there has been talk lately that women should also have to play best-of-five sets).
Look at a picture of Thomas and tell me she doesn’t have a physical advantage over other swimmers.
The argument – and research into testosterone levels – will continue. Whether you agree with me or not, this is a topic that must be discussed – with respect to both sides.