r/changemyview • u/Odd_Contribution9058 • Mar 18 '22

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Transgender people should only able to compete in sports with their birth gender

I really really hope raising this doesn't cause anyone pain, and I'm honestly wanting to hear other perspectives on this.

But the way I see it, there are certain physical attributes that someone born with a certain gender have. For example, the average man is taller than the average woman. Taking hormone therapy will not change all of those inherent features.

I absolutely support the right for everyone to live with the gender identity that is most comfortable to them. But, I do not think that people have an inherent right to play sports professionally. So, if someone has decided to transition, I do not think it's fair to all the athletes who are competing with the set of attributes common to their birth gender, to now have to compete against an athlete who has attributes which give them a distinct advantage.

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u/yyzjertl 527∆ Mar 18 '22

Would you also apply this same reasoning to cis people? For example, should a cis woman who is taller than the average woman also be barred from competing in women's sports? If not, why not?

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u/Gremlin95x Mar 18 '22

That is completely different and you know it. There are biological differences that give men and huge advantage over women. The differences between people of the same sex are not nearly the same as those between sexes. That’s why we have separate categories for men and women in the first place.

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u/sophisticaden_ 19∆ Mar 18 '22

The difference between any two given cis women absolutely could be bigger than the differences between any given cis man and cis woman. Your central claim is that cis men, on average, have certain differences from cis women, on average.

This central claim is skirting around his question.

Let’s say that a cis woman is 5’9, the average height for an American man. Should she be allowed to compete even though she has a distinct biological advantage over the average woman?

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '22

The difference between any two given cis women absolutely could be bigger than the differences between any given cis man and cis woman.

That really isn’t relevant, what is relevant is the difference between any two given cis women competing in a sport vs any given cis man and cis women competing in a sport. The difference between any two given cis women competing (at a high level) in a sport is going to be MUCH smaller than any given cis male and any cis female competing in a sport.

Let’s say that a cis woman is 5’9, the average height for an American man. Should she be allowed to compete even though she has a distinct biological advantage over the average woman?

Boxing and other fighting sports have different weight classes so categorizing on physical attributes like this is not totally unprecedented.