This weekend, I went down a few rabbit holes reading about psychological tic disorders that are being spread over social media and another topic, Lia Thomas, the transgender woman who is breaking all kinds of competitive women’s swimming records. There seems to be some commonality in both stories —i.e.—that people need to be seen and that we live in a society where people feel embattled to express who they are. (Please do not read into that statement that I think the reason people transition from one sex to another is for attention.)
Lia Thomas’ story is particularly compelling. Does a trans female have the right to compete against cis females? The NCAA has ruled yes — after the person undergoes a full year of hormone replacement therapy. But others claim that post puberty trans females can still have an advantage by having greater lung and heart capacity and a larger size. That is a legitimate criticism to me.
Lia Thomas’ thoughts on this particular point were not addressed in the Sports Illustrated article — it was an informative essay not an interview — but what is clear is that Lia is an elite competitor and that her need to be a competitor at this level is in her DNA. What is also in her DNA is her need to be a woman. I have no doubt that those urges are every bit as strong.
So here is why this is potentially a non-issue (at least for individual competition) and how, everyone — in my mind (sometimes a fantastically delusional place) — can be made happy and whole:
Sports is all about data—most wins, fastest time, most points, etc. Any sports fan knows that there are a million data points to look at, all titillating to that geeky, nerd-self that some fans have inside.
My point is, let things stand exactly as they are, but record wins and other data with notations of sex. Michael Phelps (cis man). Lia Thomas (trans woman). People then won’t feel as if their cis records (fastest time, most hoops) are being unfairly broken.
There is room on the podium to have two gold medals. For anyone who has the innate ability, loves competition enough to train four hours a day, and also feels strongly enough about who they are to have sex reassignment surgery, there has to be an arena for them to show the world what they can do.
Cis women will still have records for cis women. Cis men will still have records for cis men. Trans men and trans women will have records too. And for the elite athletes who are the top in the world, there will be an arena for them to be seen on a grand scale.
I suppose for some people this will be too much like giving out participation ribbons. Where do we stop? Will there be nationally broadcast competitions by age group? Basketball associations for players five feet five and under? 55+ gymnastics? Swim competitions with fins? I guess I’m being a little bit flippant, but at the same time I think, why not?
What about coed teams? Why is it that women’s teams still don’t get the level of attention and coverage as male teams? It seems like a good time to completely rethink competitive sports. Judging by the new categories being added to the Olympics, it is already changing.
I read an article that the Eophoria actor, Hunter Schafer, wants to be identified as a trans girl not as a cis girl. I admire her for that and wonder if that is common among transgender. So what’s the matter with categorizing sports people and their accomplishments by gender, especially since we already do that. It may satisfy all the people that are worried about the ethics of allowing transgender people to participate in gender segregated sports and maybe it will satisfy transgender participants as well.
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I guess if my blog has a theme, I’m blowing it out of the water this week by going on tangents. Still, gender identity definitely relates to place and having one in the world, as well as my next topic — accessibility to the streets.
Locally, there was a violent incident in Concord that has shaken and angered me. Last week, a fifteen year old boy was killed on his bicycle about eight blocks from my house at the corner of Galindo Street and Clayton Road. One person is being charged with vehicular manslaughter.
I was on my way to the climbing gym a little after four o’clock when I saw his covered body being loaded into the ambulance. The whole block was cordoned off. A half dozen police cars had their lights rolling. All major corridors were jammed with vehicles.
At this intersection, Galindo is a two-way street with seven lanes and Clayton is one-way with four. Neither have medians which would have likely prevented this accident. It’s just a wide swath of asphalt without a safe place to rest or barriers against crazy driving. Concord is filled with similar intersections.
This accident comes just two weeks after I witnessed the driver of a new Dodge Charger become impatient at a red light, make a sudden left turn from the far right lane and T-bone a woman turning onto the freeway at Bailey Road in Bay Point. A month before, I came across a concrete mixing truck that had turned over a few feet from this same spot and destroyed the concrete barrier between the on and off ramp.
I turn my bike lights on at all times now. I’ve taken to wearing a yellow safety vest given to me by my old principal, Mr. Ruiz, who could barely see me riding in the fog one day.
We desperately need traffic calming here—bulb outs, medians, bike lanes, sharrows, no parking zones, signage, etc. It’s easy for car drivers to make the case for the city to not do these things. After all, very few people ride bikes. To this argument I say, “Have you seen the movie Field of Dreams? Build it and bicyclists and pedestrians will come.”
The truth is, most municipalities in the United States do very little to make walking and riding easy or safe. Cars have owned the culture for a long time.
Things may seem to be getting better. Motor vehicle fatalities peaked in the United States in 1972 with 54,589 deaths. In 2020 there were 38,680—and this with a hundred million more people. Still, I wonder how much of this is primarily due to seatbelt laws and air bags—measures that do nothing to improve the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians?
The streets feel more dangerous than ever to me, but I’m getting older. Danger is around every corner. It might not be long before I no longer want to go out at night.
Spotty West Goes East 