What Canadians can do
We don’t control U.S. policy, but we do control our response.
Speak up: When Pride visibility is under attack—even elsewhere—we need to be louder in our solidarity. Local businesses, schools, and governments should reaffirm their support explicitly.
Support queer media and organizations: From Rainbow Railroad to The 519, Canadian orgs are doing frontline work that often fills in the gaps left by political inaction.
Challenge imported rhetoric: Whether it’s book bans or “parental rights” bills, we must recognize when American talking points show up in Canadian debates—and push back accordingly.
Your daily reminder that trans rights are human rights. Gay rights are human rights. Any government trying to roll these back is only rolling back rights for all of us to be who we are.
Supporting trans people is not taking away from women, these things aren’t zero sum.
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Seeing sports exclusively through the lens of competition is toxic masculinity.
Sports is the only ring where it kinda makes sense to have separate leagues, but how much of an issue is this actually?
There’s no way it’s worth the rhetoric and actions people have been taking.
John Oliver has a episode on this and it changed my mind. Sure at the top level there has to be conversations about this but for kids and non pros which lets be honest is the vast majority of people playing sports, just let people play.
I’ll have to look it up
I only really think at the professional level it might make sense to not allow trans competitors in certain leagues. They should be able to compete in o o pen leagues/divisions though.
I see it like how I’m colourblind, and by no fault of my own I was born in a way that I’m banned from a lot of jobs. I almost went to school for animation and design, but I can’t actually do that job.
But I don’t know how this affects intersex people, or people like that boxer everyone is accusing of being trans, or the genetic Micheal Phelps of the world, so it really isn’t my place to opine.
But one thing I’m certain of is nobody is actually going through gender reassignment just to beat women in sports.
Agreed; it’s not worth the rhetoric and actions. And while there’s definitely merit in assessing trans athletes to try and keep things as fair as possible (though they never stopped Phelps from competing, so “fair” is kind of a joke), it’s far more complex than a simple “there was testosterone so they have an advantage!”
For the “nonathletic” groups - think community-level sport - based on what data is available, there is effectively no statistical difference between cis and trans women’s physical performance after 2+ years on hormone therapy.
When it comes to elite athletes, trans women outperformed cis women in Fat-free mass index, Absolute hand grip strength, and Absolute Vo2Max, but under-performed in Relative VO2Max to mass, Ratio of expiratory volume to vital lung capacity, and Absolute countermovement jump (lower body power). The lower Relative VO2Max, and Expiratory volume can lead to disadvantages in terms of speed, recovery and endurance.
While hand grip strength is considered an indicator of overall muscle strength, to quote the first article linked:
It will require a lot more information before any athletics group would be able to make a truly informed decision, and it’s going to have to be sport by sport. Elite athletes are all outliers in their genetic makeup (Phelps, The average height of a WNBA player, etc). We know athletes have different hormone levels depending on the sport they play, but it’s chicken vs. egg on whether the hormones or elite performance came first. So trying to decide what is an acceptable advantage re: “pro athlete genetics”, vs. an unacceptable advantage re: “transgender genetics” is little more than opinions and politics at this point.
/info dump
Some people assume nefarious individuals would go into ladies change rooms, washrooms, or prisons.
Nefarious people would do that regardless, if they chose.
These idiots really think that a fucking sign will stop nefarious people from doing what they wanna do
It does happen, like we had a trans woman in BC (40s maybe) going into women’s washrooms and talking to teen girls, and asking them about their periods, but I seriosly doubt this is the normal behaviour of 99% of trans persons; it is the behaviour of a creep, wanting to talk inappropriately with teens.
Out of curiosity, what is with peoples usage of sports as some magnificent example of why trans rights shouldn’t be allowed to exist?
Speaking as a nonbinary person, I don’t care about sports. I genuinely have no interest in it. Why am I not allowed to exist comfortably just because someone old fart in another country got mad their sports team lost? Like, oh noooo, our existence is spoiling your beer and fun times with the bros. Who cares.
It lets them reinforce the idea that “mens better than wimmens at sports” as well.
The whole thing is about reinforcing gender roles and views. Notice how they never go after transmen? Dudes may as well not even exist. It’s all about the transwomen and the potentiality to not look or act like their ideal of a woman. Must be stamped out!!!
Every fucking attempt to police transwomen in toilets has done nothing but harass cis women. There’s a reason for that
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let’s talk about public roads. you obviously think of yourself as a non-threatening driver, but can you say that nobody will abuse the ability to go 95 through a red light? better limit all cars to 30.
the argument you are using is treating an entire group of people like they are criminals just by existing. innocent until proven guilty.
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Why would anyone have an issue what other people self-identify as? My name is Todd, but I’d like you to call me Steve. Does this impact your day?
No it doesn’t, just curious. I could see a scenario where they want no segregation based on sex/gender/race/age/etc… since anyone can identify as they want.
On the basis that one person may or may not abuse the situation all trans people deserve to be accused and/or treated as second class citizens? There are current real world incidences of cisgender women getting harrased and assaulted in these very “safe zones” under the guise of protecting cisgender women.
The exclusion of trans women from these spaces creates a culture where some people are on the lookout for those who “don’t belong”, and this is leading to women who don’t fit visual/societal definitions of feminity and womanhood to getting singled out and harrased in these very spaces.
Trans women are not “the other gender” as you put it, they are women; trans men are men. Bad actors who want to assault women or vulnerable people will do that any way they see fit, their gender identity is irrelevant. Being inclusive to trans people does not eliminate safe spaces, they are also deserving of being protected.
It feels like an incredibly large amount of work, and we don’t really see gay people and lesbians making an issue out of change rooms.
So to stop the possibility that someone would sneak into a different bathroom to peek at someone’s genitals, you suggest we have people checking peoples genitals to even enter the room?
That takes a hypothetical problem and guarantees it.
I hate to laugh but you are right, that does seem to be happening. I just cant rationalize an answer that appeases everyone.
I just also feel that both side seems to be strawman’ing the other, so a discussion seems somewhat ridiculous every single time with no one agreeing on anything.
I’d argue the sport influences the build more than the build influences the sport, with the exception to height. Athletes in the same sport have similar builds due to training in similar ways to use the same muscle groups. Cyclists have strong legs because they train to cycle, they didn’t wake up one day with massive legs telling them to be a cyclist.
I do agree that people in the same sport will train the same muscles, but they normally start with a biological advantage in order to be good enough in the sport to start to train specifically for it to begin with. There are other things than height, such and foot/hand size, torso length, natural testosterone levels, how fast your body removed lactic acid, if you were born with a cardio-vascular issue, dozens of factors that affect your balance, and much more.
Someone with Ehlers-Danlos isn’t likely to become a powerlifter.