I think this should be handled by the communities of the different sports in stead. I imagine some sports, like power-lifting, would end up separating on biological sex - with some others wouldn't
this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
159 points (96.5% liked)
news
815 readers
564 users here now
A lightweight news hub to help decentralize the fediverse load: mirror and discuss headlines here so the giant instance communities aren’t a single choke-point.
Rules:
- Recent news articles only (past 30 days)
- Title must match the headline or neutrally describe the content
- Avoid duplicates & spam (search before posting; batch minor updates).
- Be civil; no hate or personal attacks.
- No link shorteners
- No entire article in the post body
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
The only trans woman to ever compete in the Olympics was a power lifter. She came last.
Your intuition about trans athletes is wrong.
I don't think that single example really proves that. There's reasons why we have separate events for men and women, and some of those have to do with biology - if biology didn't matter, we could just remove the separation altogether.
...but then again, I really don't think it should be up to me either, that's kind of my point. The communities and institutions of the different sports should figure this out, not the IOC, and certainly not me.
If transphobia wasn't rampant, that would be ideal. But transphobia is rampant, and it just means each and every sport defaults to exclusion. That's how it worked before this IOC ruling. That's how it worked at the last Olympics, in which zero trans women were able to compete.
Idealised scenarios that assume fairness and good will don't work. They just lead to exclusion, and worse, they make it impossible to gather more data.
And the reason for that is that everyone thinks like you. Which is to say, everyone thinks "Biology matters", but for some reason, is never working to challenge that assumption by acknowledging that trans folks biology changes with the introduction of hormone replacement. It's also a space with a lot of bad faith and actively misleading research, because of the aforementioned transphobia.
Excluding trans people from sport is an openly acknowledged "first step" of a where they're using to normalise exclusion of trans folk in wider society. These are the folk generating much of this research, research that normally would be laughed out of the room, but when it's about trans people and aligns with the "common sense" belief that trans folks have an advantage in sports, somehow the research gets taken seriously.
That's the environment we live in. And that's the environment that tried your approach, as a stepping stone to the outright exclusion we have now.
I don't see how entrusting the process to the IOC will ensure that there's less transphobia behind the decision. It's not exactly known for being very progressive :p
And either way, I don't think fighting to push something through against the popular will, without a clear plan for consensus-building afterwards, is a good way of building lasting change - I'd say it is a good way of creating a backlash, and of selling the Conservative image of the trans movement as anti-democratic and elitist.
Appeasing the bigots and fearmongers has never once in the history of people lead to success and protection of minority rights. All it is is a slowly closing ratchet.
The only method that has ever worked is pushing back. It doesn't have to mean violence, but it means making people uncomfortable, and challenging their harmful beliefs, not letting them sit comfortably with them
I don't necessarily disagree with any of that, but I also don't think it invalidates any of what I just wrote.
ITT: Lemmy’s on high alert, scanning every post in this thread for the tiniest crack of nuance, hesitation, or less-than-100% agreement. The moment someone sounds even slightly conflicted or imperfectly aligned, the chorus leaps in with the sacred “transphobe!!” label like it’s a reflex. Then comes the frantic history dive of screenshots, out-of-context quotes... anything to sharpen the pitchforks and prove the heretic was always suspect.
I'm fine with transphobes being called out, but some in this thread are really stretching the meaning of the word. Can't we all just try to get along?
It’s genuinely fascinating to watch. lol
Can't we all just try to get along?
That's a bit hard when we're having our rights taken away. But sure, the biggest issue is that the folk defending trans people aren't doing it in a polite enough way for your sensibilities.
So do you think you're helping people understand, by being jerks and finger pointing every time someone doesn't 100 percent agree with every single thing you say? (Not YOU specifically, I'm talking some of the more angry, extreme people)
On Lemmy, just asking "Why?" gets people brigaded and yelled at.
Hey, you do you. I don't care one way or the other. People can keep on doing screenshots and fingerpointing and yelling...but it won't change minds or hearts doing it that way.
I've been on Lemmy long enough to realize that most on Lemmy don't want to have nuance, or useful conversation. People here LIKE being mad.
Extremism is what brought most to Lemmy in the first place. Most LIKE the echo chamber. It will accomplish nothing though.
So hey, go about being mad, getting mad, and yelling. That won't change opinions and that's not the goal anyway.
Yep, the real issue isn't the fact that trans people are being excluded, the thing we need to talk about is how a trans person didn't talk about their exclusion in a way you were comfortable with.
I've been on Lemmy long enough to realize that most on Lemmy don't want to have nuance, or useful conversation. People here LIKE being mad.
There is a world wide growing movement against trans people. We have had our drivers licenses and passports taken away, we've been excluded from sports, we've had our protections against violent and sexual crime weakened and removed, we've had whole governments campaign on their desire to attack us.
I personally live in a country that has escaped the worst of it, but even so, do you know that I legally can't enter the US? Not that I'd want to, but it would literally be impossible for me to provide ID that matches their expectations. And if I was let in anyway because some random person didn't realise I was trans, I would face imprisonment if they identified that I'm trans.
Fuck nuance.
I personally live in a country that has escaped the worst of it, but even so, do you know that I legally can’t enter the US? Not that I’d want to, but it would literally be impossible for me to provide ID that matches their expectations.
The US doesn't ban trans people or gay people from entering. So what's the actual reason that would you be banned from entering US?
Fuck nuance.
Which proves my point I was making. You don't want nuance. I don't care the reasons, my point stands: you don't care about nuance.
They ban people whose identity documents don't match their assigned sex at birth (ie, me). All of my documents list me as female. Birth certificate, passport, ID card etc.
So if I declare that I'm trans, they deny me a visa, because my documents don't match their transphobic guidelines. And if I don't declare that I'm trans, and they let me in, then they can hit me for entering the country with "fraudulent" documentation if they later identity me as transgender.
Here's a breakdown of how it works https://www.huschblackwell.com/newsandinsights/new-visa-rules-target-transgender-individuals-considerations-for-employers-and-educational-institutions
my point stands: you don't care about nuance
The irony being here, you aren't interested in nuance either. You've got your line in the sand, and it doesn't matter how much exclusion, harm or bigotry you see, how explicitly exclusion from sports is shown to be a wedge issue to normalise exclusion of trans people from other levels of society, your opinion won't change.
IOC 2022 "Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination".
IOC 2026 "Pander to Sexists, Racists, and Morons"
It's so sad to see hatred winning.
Sad times if you're a cis woman who happens to have a wider jawline, larger nose or who generally does not look sufficiently "feminine". You can be subjected to cruel, invasive transvestigation instigated by people with sinister motives or bitter rivals.
As always, transphobia is used to pander to bigoted pricks. This is not a victory for women in any shape or form. This just opens more avenues for abuse for the fucking gender police.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I'm of two minds about this:
First, let people compete in comparative tier skill events. We have different weight classes for boxing, why should other sports be any different?
Second, who fucking cares? Sports are literally just physical games which have become the victim of capitalism, and the Olympics added nationalism and implicit racial perspectives.
You will never see a Japanese woman winning the 100m sprint. Should we have another category for Asian sprinters? Maybe? But at some point you need to realise:
NONE OF THIS SHIT MATTERS.
Most of these athletes are doing drugs anyway lol.
load more comments
(32 replies)
There is no good evidence that transgender women who have been on GAHT for two years have any physical advantages over cisgender women. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/60/3/198
load more comments
(36 replies)
view more: next ›