Quote:
Originally Posted by Barbie's_Rush
I know it may be just semantics because of the way it's written, but I can't help but wonder how allowing someone who "identifies" as transgendered into an organization that previously had been protected under Title IX would work.
What would be the legal measure of whether or not someone could qualify/be considered for a single sex organization? Would simply saying you identify as a female although you were born a male do it? Would you have to have taken some sort of steps towards living as a female even if surgery is long away or not considered?
I'm not looking at discussing the gender identity issues etc., just the purely legal ones. If you allow a biological male into a sorority does that not open the door to allowing a biological male into other groups protected by Title IX such as a female sports team? Let's say Joe's a good tennis player but not good enough to make the men's team or get a scholarship. But thanks to a powerful serve and backhand, he could easily defeat most women players. Could Joe simply say he always identified as a woman and compete on the women's team?
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Those issues are debated within sports organizations. And studies have shown that transgender women can compete on women's teams with as little as a year of hormone replacement therapy and lose all advantage from the testosterone in their systems. And that's purely from the perspective of counteracting biological advantages.
However, assuming that there are mythical people who want to live as the other gender in order to play sports is pretty offensive. It's a bit like saying that someone might just be pretending to be gay so they can have more sex. Or pretend to be black just to get a scholarship. Might
one asshole do this? Maybe. Is it actually a reasonable concern? No. And it isn't a rational argument against prohibiting transgendered individuals from participating with their identified gender.
Transgender women are women. Transgender men are men. Title IX status should not be affected by it and as
Kye Allums has just started playing Division I basketball, I think that it's not a concern at all. He's a male player on the women's team. NCAA rules prohibit typical steps in transitioning. Because of when he 'came out' his status is pretty much the same. Had he done so before college, who knows.
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