https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/30/us/ab-hernandez-trump-california-funding-wwk?cid=ios_app
Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie
Trans people in sports and tRump’s threats
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/30/us/ab-hernandez-trump-california-funding-wwk?cid=ios_app
Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 
There is a possible solution to this, not necessarily the right one, or even practical, but still a shot in the dark: allowing a 6 ft transgendered female to play with and against her ‘peers’ who are now females, puts a strain on both sides of the field, physically and sometimes mentally. You may present as a female, but your bone structure doesn’t know that. And on the other side, females who now present as males are at risk of being trampled underfoot by players that can outweigh them by 100 lbs.
A possible compromise, then: transgendered females play on male teams, trans males play on female teams, if for no other reason than physical safety and equality.
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One of the key reasons puberty blockers are used is to allow trans youth to delay the development of secondary sex characteristics until they are old enough to make an informed, considered decision. In these cases, concerns about body size, bone density, and muscle mass largely become moot, as these individuals experience puberty similarly to their cisgender peers—just at a slightly later stage. Additionally, puberty blockers prevent the progression of facial features associated with their assigned sex at birth, while hormone therapy later helps shape characteristics that align more closely with their gender identity.
Even when transition occurs after puberty, male secondary sex characteristics are not universally advantageous in sports. Women have demonstrated physiological advantages in certain disciplines—particularly in extreme endurance sports, equestrian events, and precision-based activities like shooting and archery.
In endurance sports, women tend to have higher fat reserves, better metabolic efficiency, and greater resistance to fatigue, which can provide an edge in ultramarathons, long-distance swimming, and other extreme endurance challenges. In equestrian sports, where physical strength plays a less dominant role, women frequently compete at the highest levels against men with equal success.
Additionally, sports that require fine motor control, steadiness, and precision—such as shooting and archery—can see advantages for women. Some studies suggest that factors like lower average heart rates and superior hand stability contribute to accuracy in these disciplines. While men often have higher upper body strength, which aids in drawing heavier bows, women’s control and endurance can make them competitive in these sports.
Perhaps instead of relying solely on gender-based classifications, a more equitable approach would be to use performance-related criteria to determine competition categories.
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Hi Barry. Thank you for that thoughtful reply to Judy. You said it better than I did when I just tried to reply. You are a grand ally. Thank you. All of us LGBTQ+ need people like you. On another support note. I used my limited clothing budget to buy three new pride shirts and a pride suspender. Best wishes.
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You’re welcome 😄
You’ve made some solid points. The anti-trans movement is pretty blinkered, focusing almost entirely on trans women while completely ignoring trans men and intersex people. The only explanation I can think of is that people who go through male puberty usually struggle to pass as female, even with hormone therapy. Meanwhile, those who go through female puberty can often pass as young males or, with hormone therapy, develop characteristics like a more angular face, facial hair, and a deeper voice. In other words, testosterone tends to be more “effective” than oestrogen when it comes to passing.
And as you pointed out, the absurdity of bathroom bans becomes glaringly obvious when trans men are forced to use female facilities. It leads to bathroom policing, where any woman who doesn’t fit the stereotypical mould ends up being questioned on whether she belongs there. NZ is way more chill about this compared to the US, but it’s still an issue.
My daughter has quite a few LGBTQ+ workmates, and one of them—an AFAB non-binary person—has a boyish haircut and wears gender-neutral or masculine clothes. But they’re hesitant to use public toilets unless they’re with someone who “passes” as a woman because, far too often, they’re asked if they’re in the right place. Meanwhile, a trans woman colleague has never had her gender questioned in those same situations. So you get this ridiculous scenario where an AMAB person ends up accompanying an AFAB person to gendered facilities—just to “confirm” that the AFAB person is allowed to be there.
FYI: In New Zealand, we usually call public facilities ‘toilets’ or ‘restrooms,’ whereas you Americans tend to use ‘bathroom’. This might be because NZ homes typically have a separate ‘toilet’ room and a ‘bathroom’ for bathing, while US homes usually combine them into one. So when Americans say ‘bathroom,’ they mean the whole space, but here, ‘toilet’ is more specific.
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Hi Barry. You seem to have a better analytical ability than I do on things. So I would like your opinion please. I keep hearing on podcasts and in substack writings this idea. The idea is that right wing politicians, fundamentalist hate preachers, and right wing media people are against kids getting puberty blockers and hormone therapy is because it lets them pass as they gender they identify as much better than if they have to go through the wrong puberty. As you mentioned it is easier for trans boys to transition later in life and still pass but much harder for trans women. The idea that I keep hearing is that these people on the right are worried that they will be attracted to a trans woman / or their teen son will be attracted to a trans girl so they want to make it harder for these people to pass / to look like the females they identify as. This idea is made possible by the members of right wing media, fundamentalist hate religious leaders, and republicans in congress who have been caught with trans porn on their phones / computers or in the republican in congress sponsoring and trying to arrange meetings with trans females. In fact porn companies like porn hub that keep track of what kind of is requested or most watched in which states report that in the most anti-trans states that trans female porn is most watched. Alex Jones got caught showing his phone on camera with trans porn on it, as did Nazi early 20 year old Nick Fuentes, who also got caught watching trans female porn in one of his podcasts. Is it just a case that they are afraid they are attracted to girls with great boobs but also a penis? I wonder?
I have often talked about how I came to learn about and accept unisex public bathrooms. My first station in Germany as a young 19 year old gay boy worried about how to deal with sex, girls, other guys who might be straight, hoping I could meet other guys who were gay like me. You know a young person moving from school as a kid into adulthood in a ridged structure of what was ok to do, what was right or wrong, and how do I fit in. I arrived in the afternoon and took my stuff to my dorm room in the coed barracks. Then I needed to urinate. I looked for the bathroom. I was on the third floor of a three floor building. Each floor had one large bathroom. I walked in and there was a row of sinks with mirrors above them on the wall of the doorway. Then I noticed opposite that was a row of toilet stalls. To one side was a door way to single use showers. I would later learn the showers had slide locks on the inside. I also saw several adult females in the room at the sinks and one exiting the toilet stalls. I backed out of the room afraid I had made a mistake. But by the door was a sign showing both males and females. I needed to urinate so I went back in and to a toilet. No one cared. Over the next few months I got comfortable with a unisex toilet / bathroom set up. There might have been occasional flashes of nudity but none I can remember. Everyone went in to use a stall to urinate or poop. Fears of poop anxiety with others of a different gender smelling soon vanished. Everyone went about our duties getting ready for work, getting ready to go out for the free time, or just needing to pee or poop. It became no big deal, we were all adults doing our things we needed to do in the facility set up for us to do that. Again as I said the showers were off the main bathroom and were single use with locks. So no violation of privacy.
That is why I do not understand the bathroom panic of people in the US. I lost a friend of ten years, an older female in her 80s because she couldn’t accept a trans woman in the bathroom with her. I asked how would she know? Do they undress in the common area in female rooms? She claimed it was just the idea of a man in her bathroom. I said they were not a man, but she couldn’t get past the idea of gender assigned at birth. To her if it dangled on a baby they were male, and if not they were female, no room for anything else. But the fact is her attitude is the same as white women in the civil rights era / time when the SCOTUS decided that separate was not equal and black people and white people should share bathrooms. It is the same with the current bathroom bills. It is making sure white women don’t have to feel uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with a black person. Best wishes.
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Hi Scottie. I tend to take a cautious approach when it comes to assessing motives, both of individuals and movements, because they’re often complex and multifaceted. Categorising people or assuming intent can sometimes lead to oversimplifications, especially when much of what we hear or read is anecdotal rather than thoroughly examined.
For me, the more productive path is focusing on social justice, equity, and the reality that trans women are not a danger to other women. The pro-trans movement needs to push these core messages rather than getting caught up in speculation about the motivations of our opponents.
As an autistic person, I find that trying to grasp what drives people is often beyond my reach. I respond to what I see happening—real actions, real policies—rather than making assumptions about what might be fuelling them. That’s where I think energy is best spent: on addressing tangible issues rather than debating hypotheticals.
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Hi Barry. Also your daughter deserves so much credit for being there for her friend. We all could use friends like that. I have never understood the toxic masculinity that makes some men feel they have a right to question how feminine a person entering a bathroom is? What arrogance. You don’t fit my idea of a woman or in the other case a man, so I decide if you are able to go to the toilet of your choice. I can not understand the mindset that lets a person think that way. I have used part of our limited budge to buy three pride shirts, a set of pride color suspenders, a couple hats that have a pride colors across the front and pride written on the side in the pride colors. I am looking for a pride color belt.
I wore them out for the last few days shopping with Ron and I got surprisingly affirmatively responses. One store worker seen me walk by and shouted YES! Support pride month! I got affirmative positive reactions from people of all ages and genders. Sadly there was one elderly man with his wife in the store we were in that when the first time we were in the same isle he glared at me. Then refused to pick his wanted item from the shelf near where we were. He waited until we moved isles and then moved forward to picked up his item next to where we were, he did not realize I was looking from the end of the isle to see him do it. From then on if we were in an isle that they entered the husband turned their cart around and they left the isle. How sad their hate made their shopping so much harder. I did not tell Ron and he did not notice. But it was the only negative reaction we got. Best wishes.
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I just wanted to clarify that in the case of my daughter’s non-binary work colleague, the questioning typically comes from other women—often older women—inside the restroom itself. While men questioning gender expression in public spaces is certainly an issue, the real discomfort in this situation comes from being scrutinised by women in spaces that are meant to feel safe.
Thankfully, this isn’t a problem in their workplace, as the organisation actively supports minority communities—including ethnic, rainbow, disabled, and neurodivergent groups. Because of that, my daughter doesn’t often need to act as a support person.
The reason I phrased it the way I did—about an AMAB person accompanying an AFAB person to gendered facilities to “confirm” their right to be there—is because this particular non-binary person is married to a lesbian trans woman. And in women-only spaces, it’s actually the trans woman, whose gender is never questioned, reassuring others that her spouse belongs there.
It’s a strange, ironic dynamic, isn’t it?
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Hi Judy. I watch a trans podcaster on YouTube who has dug deep into the science of this. The truth is more surprising than most people imagine. After a year on estrogen and having the testosterone of a woman there is no benefit in a trans woman’s larger bones in sports. As one doctor put it, they have larger bones that have to be moved, controlled, and made to function by a much less muscle mass. By two years any benefit being born male gave them is erased. If it was true that trans women had such an advantage they would be winning every event and all the trophies. But they don’t. The rare win they do manage the right spews all over media not as their due to their skill in the sport but due to their being trans. Riley Gaines claims she lost her trophy due to a “man” being in a woman’s swim meet. Lia Thomas was a trans woman who practiced her sport while Gaines did not. They tied for fifth place. Beaten by four other women. Both got the same trophy and there was no mark on either trophy of their spot. She stood sixth while Lia stood Fifth. That is what Gaines has built her career out of. She goes on every right wing media claiming trans women are winning every event in sports, and denying women their right to win in their sports. It is again all lies and not happening. But it fits the rights narratives.
Then there are “sports” that have bans on trans women playing on female teams such as the chest or Poker tournaments. Are they saying that once a man you have superiority over women in the thinking department? Also as your idea that we should put a trans man in a female event to prove the point, it has happened. In some high school in a red state a trans boy on hormone replacement causing him to develop as a boy. He has facial hair and has grown more muscle mass along with stronger bones. He was doing well on the boys team. However the state pasted an anti-trans in school sports bill requiring students to participate in the gender they were assigned at birth. Which means he had to go to wrestling girls. He hates it. The other teams hate it as it is unfair. He mostly wins. He refuses to let them raise his hand as the winner. But this is what the republicans want. With their bathroom bills and sports bills, this boy will have to go into the girl’s bathroom. How will the girls feel? Same with all the other passing trans men. And that is one reason they want to ban puberty blockers and hormone treatments so it is harder for trans people to pass as the gender they identify as. Plus they never seem to care about trans boys, only trans girls. Why? It is due to the Christian patriarchy about the supremacy of males from birth. Males got the good genes, males got the right stuff. So why would a male give up their prized symbol of their membership in the man club by becoming a woman? They can not understand it and do not want to understand it. The website is linked below. Hugs
https://www.youtube.com/@EssenceOfThought
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Hi Scottie. Another trans orientated YouTube channel I find very informative is https://www.youtube.com/@Jammidodger presented by a trans man.
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Hi Barry. Yes he is a grand blogger who recently had his identity attacked with his birth name pushed online to hurt him. I have him in my subscribed list but sadly I have not been able to watch his videos lately. I will try harder to get to his videos in my day, he is worth it. Best wishes.
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