Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stepped into the debate over trans rights on Wednesday, saying “biological males” should be banned from women’s sports, change rooms and bathrooms.
“Female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males,” Poilievre said in Kitchener, Ont.
The Conservative leader made the comments after being asked if, as prime minister, he would introduce legislation to prevent “transgender women” or “biological men” from participating in female sports or entering female prisons and shelters.
“A lot of the spaces … are provincially and municipally controlled, so it is unclear … what reach federal legislation would have to change them,” Poilievre said.
“But obviously female sports, female change rooms, female bathrooms should be for females, not for biological males,” he added.
Personally I think any sport which has rankings / championships should be separated by biological sex rather than gender.
Allow anyone to join “XY” teams but only allow female-at-birth to join “XX” teams. Unless it’s a just-for-fun league then anyone can join.
It does get complicated though with intersex and whatnot, but unfortunately life isn’t fair and some people draw the short straw. They can join the “XY” leagues if they are good enough.
Couple of things. Politicians have zero idea of what they’re talking about, especially one like Pollieve who’s looking to demonize trans women to rile up his base. Calling someone a “biological male” is just their fancy way of saying “man in a dress”. It’s their way of making it seem like they’re less transphobic than they actually are.
Trans women and trans men are biologically no different from their cis counterparts. Trans women lose the muscle mass and strength they had when testosterone was their primary sex hormone. They perform no better or worse than cis women when it comes to sports. Trans women take on the same health risks as cis women; and the same can be said for trans men.
Furthermore, chromosomes don’t work the way you’re suggesting here either. They act more like blueprints during development in the womb. There are also XY cis women with androgen insensitivities, as well as cis women who produce higher levels of testosterone.
Long story short, you don’t need a degree in biology to understand the arguments being put forth by Pollieve and folks like him are absolute bunk. They’re intended to antagonize people against trans folks.
I want to start by saying I don’t have a horse in the race, I’m not a competing athlete (anymore) and honestly believe sports should be accessible to anyone but, I have seen “reports” (who knows how accurate) of trans women wiping the floor with cis women athletes. Like the D1 swimmer. Or, Natalie Ryan(who’s a disc golfer which is my niche). Are these largely outliers?
I honestly don’t know enough about biology to know how the human body reacts to those treatments. If you’re correct, that’s awesome! While it’s more inconclusive(at least as far as I’m aware) if you’re outclassing your competitors, you should have to play with your skill level. In terms of disc golf, there’s FPO(female professional open) and MPO(mixed professional open). If you don’t really have competition at FPO, you should have to play MPO.
Now, in my example, there are more layers because disc golf is a tiny sport, Natalie Ryan wins any small tournament she’s in, but when it comes to the big ones, she’s middle of the road. So, I’m not going to say she’s the prime example of “dominating a female field” and honestly, not sure there is one. So, you’re probably onto something.