blue WA didn't vote for this. the chuds out in the hinterlands did. King County was overwhelmingly against this garbage.
this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2026
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This thread sure turned into a dumpster fire.
Forum users are famously bad at discussing nuanced topics. Anything that requires more thought than brainlessly taking the polarized stance leads to infighting.
We have weight classes for certain sports. Why not do that with everything?
There's differences between lots of people. I have two coworkers who are both cis men but one is 6.5ft and the other is 5.7ft with probably 200lbs difference between them...
Why single out trans people? Why not just, you know, be more fair period if that's the actual goal.
And then we don't have to deal with creepy ass "prove your sex to me" bullshit.
So tired of how dumb and incompetent everyone is anymore...
Bring back intramural sports. You know, for fun, not so you can maybe get a scholarship.
If private equity hadn’t weaseled its way into all levels of kid’s sports and turned it into a way to become a millionaire people would have less of a problem about it.
I doubt you’d have enough kids to play in many categories. To super tall kid or the hefty kid are just SOL because you’d need a full team for them, and none exist.
The reason it works in wrestling is because that’s two people, total. You just need to find two people, one from either side, and you’re good to go. And either side can agree to fight outside their weight class.
But you’re never going to manage to do that with a full basketball league for instance, it just isn’t going to happen.
If you put weight classes on everything and remove women's sports, at the same weight men are generally far more capable due to sex based differences. Women won't be winning much anymore
Patently untrue, look up why women were excluded from playing in sports and then made to only play in child sized ‘womens sports’ leagues.
Men cannot handle losing to a woman in a sport, they throw giant goddamn tantrums when it threatens this kind of worldview. ( I lost, to a girl??)
Women are segregated into women’s leagues for the same reason black men were put in their own leagues, to prevent identity risk. (I lost, to a epithet??)
I hope this gets thrown out on the basis of sex discrimination
Sex != Gender
But gender is also a protected class.
So gender discrimination
Are there even any trans kids playing high school sports in Washington?? Cuz if not then all this did was inconvenience cis high school girls lol
"Sorry but Susie can't play since she didn't turn in her gender verification form on time"
I honestly dont know, but when I was in school boys got physicals to play sports. It was half the reason I didnt want to play school related sports. Did girls not have to do a similar thing? I'm not really sure why sports medicine has always felt sort of fucked up.
Girls already have to get physicals like guys do, the specifics can vary from state to state.
My understanding is the bill in Washington state that passed requires an additional/seperate process that ALL GIRLS must complete before participating.
I believe the estimate was 5-10 in the entire state. It's simply more American culture war shite.
Trans rights are human rights and fuck anyone who disagrees.
Obviously trans people should have full rights and opportunities to participate in society in any way the rest of us can.
But beyond and aside from that, I will never understand why we have to act like sports are some sacred thing whose purity must be protected. It's people playing with a ball. I genuinely can't imagine why this issue has ever been anything other than "yes let whoever wants to play with the ball play with the ball."
It is truly weird to me how we not only accept the sports cult, but literally never even scrutinize the field. It's grown-ups playing children games; it's definitely not that serious
But beyond and aside from that, I will never understand why we have to act like sports are some sacred thing whose purity must be protected. It’s people playing with a ball.
Because you're not thinking big enough. The "trans sports" debate is literally just bigotry. Seriously, go watch the John Oliver piece on it. Every study that has ever been done has found that any advantage trans women and girls have disappears after a few years of hormone therapy. The athletic performance of trans women is well within the range of that of cis women. Believing trans women should be banned from women's sports because they have an unfair advantage has no more scientific validity to it than the old racist beliefs that black athletes couldn't compete fairly in white leagues. The science has been. The studies have been performed. Cis people just refuse to believe them. Their gut feelings outweigh science and our humanity.
People just vote based on bigotry. Even most liberal "allies" are awful at this. Most liberal allies just see trans women as drag queens, literal men in dresses, as if we don't take medications that completely reshape our bodies on a biochemical level. Morons, even many moronic Democrats, just think "trans woman == man in dress," and conclude that our sports performance must be closer to cis men than cis women. It's just stereotypes and bigotry. That's all this is.
And that's the problem. Because once you've given into one form of irrational, unscientific bigotry, you have no reason to ever stop. If you won't listen to the science when bigots say trans women have an unfair advantage in sports, you won't listen to science when bigots say that trans women are a threat in women's restrooms and locker rooms. If you don't give a shit about science, you'll have no problem caving to bigots who hand wring about trans kids receiving trans healthcare. It's completely unscientific and bigoted to let a tiny minuscule regret rate influence your conclusion, but if you've abandoned science once, you'll do it again.
As a trans person, I honestly do not give two shits about sports. But what I DO care about is the precedent it sets. There has never been a state that passed a trans sports ban through its legislature that then didn't also go on to persecute trans people in numerous areas of life.
Think more than two seconds into the future.
Remember, Jim Crow was passed because white women didn't "feel comfortable" sharing spaces with black women.
sports are some sacred thing whose purity must be protected
With that framing, I agree. But that's a strawman. Most people don't care for the romantic vision of a "pure" sport but rather, the general idea of keeping sports fair for kids. 1/2 the rules in all sports are about keeping things fair. Age buckets, weight ranges, gender, a system of leagues (ex varisty vs JV) to sort players on skill level, and so on.
So if you assume that there are biological differences between men and women that affect fairness within a competitive sport and if you feel those differences largely do not go away until after some form of medical transition and if you think sports are important in kids lives & keeping them fair is important - then you vote the way blue WA did.
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