So I was having this conversation with a friend, AP, yesterday and I thought I would write a bit about it here.

I am not sure whether you have heard or not, but there is a debate surrounding high school senior, Nattaphon Wangyot, a transgender student, winning all-state honors¹ in girls’ track and field. You can see the video and read more of the particulars here but you guys are smart enough to know what the question is.

Is it fair for a transgender woman to be competing with a CIS woman²  in sports?

Yeah I know I should have started blogging about something less controversial… like stem cell research or the 2016 election.

Well… see Ion know. Do I think that women who were born men are physically different than CIS women? Yes. Do I think that difference can have an effect on their ability to perform in competitive sports? Yes. Do I think that is fair? Chiiiiiiile.

Now I know it is easy to say that the people that are complaining are just butt hurt because she beat them. It’s very easy to dismiss them as jealous or intolerant. It has become a thing we do as a country whenever people challenge our new kumbaya super PC image of ourselves.

Can people really not see the validity in the questions?

Are we then to say that the testosterone level limits in the Olympics (and most sports) are discriminatory against transgender people? Or is it simply further evidence that there is a direct correlation between those levels and athletic prowess?

Kumbaya my Lord Kumbaya….

Don’t chew me out just yet. Let’s look at it from another angle.

AP, who says that the runners Wangyot beat need to just train harder, brought up the case of Schuyler Bailar, the swimmer from Harvard.

He was given an athletic scholarship to join the women’s swim team in high school, but began transitioning right before entering the freshman class. Now as a member of the men’s team, he went from kicking butt in the women’s races to just trying toWell… Hmm  : Transgender Athletes — Fair or Nah? beat one of his CIS male counterparts. Should he have had to give up aspiration to be an All-American or even an Olympian? Is that fair? I am supposed to think so… but again I say Chiiiiile.

And these aren’t even contact sports. If I am honest I am not sure I can watch a transgender female boxer fighting a CIS female boxer without cringing. Not that my cringe level is the line by which decisions should be made… I’m just saying.

Sigh…. chile Ion know. I didn’t know when I started this post and I still don’t know.

What do you guys think?

Related kinda:

Remember when Caster Semenya, a CIS woman, was plagued with scandal and deceptive gender verification testing in the Olympics? Remember how we all rallied behind her? Wait… no we didn’t. Or how we protected Britney Griner, also a CIS woman, from the same, though less invasive accusations… wait we didn’t then either. Nevermind. They don’t count. sideeye