Posted on 06/19/2019 7:44:35 AM PDT by ETL
The governing body of track argued in court that Olympic champion Caster Semenya is "biologically male" and that is the reason she should reduce her natural testosterone to be allowed to compete in female competitions, ..."
Semenya was legally identified as female at birth and has identified as female her whole life. But the IAAF says she is one of a number of female runners in elite athletics who have medical conditions known as "differences of sex development" and who were born with the typical male XY chromosome pattern.
That gives them some male biological characteristics, male levels of the hormone testosterone after puberty, and an unfair athletic advantage over other female athletes, the IAAF says.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Does he/she have a penis or does he/she have a vagina???
How the heck should I know??
Hard decision. She has the genetic xy gene pattern of a male but she was born a woman. If you start trying to cull out naturally occurring advantages, there is no end. Michael Phelps foot size. Someone else with an abnormally high oxygen processing. Too much radid-firing muscle mass. I think it is what it is for someone who did nothing to intentionally gain an advantage.
Do away with all sex/gender categories in athletic competitions. No more “men’s” track or “women’s” track events, just track events (or soccer or golf or basket ball, etc). Problem solved. I’m sure those claiming the sexes are “equal in all ways,” would have no problem with this.
I ain’t gonna look.
I think your reasoning is exactly correct. She should be allowed to compete as a woman as she was born.
I know of a young person who was born male, XY, but had a very small penis, almost non existent. He also had no real legs. At the urging of doctors, his parents were encouraged to raise him as a girl from birth. For lack of a better term, he was an experiment. He was named with a girl’s name, was dressed as a girl, raised as a girl completely. However, his genetics started catching up to him. He played rough. He was aggressive. By the time he was 7, he was having a hard time getting along with his female peers. He played more frequently with the boys at school. Finally, his parents talked with the doctors again, who basically said, we’re sorry, we screwed up, we thought this would be best. So they got permission to legally change his name to a male name, cut his hair, and let him dress as the boy he was. Problem solved!
I bring this up because it might have been known at birth that Semenya was a biological male but didn’t have full equipment. Perhaps “she” fared better than the boy in my example, but found success with athletic events from a young age.
So says the Olympic gold medalist, running in women's events with XY chromosomes, undescended testicles, no uterus, and male testosterone levels. Just one of the girls. That's the party line. Glad to see an official body finally standing up and pushing back.
There is a whole alphabet soup of exotic conditions involving sex related genetic abnormalities. Semenya may be a genuinely intersex individual with ambiguous genitalia. I am an agnostic. Her full medical report should be made public. Yes, she has privacy rights, and she is sick and tired of being treated like a lab animal. But she is a hard case being exploited to wreck women's athletics. There is really no substitute for full transparency.
I think you may be exactly right about Semenya.
I’m betting that he/she had a very small penis at birth, and was raised as a girl to avoid eventual embarrassment later in life.
*XY chromosomes, undescended testicles, no uterus, and male testosterone levels*
*There is a whole alphabet soup of exotic conditions involving sex related genetic abnormalities. Semenya may be a genuinely intersex individual with ambiguous genitalia.*
Exactly. You understand precisely what is going on here.
Note that the article uses this language to describe Semenya, “Semenya was legally identified as female at birth.”
*Legally identified* at birth. That tells me that her genitalia was ambiguous.
Well, NSS! Anyone with working eyes could have told you that!
Someone has to do the research for us. Take one for the team. So to speak.
Semen? Ya.
The thing is we don’t have categories for people with big feet or superior muscles, we DO have categories specifically for women, because if we didn’t women would be virtually nonexistent in elite level sports. If you want argue we should do away with gender segregation in sports so be it, but that is the system we have, most people accept it and as such there has to be a way to define what is and is not a woman. It can’t be just because you identify as female or a lot of transgender women will start competing which is already happening.
Since she was declared at birth to be female, perhaps that may offer you some clue, though of course I am only guessing that it may. 8>)
All female athletes should look like the dancing princess from Australia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.