It is scary amazing what comes out of my brain sometimes…
This started when I got into a discussion with a former acquaintance who went trans. She stated “Trump was a transphobe” and I asked for evidence. I’m willing to look at anything and if she had made her point, I would have altered my support for Trump, and not for the better. She ultimately gave me a video of Trump lamenting the win by Lia Thomas, who is a transwoman and who smoked the race to win. The acquaintance became quite hysterical when I pointed out the fact that he didn’t say anything transphobic, other than making the observation that performance-wise, Lia was just as strong and fast as when she was a man (not supposed to deadname).
But this got me thinking, and finally a coherent thought (I know, I know) popped out of my head on the best way to end this whole argument. Instead of having Men’s sports and Women’s sports, let’s combine them together. Men, women and trans, all in the same place.
Now, hear me out. For every sport, figure out 2-3 physical tests that is a crucial skill to the sport. For anyone who wants to participate, you perform these tests to determine the “Tier” you’d compete in. Someone smarter than me can figure out a better name. These would be set criteria, not adjusted by gender, age, whatever.
You would have 6-10 Tiers or whatever you’d call them. Once placed in a Tier, you would compete at that level, regardless of the male/female/trans mix. After a sanctioned competition, the first and second place winners of that competition would be promoted up to the next Tier. The two lowest players would be demoted to the next lower Tier.
This way we would have players stratified by ability, rather than gender. This way, if a female player could match or beat male players, they should compete against male players.
This would actually solve the issue (that only Conservatives seem to see) where a mediocre male athlete could announce they are transitioning genders and once on the women’s side of things, totally dominate the field. It would solve the issue because if we ignore the persons’ gender status, their physical abilities would determine the level of competition, not which pronouns they use.
One last thing. All records are now team only. No more “fastest female swimmer” or whatever. Each athlete is measured against their prior performances. Hey, no system is perfect.