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Post by SharksFan99 on Oct 8, 2018 22:05:31 GMT 10
This has been making headlines here in Australia over the past couple of days. Transgender footballer, Hannah Mouncey, has withdrawn her nomination from the AFLW Draft and abandoned her dream of playing Aussie Rules Football, because the administrators of the sport don't know how to deal with her physicality. Hannah tried to join the women's AFL league last year, but she was rejected over concerns that she was too big and strong. She was born a boy and spent the first 25 years of her life as a male.
I am just interested to hear everyone else's opinion on this. Some people have been saying that Hannah shouldn't compete against women who are not as physically strong as her, while others believe that it is unmoral to deny transgender people the right to compete in a professional league. What is your take on all of this?
I am personally all in favour of transgender people being eligible to compete in professional sport, but in this case, I believe Hannah is too physically strong to compete in the women's AFL League. Her physicality is comparable to that of male athletes; there's a reason why men and women do not compete against each other in professional football codes. Of course, i'm not suggesting that the women in the AFLW would not be able to compete against Hannah. I just don't think it would be fair on them, as it would put the players who are not as physically strong at a disadvantage.
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Post by ★☆GäBBï☆★ on Oct 8, 2018 22:51:11 GMT 10
Depends on the case I think. I'm not sure about Aussie Football so I can't say anything about Hannah in particular. I think there's nothing wrong with transgender people competing in their category as long as they don't have a clear advantage, while it sucks that transgender women in particular sometimes don't get that chance, it's probably best to be assessed case by case. Maybe they could do a test or something to only accept results within a certain margin for the women's category, but I'm not sure how that is going to work out and it's probably more trouble and discrimination than it's worth.
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Post by SharksFan99 on Oct 9, 2018 17:09:20 GMT 10
Depends on the case I think. I'm not sure about Aussie Football so I can't say anything about Hannah in particular. I think there's nothing wrong with transgender people competing in their category as long as they don't have a clear advantage, while it sucks that transgender women in particular sometimes don't get that chance, it's probably best to be assessed case by case. Maybe they could do a test or something to only accept results within a certain margin for the women's category, but I'm not sure how that is going to work out and it's probably more trouble and discrimination than it's worth. I agree. There shouldn't be a blanket rule which prevents all transgender people from competing in professional sport. It's hard to say what the most appropriate criteria/method in selecting suitable athletes should be like, because whatever decision the sports administers make, there will always be a small faction of the community who will deem it as discriminatory.
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Post by ★☆GäBBï☆★ on Oct 9, 2018 19:10:33 GMT 10
Depends on the case I think. I'm not sure about Aussie Football so I can't say anything about Hannah in particular. I think there's nothing wrong with transgender people competing in their category as long as they don't have a clear advantage, while it sucks that transgender women in particular sometimes don't get that chance, it's probably best to be assessed case by case. Maybe they could do a test or something to only accept results within a certain margin for the women's category, but I'm not sure how that is going to work out and it's probably more trouble and discrimination than it's worth. I agree. There shouldn't be a blanket rule which prevents all transgender people from competing in professional sport. It's hard to say what the most appropriate criteria/method in selecting suitable athletes should be like, because whatever decision the sports administers make, there will always be a small faction of the community who will deem it as discriminatory.
On a kinda related topic some women were also disqualified or almost disqualified from competing in their categories because they were allegedly different from other female athletes (remember Caster Semenya?) and for most of these women they had to take it to court and fight for their right to compete. Some of these people were excluded without actually having a fair advantage (such as in the case of androgen insensitivity).
So, I guess if something is put in place for transgender athletes it may have to account for other such cases as well. Maybe the experts have another view on it but I don't think there is a complete way to make sure it's fair to everyone.
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Post by SharksFan99 on Oct 10, 2018 23:11:42 GMT 10
Yeah, I guess the problem is how to determine it individually. Every sport would have different requirements I guess, and I think it's just going to boil down to how willing people are to pursue the matter.
On a kinda related topic some women were also disqualified or almost disqualified from competing in their categories because they were allegedly different from other female athletes (remember Caster Semenya?) and for most of these women they had to take it to court and fight for their right to compete. Some of these people were excluded without actually having a fair advantage (such as in the case of androgen insensitivity).
So, I guess if something is put in place for transgender athletes it may have to account for other such cases as well. Maybe the experts have another view on it but I don't think there is a complete way to make sure it's fair to everyone. Yep. I think it's definitely something that needs addressing, because transgender people should have the right to aspire to play professional sport as well. Hopefully the circumstances surrounding Hannah's case will inspire change and further research is undertaken to determine how to assess each person individually.
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