Rules in Place for Transsexual Athletes to Compete (in the Olympics)

[Blue-Jay]

<snip>

Transexuals will be able to compete at the Olympics if they have had appropriate surgery and are legally recognized as members of their new sex, the International Olympic Committee said on Monday.

The rule will cover both male-to-female and female-to-male cases and will be in place before the Athens Games in August.

<snip>

"This has been something of an open door," added IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch. "We needed some rules and regulations in place."

Some people contend that transsexual athletes have a physical advantage against other women. Men have higher levels of testosterone and greater muscle-to-fat ratio and heart and lung capacity.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=sportsNews&storyID=5168659

[xultar]

1. YEA!!!! I can compete! Yee Hoo! n/t

[Egalitarian Zetetic]

2. Yes i love it but

is't it odd that an international org would do this? i mean the overwhelming majority of countries are right wing, in fact under 10 are truely liberal. Even in america they can't compete in say the wnba.


I have a question thats been bugging me. I am waiting for the first trannsexual to be nominated for an oscar. Well my question is obvious. Which category for say best actor or actress? would it be different for pre or post op? maybe being one for so many years or being on certain hormones?

[KareBear]

3. Same as with pronouns and legal status

As I quickly, and rather embarrassingly learned, you refer to a person by the pronoun of the gender being presented to the public by them at the time. Being that it is acting, I would assume that would be the determining factor over, say, what the Olympics ruled. I don't think some of the supermodel actresses will be in very MUCH danger of loosing to most transsexuals. That being said yes I know there are some drop dead gorgeous ones.

Also this will twist your brain some, I bet there already have been trannies with Oscar's, but they are stealth and you'll never know.

[msmcghee]

6. Something to think about.

As someone who has spent part of my life in both gender roles, it seems to me that much of male and female behavior is "acting", as you put it. So many persons of both genders are not comfortable in their skins. Early in life, as soon as we are old enough to feel the pain of ridicule and humiliation from others, usually in the early school grades, we learn to act out a role that we believe will maker us more popular, attractive, manly, feminine, whatever. Over time that role becomes our personality, the "self" that we display to others. But very few persons I have known were completely comfortable and confident enough to stop role-playing and just be themselves. Its very hard to do.

Before I started living my life in a "female" mode, that sense of acting filled every moment of my existence - trying to be the man that everyone expected. Now, it is very comforting and fulfilling being much more like the person I feel that I am inside. I still have an ego of course, and I do consider what people think of me. But that huge albatross of gender pretense is no longer needed in my life - and it is truly a relief.

I suspect that only Ghandi-like saints could ever be totally in their self - in the present. But I think it's good to find a balance between honoring the expectations of others and honoring those parts of us that are central to our being. We have only one life to live. I believe we owe it to ourselves as well as those we love to search for that golden balance in ourselves.

That said, I'd feel like I was cheating if I entered a sports competition against genetic females.

[Spinzonner]

4. I just know

there's a Synchronized swimming joke in there somewhere, but it just won't 'come out'

[maggrwaggr]

5. that's. just. wrong.

That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

Really unbefuckinglievable