Regarding Transgender & Physical Sports – It’s Just My Opinion

FINDING A WAY TO BELONG

It's always hard to state your opinion on how you feel about things in the world without totally upsetting someone, but I'm going to do my best because I think we need to find answers. I'm only focusing on ONE thing. Sports and being Transgender.

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MY FRIENDS

I enjoy meeting people that are different than me. I have friends that are straight, friends that are gay, friends that are men married to other men, and women married to other women. I love their bravery in being true to who they are, in a world that can be so judgemental. They are smart, beautiful, wonderful human beings who have more compassion for the world around them than many of the straight people I know.

REGARDING TRANSGENDER IN PHYSICAL COMPETITIONS

I feel like this is a question for my college philosophy class. If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it crash to the ground, does it still make a sound? That was a question that had my class arguing for 50 minutes on whether or not it still made a sound.

AMY SCHNEIDER

Life ISN'T always fair.  If you were born a man, and you want to compete against a person born as a woman in a PHYSICAL competition of some kind, you are going to have a natural-born advantage. There is nothing that can change that. I think we need to accept that. Competitions that are NOT physical, okay. We already compete against each other regardless of how ANYONE identifies. Just take Amy Schneider who appeared on Jeopardy. I loved her! Absolutely loved her!  She was herself; she put herself out there in a competition that was fair and square for men and women.

My boyfriend and I have very different bodies. I'm pretty sure that he would kick my butt in a race regardless of how he identifies. On the other hand, if I IDENTIFIED as a man, he would STILL kick my butt. There is NO WAY to change that part of it. Yes; there is the occasional woman that could kick any man's rear end. I'm talking about the general way of the world.

IN MY OPINION

I still think that if you were born with a woman's body... you should compete in women's sports, period.  If you were born with a man's body, then you would be more likely to have fairness in competing against other individuals who were born with a man's body. There's no way to change that part of it. I have to admit, it still feels weird for me to see a guy in a dress and heels, like on Queer Eye on Netflix; but I'd still like to meet and get to know them.

I don't know if I have friends that are Transgender; but if you were my friend and you told me that you were Transgender, I would still be your friend. That would never change. I try to put myself in other people's shoes, and imagine how it would feel to identify as the opposite sex. Some people are born as both sexes, so especially in that instance, you would really have to decide where you belong.