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Tami's avatar

Exactly this: "The whole reason we can celebrate female athletes is because we have a protected, female-only category." Thanks for all you do toward keeping women's sports available to women.

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I'd Use My Name but Internet's avatar

Totally honest question: according to one source, the proportion of women transitioning to men is slightly higher than men transitioning to women. Why does the transgender "debate" seem to only focus on the latter group?

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Mariah Burton Nelson's avatar

As for why the trans debate focuses on males who think of themselves as women, but not vice versa: Only the males are insisting on accessing sports and spaces that do not belong to them, and which they disrupt by their presence.

Females who identify as men cannot play men's sports, for the most part, because even if they take testosterone, they're still not good enough.

And females are not insisting on accessing male locker rooms or restrooms; if they do, the men there don't care, because men are not afraid of women the way women are (rationally) afraid of men. IOW it's just the males who are causing problems.

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I'd Use My Name but Internet's avatar

Hmmm, I'm not overly convinced by your reply. Women to men are not as good at sports so it's OK? Is that the sole criteria? As for your second point, I assume that women identifying as men would absolutely want access to "men only" spaces. I assume (without evidence) women transitioning to men believe they are men and want to be treated as such.

Are there no negative aspects at all to be addressed?

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Mariah Burton Nelson's avatar

Women stay in the women's category regardless of gender identity, for the most part. They can't make the men's team or keep up there. It's just not the right athletic fit for them. And other women welcome them, because they know they're actually female, and belong there.

Maybe they show up in gay men's spaces and annoy some men there - I don't know because I'm not tracking that -- my concern is female athletes -- but I haven't heard of it, and probably would if there were some outcry from men about women in their spaces.

Also, women identifying as men are still female. They've still had female indoctrination. They don't have any history of male privilege. So that seems to be another explanation for why women are not making obvious, unreasonable demands on men.

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Seth Schwartz's avatar

Wonderfully written, Martina. You had me nodding along with you the whole time. Bravo!

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Dave's avatar

My advice to men who think they are women. If you think that, there are a few things that you need to understand. First of all is that you are still a man because you can't change your biological sex. It's okay to dress any way you wish and to adopt any superficial, stereotypical attributes of women that you desire. Live your life. No one should care, I certainly don't. However, because women are entitled to be treated fairly and to enjoy privacy from men there are certain things that are prohibited to you and me because we are men. You can't compete against women in most sports because it would be unfair. You can't go into women's private places like restrooms and locker rooms because that would make them feel unsafe. Finally, if you are a criminal you certainly can't be imprisoned with women.

That's it, just like me.

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Seth Schwartz's avatar

Nice, Dave. Well done.

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EyesOpen's avatar

It is such basic common sense that "Men can’t become women." So much harm has come from those who believe the opposite of that. Thank goodness for Martina and all who speak up to protect girls and women.

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Sweet Caroline's avatar

I have just reread this months after I read it the first time. I got so much more out of it now that I am so much better informed. Thank you for speaking up. And BTW- I discovered tennis as a 38 year old mother of 4 and I was HOOKED from the first ball. Singles is my gig. 12 years later it’s still such good therapy and fun. Wish I had played in high school and college.

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u.n. owen's avatar

There is no debate, we live in a culture so sexist & ignorant we don't even know how many women die annually because they were born that way. We do however know NO trans woman will have toxic tampon shock, fibroids, menstruation, menopause, gynecological cancers, mastectomies, hysterectomies, endometriosis, pre-eclampsia (which also kills their children) any more than they will die during child birth or complications from pregnancy. Cedars Sinai has the Streisand Cardiac Health Center because our ♥ are different, our pelvises are different & even crash test dummies aren't built for women. Tell wannabe women to stuff it.

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M V's avatar

Fantastic essay. Clear, powerful and to the point, in language everyone can understand. Please don’t stop. You are an inspiration. Thank you!

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Zoe's avatar

Thanks for speaking up Martina!

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Sweet Caroline's avatar

Thank you, Martina. Tbis ideology is crushing my daughter and I try to find ways to inform my democrats friends who are ignorant of the depth of this scandal by choice. They choose to look away at the harm and continue to vote D. Women in sport is an acceptable angle. It is so so so so deep the forces pushing this. Please continue to dig and reveal the enormous power of the activism and government influence of the trans agenda.

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Kat Highsmith's avatar

There's no such thing as "transgender" women because there's no such thing as "transgender."

They're just men.

Calling a man a woman in the first place is the source of confusion. The language is the battle.

Just call them men. That's what they are.

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Diane Perry's avatar

“Bbbbbut sex isn't gender, but let us change the sex designation on our ID documents, and chop up/rearrange our sex organs, and hassle disinterested people about sexual orientation, and call it a sex change or reassignment, and use sexed terms like "male to female' and basically just contradict ourselves at every turn...but you're a nazi if you poke holes in our rhetoric. you big meanie TERF”

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Kat Highsmith's avatar

There's no such thing as "gender" for humans. It's a linguistics term for words only.

That's why there's no such thing as "transgender."

There's one type of woman--an adult human female.

Everything else is untreated mental illness.

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Diane Perry's avatar

Transwo-men =

Males who claim to be women.

Imane = male claiming to be a woman.

Both are 🐂💩

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Suzette Cullen's avatar

Bring back swab test!

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Liesel's avatar

Perfectly said, thank you Martina! You are the reason I started playing tennis in the late 70s, my maternal family is Czech. I can't express how much it means to me that you are putting yourself out there like this. ❤️

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David Eichler's avatar

There are DSD people who have not undergone male puberty, such as those with Swyer's syndrome, who do not have an unfair advantage when competing with normal biological females.

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Betty C's avatar

Thank you Martina! You are an inspiration as an athlete and as a woman.

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