, 18 tweets, 9 min read Read on Twitter
1) Thank you @Martina for starting the much needed process of bringing light to the topic of how trans people find their place within sport. A much needed informed & sensitive doc. We need a soln that allows trans ppl to play but respects the integrity of sport for the female sex
2) So many of us share your compassion and empathy at the human level of the individual trans person. But as your documentary showed us time & again, the biology of a male who identifies as trans is different to a female. Its a truth we can't ignore if we want a fair soln for all
3) We also need compassion and empathy for the women and girls who no matter what they do can never win against male bodies. As @sharrond62 put so eloquently "I don't want to sit back and watch races won by biology instead of by talent".
4) We were very pleased to hear @HelenCBelcher of @TransMediaWatch tell you "I'm interested to see if there's a way to bridge the divide" when it comes to talking about the concerns of both women & trans people. We want that too & ask Helen to unblock us so we can make contact.
5) @Martina you said you hated to find yourself on the same side as the "right wing". Wanting fairness for women isn't a right wing issue - but the void created by reasonable, fair minded people not speaking leaves a space extremists can flourish in. Thank you for going there.
6) The footballer Naomi made an very interesting point about why playing in the male team would not be ok despite having made no body changes whatsoever "I don't think my male team mates would understand what I was doing". Men need to do better at accepting gender non-conformity
7) Naomi also said that a separate gender category would be 'degrading' & 'humiliating'. We need to all find a way to support people like Naomi so it feels ok to play as trans in a trans team. Playing in a female team simply can't be an option for people with male bodies.
8) The female team can't be the default option for males who don't fit into the norms of maleness. The reason is simple. Female sport showcases the best of what a female body can do. Its not just about the male-trans athlete. All these girls lose out when 2 boys compete as girls.
9) @elliscashmore contribution was as non-nonsensical as usual! "Many sports will have to come to terms with the fact they need to dissolve the gender binary". WHY? Sex-based eligibility underpins sport for females. Without it there can be no way for women to ever win.
10) Thank you @Martina for pushing back on @elliscashmore 's alternative 'reality'. Yes, the future will be everyone watching 2 transwomen in the final - women with their female bodies simply won't make the cut. We all know this and its not hate to speak this basic truth.
11) The most startling testimony was from @Martina herself talking about playing against transwoman Renee Richards. "I barely beat her - she was 43 and I was number 1 in the world. I scraped through". Renee had had full surgery - so virtually no testosterone at all.
12) Even Renee acknowledges "Had I been 10 yrs younger I would have kicked your arse". Renee joined the women's tennis tour ranked in the top 30 & out of shape. Male advantage destroys fairness in female sport. @Martina wouldn't have been No1. Some women DID lose out on ranking.
13) Its no surprise Renee Richards ranked so highly in the women's tour. The science here is well established and we need to listen to experts like @sportprofbrewer when they tell us about the 'legacy physiology characteristics that do not go away".
14) and Dr Richard Bruce when he tells us about the many biomechanical advantages of the male body. We don't need more studies to tell us that the skeleton of a male stays the same when testosterone is lower. That's common sense. Renee Richards remained a 6'2" tennis player.
15) Yet despite this scientific consensus we are being fed the idea that male performance advantage can wiped away by simply reducing T levels. One study of 8 runners looking at times before & after transition - sometimes with over a decade in between. That's not credible science
16) And as psychologist @DrGemmaWitcomb, who is leading physiology research into changes that happen to the body during transition, it will be another 5 years before we have any real data. So surely the only logical move now is to keep female sport for females pending new data
17) @martina has sensitively & respectfully sought to understand the challenges faced by trans people in sport. We hope this doc is also a catalyst for more people to think about how this impacts women and girls too. Female sport exists for a reason, & that reason has not changed
18) Next, on 10th July athletes, coaches, sports policy makers and over 500 members of the public will come together in London to hear more about this topic from another perspective, the impact on females. Tickets sold out but all talks will be filmed and posted on social media.
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