VFLW Rd 5: Carlton vs Darebin Falcons

[DJC]

DJC, you keep arguing that a few births in a thousand is the good basis for this Mouncey situation, when it is clearly not!

In that 1000 there are hundreds of other females who will never play AFLW for any number of reasons, Mouncey's story should be one of them, there should not be special rules put in place for the minorities and exceptions!

And yet Lods, a 52 year old transition college professor competes head to head with teenage female athletes!

Isn't that a clear sign of inequity?

I don't believe that I am arguing any such thing LP.  I don't know why Mouncey decided to undergo gender re-assignment but it is reasonable to assume  that it may have been in response to biological circumstances.  After all, chromosome abnormalities occur in about 0.5 to 1 per cent of all live births, and that's much more than a few births in a thousand.  Of course, chromosome abnormalities aren't the only reasons why the gender assigned to children at birth doesn't pan out in adulthood.  The point I am making is that your hypothesis that failed male athletes will undergo gender re-assignment for financial gain simply doesn't stack up.

Is it not as simple as ensuring that any gender reassignment has to begin before puberty to ensure, as Juddy points out, you don't get the testosterone benefit before transitioning?

That is have your hormone blockers before the testosterone can have an irreversible physical effect on your body.

Of course you are welcome to have them after that in your life, but would be excluded from womens sport.

There's merit in this approach but it assumes that the individual will know whether they are male or female before puberty and that may be asking too much.  I have read of cases where little Johnny or little Betty has known that their assigned gender is wrong while they are in their first decade ... but what if they have got it wrong?

It is Pandora's box of worms and I'm glad that I'm not responsible for coming up with a workable solution.  However, the sooner we move on from stereotypical gender classifications the better.