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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023

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Even in a good faith debate about the grains of gray that exist when categorizing men and women, trans people in no way, shape or form fit as a 'gray'. From their time in the womb to everything else. From the tips of their fingers, shape and size of their brain, to the soles of their feet. Men and women are not the same.

While I mostly agree with the rest, this marks to me as odd. Aren't trans people the definition of gray? If you take opposite-sex hormones, you end up with opposite-sex characteristics and are more-or-less pharmacological intersex - especially if you start before puberty. There's been studies showing that brain structure is altered to resemble the opposite sex, and a trans woman will typically be half-way between a natal male and a natal female when it comes to athletic performance (as shown in military studies).

Trans people are the opposite of grey. They fit into a category with no issue. It's just not the category they want to participate in. This is opposite to an intersex person who can not find a fit in either category without issue.

To your point on opposite sex hormones, I think you are overstating the case a fair bit. But even if it was all as true, or even more true than you state, it would not change anything. Every single trans person that had a 'normal' body made a choice to disqualify themselves from traditional sporting events by altering it. No surgery or hormone can change the fact that a trans person is cutting into the development cycle of a traditional sex and altering it. It's possible to maybe get away with that sort of thing within a category, but to move categories? That's just moving out of bounds.

If you take opposite-sex hormones

Which many trans people, including trans athletes, by their own admission explicitly do not.

If an adult is trans but not taking hormones and has no intention of taking any in the future, their trans status is highly questionable unless they have a medical contraindication or live in a hostile environment where transitioning is dangerous.

If an adult is trans but not taking hormones and has no intention of taking any in the future

they can apply for a gender recognition certificate in my country, and be legally considered just as much of a woman as any female adult.