Reconcilling trasgender issues and sports.

I've never been into competitive sports and I'm not that worried about the so called problem of transgender athletes creating unfair competition in women's sports.

I can see how some folks might be worried as we live in an age when the difference between winning and losing a race is measured by laser beams. In the old days, they used to say "measured by a micrometer." In sports, a tiny difference seems trivial to me, but I'm more into fitness and recreation than competition. In science, accuracy is important.

Lasers are a part of the most accurate measurements ever made in history. It's the distance between two mirrors that could be less than 1/1000th of the width of a proton. Those measurements are made at the LIGO Gravity Wave Detectors including one at Hanford.

Below photos from my 2023 summer bicycle and transit trip to LIGO Visitors Center at Hanford, near Richland, WA. from Bellingham, WA.

Is gender really that important in every discussion group?

At the start of small group discussions it seems like a lot of time is wasted asking everyone for their name and preferred pronouns. There are other things about each person that's more interesting to me; like someone's quick response to a question about the topic being discussed.

I usually don't remember just names and pronouns where as other topics are more unique and memorable and likely better at starting a discussion.

Pronouns and even names may only matter if one is talking about another person in third person such as "he, she, they, who, was just at the microphone, made a good point." In that case one could maybe always say "they, or that person, sitting over there, made a good point."

Seems like when time is limited, getting to the meat of the topic is more interesting.

In quite a few cases, I've met people once in a group discussion and then never seen the person again. I'll remember the topics, but not the name. If I don't see the person again, it may not matter what name or pronouns they go by.

In some cases, I'll admit, I've known someone for over a year and can pick up a meaningful conversation, where we left off last meeting, but never learned their name. Their ideas and experiences were more unique and meaningful to me.

Much of the rest of it is just "check the category or box" and move on. In many cases people don't fit in a box anyway.

In some cases, people don't feel safe being expected to reveal their gender preference; especially depending on the topic and the nature of the group that is having the a discussion.

In many cases gender and gender pronouns don't really matter

Talking to some young people about the gender pronoun issue, I shared memories from my college past of almost 40 years ago. Back then, the gay issue was coming out on campus. I also knew quite a few transgender people, but pronouns wasn't a topic that people were discussing. As I remember, there was less anxiety about proper pronouns.

The folks, I was discussing this with, understood and seemed accepting of my perspective.

Back in my college days, I think expectations were lower, but I would like to think that society keeps progressing forward. On the other hand, people may have been just as happy, back then, or maybe even happier back then. Expectations were less demanding.

It's kind of like before electric lightbulbs were invented, folks didn't fret about the inconvenience of not having electric lights. They didn't know what they were missing.

These days, I think the science about gender has progressed, so it's seen as less binary. One now hears about folks who want to be called "they" instead of he or she. The term "gender fluid" was less in the lexicon, back then.

Science has progressed to where gender fluid is more recognized, though most people still identify as either male or female. There are shades of grey that are more recognized today.

The term "they" is kind of awkward. Maybe a new term can be found? They is usually thought of as non singular.

At the same time, I have used the term they to describe one person before. For instance, "I wondered how to get to a certain road so I ask someone how to get there and THEY pointed me in the right direction."

In many cases, gender doesn't matter.

Back in my college days, the big issue was that women didn't want to be called "girls." Often people were corrected when they said "college girls." It's "college women." The term "chick" for woman was totally incorrect.

As I remember, I always did say women and my mom once said, "in this case it's" when I was talking about my nieces that were, then in grade school.

I also remember the attempts to put the word womyn. in the language. It's womyn instead of women. That term less subservient without the "men" in it.

Public or private could be the new norm versus men's or women's for spas and restroom facilities

More and more bathrooms are becoming gender neutral. This is a good idea as our understanding of gender is becoming less binary. This tends to mean more privacy such as single unit facilities which can also add to the cost of buildings.

In the past, like the 1950s, facilities were divided by gender, but they were still public spaces to save on construction costs. Pragmatism.

I've got to thinking that for restrooms and especially spas, saunas and showers, there could be two types of facilities. Instead of men's and women's, it would be "private" and "public." Often spa, hot spring and sauna type places are social environments so some would be public for that reason. Others would be private. They could all be gender neutral, however which solves some problems.

Some public spas would be clothing optional while others could continue to require bathing suites. This could be the future for these types of facilities.

Given the transgender issue, maybe people take competitive sports too seriously.

On political talk shows, there is quite a bit of talk about the fairness of competition is sports given transgender, or non gender specific people in the population. Is this unfair competition in women's sports, for instance.

I haven't paid that much attention to that issue as competitive sports isn't a big factor in my life. I'm more into non competitive recreation. Things like dancing and bicycling without worrying about keeping score.

I know quite a few transgender people.

Easiest to just use the bathroom of the sex you most look like currently

States that try to pass laws that one must use bathroom of the gender listed on one's birth certificate create a problem. Some transgender people are post operation and look more like the gender they are becoming than the gender listed on their birth certificate. Seems like the easiest solution, short of single occupancy facilities, is to use the bathroom of the gender you most look like currently. Determining what gender someone most looks like is best done by the people in the situation. Not easy to define at the government level.

Here's some more thoughts on the subject.

The binary system of men's and women's facilities was developed before we realized how fluid gender can be. Also before we took gay people into account. It was supposedly designed, I guess, to maintain modesty in separation of opposite sexes. New knowledge about our sexual natures is tossing a bit of a monkey wrench into that system. As that system becomes more stressed, or compromised, some folks fear that the illusive predator hiding under the bed will be able to take advantage of the situation. Not necessarily a fear of the transgender folks, themselves, but fear of what could happen as a system that so many folks got used to is being buffeted by the winds of change. Makes me think about a film I saw, when I was in high school, called Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler. As new information and change accelerate in society, a lot of people long for going back to what, I think, was described in the film as "Bonanza Land;" like the old TV show Bonanza.