"Trans people are extraordinary, strong, intelligent, persistent and resilient. We have to be. And we will not stand for the picking and choosing of rights. We still have hope."
~ Grace Dolan-Sandrino, Interview with the Washington Post, 2017. ~
We're such binary people, aren't we? We humans tend to see things in black and white, right or wrong, Democrat or Republican, pro-life or pro-choice, fossil fuels or renewable energy, and yes, male or female. We often refuse to move off our pre-conditioned pillar of thought based on a lifetime of conditioning by parents, friends, teachers, religion, etc. despite scientific evidence to the contrary. Very few things in this life are binary. Most answers to life's questions lie somewhere in the middle of that vast sea of gray. It's not this or that. It's mostly a little of both, and a lot of neither.
This reminds me of another quote I read recently. "If you can't find the solution to a problem, perhaps it isn't a problem to be solved. Perhaps it is a situation to be accepted." And while this may be the most controversial topic I've tried to tackle, I'm going to at least attempt to lead you down a path of alternate thought. But you're going to have to think big. You're going to have to think outside the known galaxy big and pretend there isn't even a box from which to think outside. You're going to have to swim in some gray and swallow some pride. Or not....it's really up to you. Hang in there. We'll get there. This is gonna take a minute.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, enjoyed dominance in a number of sports arenas for nearly 50 years during the latter half of the 20th Century. Beginning in 1969, Boyd Epley was hired by coach Bob Devaney to develop a strength and conditioning program. That same year, Epley created the Husker Power, Strength, and Conditioning Program. It was implemented by all sports, and over a 35 year period, was at least partially responsible for 28 national championships and 250 conference championships. This was across the board and included both male and female athletes.
I didn't follow UNL sports other than football, and I'm no expert, but I can tell you this. For decades, team after team came to town knowing exactly the offense Nebraska was going to run. They came prepared to defend. Nebraska ran it anyway...... right over the top of them. Was the opposing team unprepared? Crappy coaches? Nope. Nebraska was stronger, bigger, and faster.
In essence, Boyd Epley largely wrote the book on strength training. And for decades, it made Nebraska a powerhouse in sport after sport. Nebraska didn't win every game or every title, because, let's face it, strength isn't the only chess piece in the game. But you could see the size and strength advantage. Then something odd happened. Other teams caught on. And then other teams started to catch up. Other teams adapted to the superiority exuded by Nebraska athletes and began to grow super-athletes of their own. Parity was coming to college football.
In August of 1996, a young golfer, after winning six USGA National Championships, turned pro. He soon won his first professional tournament in Las Vegas, which earned him a spot in the 1997 Masters, which he won.....by 12 strokes!! If you're not a golfer, it may be hard to fathom what a huge margin that is at Augusta. A virtual newbie outplayed veteran golfers from around the world. He hit the ball off the tee some 50 yards further. He was more accurate and more mentally tough. Courses actually made changes to their layout to level the field against him. He was a phenom and the young Tiger Woods has gone on to win 15 majors and 81 PGA events.....so far. Is he done? I don't know, because that's not the story.
Eventually, you began to see professional golfers playing for second place. It seemed, if Tiger was in the lineup, many golfers looked like they'd conceded. They played for second. And then it started to happen. Golfers got younger. They worked out harder. They practiced longer. They got stronger. Pretty soon, Tiger wasn't driving longer off the tee. Golfers "evolved," if you will, so they could compete. And they did.
I realize these examples have been "men against men" or women against women" scenarios, but let's go down the road involving Lia Thomas, shall we? I know. I must be crazy. This is a subject wrought with treachery, but let's give it a shot, anyway. This is the part where your mind is going to have to stretch.... a lot.
Let me begin by saying that I completely understand the frustrations voiced by female athletes who feel they are now forced to compete with biological "men." I was a firefighter for 23 years. I've seen first-hand the differences in upper body strength exhibited by men and women. In most cases........ purely biological males exhibit stronger upper body strength. But it's not true 100% of the time. I used to help with the department's physical agility test, and I can tell you from experience, I've witnessed some very big, strong men quit when they were almost to the end, and seemingly "weaker" females who kept struggling to finish at all costs, even after the clock had run out. I'll take that commitment over strength any day of the week.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, we believed there were only two genders; male and female. But, now we know better. Yes, it's hard to wrap your closed mind around it, but being male or female isn't just XX or XY and there is a spectrum of characteristics in which being male or female adhere. It's not speculation. It's not theory. It's fact. If you really want to just call them like you seem them, there are essentially an endless number of "genders" along a spectrum of chromosomal possibilities. And that, my dear friends, is going to cause some growth....some painful growth, actually. But, like it or not, those are the facts.
I've often joked with people who I believed wouldn't lock me up, that the human species, assuming we survive long enough (which I truly doubt) is evolving to a level of asexuality. What I actually say is, "Someday, we're just going to be worms." In other words, we'll all be one gender. Now, I suspect that evolutionary process will take thousands, if not millions, of years, but I believe that's where we're going. And I believe the discovery of this spectrum of gender identity is part of the discovery process that will lead us there.
But none of this solves the issue of what we've always believed and how this new discovery seems to create a level of "unfairness" among athletes. Man, that's a hard one. To be fair regarding the argument of fairness, there are very few transgender athletes competing in sports. I don't even pretend to know the answers, but I might suggest this. We have to think bigger. We MUST stop living in this one moment and at least make an attempt to see a much bigger picture; evolution.
Lia Thompson appears to have some biological advantages, but that's not the entire picture. She doesn't win every race she enters. Biological women who are now competing with women who are somewhere else on the gender spectrum will catch up. It may take a generation or two. You have to open your mind to the possibility that women's physiques may start to change. Men's physiques may start to change. It may, over the course of generations, become more and more difficult to tell the difference between a biological man and a biological woman. And that's okay. It's going to be painful as we alter our way of believing, but it'll be okay.
Try to stop seeing solutions as "only this or that." Take a leap of faith, swim out into the gray sea of doubt and make a non-binary choice. Life is gray.
Just calm down.
Namaste
