Heartbreaking [Adventure]

 

[Adventure 108]

There are some adventures I'd prefer not to go on, but when the people I love and people like them are put at risk, off I go. 

The Florida House recently passed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. It requires anyone participating in "women's sports" from kindergarten through college level to be "biologically eligible" to participate. If someone is suspected of not being "biologically female" they would be required to get proof from a healthcare provider that they are "biologically eligible" which could include that healthcare provider examining their genitals. 

This makes me sick. That we would put young girls, teens, even adults through inspection of their genitals is atrocious. 

Besides - genitals don't necessarily make someone male or female. Some "females" are born with ambiguous genitalia. What is to be done then? Check chromosomes and/or genes? But we know that chromosomes come in all sorts of combinations and genes, so you can have a person with XY chromosomes but no SRY gene and be physically female, chromosomally male, and genetically female (no SRY gene = female). Does that person qualify because their genitals are "female"? 

So maybe check hormones? But some women overproduce testosterone and some men underproduce testosterone. And what about women on hormone replacement therapy or women who have had gender confirming surgery? 

The Fairness in Women's Sports Act does, in fact, discriminate against all sorts of people, which isn't considered fairness in my books. Is it fair to not allow a transgender woman who is on HRT, therefore has "female" levels of estrogen and testosterone (low testosterone, high estrogen) which reduces muscle mass, etc. to play a sport but allow a women who overproduces testosterone and is overly muscular to play simply because one has a penis and the other a vagina? Or a person with XY chromosomes but no SRY gene who could be considered a male to play because they have a vagina? That makes no sense at all. 

That any girl or woman should have to prove to a doctor and to a stranger that she's a girl or woman just to play a sport is damaging to all women - to all humans. It's heartbreaking.