Sprinters

I don’t usually link to the Washington Times, but there are exceptions to (almost) everything. Andraya Yearwood is a junior at Cromwell High School in Connecticut, and is trans.

She recently finished second in the 55-meter dash at the state open indoor track championships. The winner, Terry Miller of Bloomfield High, is also transgender and set a girls state indoor record of 6.95 seconds. Yearwood finished in 7.01 seconds and the third-place competitor, who is not transgender, finished in 7.23 seconds.

In short, they have a physical advantage and they’re not ashamed to exploit it. They should be, but they’re not.

(Imagine you felt like a child in an adult’s body. Set aside the problems with that idea [what is it to “feel like” a child?] for the moment and just imagine. Would you join children in their games, including physical games, and feel quite entitled to throw them to the ground, bloody their noses, wrench their arms? The correct answer is “No, of course not.” The same applies to 17-year-old boys who “feel like” girls and so compete in girls’ races, thus shutting out girls who would otherwise win or be eligible for more races.)

Miller and Yearwood also topped the 100-meter state championships last year, and Miller won the 300 this season.

Critics say their gender identity amounts to an unfair advantage, expressing a familiar argument in a complex debate for transgender athletes as they break barriers across sports around the world from high school to the pros.

“I have learned a lot about myself and about other people through this transition. I always try to focus most on all of the positive encouragement that I have received from family, friends and supporters,” Yearwood said. “I use the negativity to fuel myself to run faster.”

Well, that’s psychopathic. Yearwood should be paying attention to the “negativity,” that is, to the entirely reasonable objection that people with male bodies shouldn’t compete in girls’ races, no matter how sure they are that on the inside they are girls. They should realize it’s not fair and thus not sporting, and not race or else race on the boys’ teams.

One of their competitors, Selina Soule, says the issue is about fairness on the track with wider implications. The Glastonbury High School junior finished eighth in the 55, missing out on qualifying for the New England regionals by two spots.

Soule believes that had Miller and Yearwood not run, she would be on her way to race in Boston in front of more college coaches.

It’s not really a belief, it’s an obvious fact: she missed out by two spots and Miller and Yearwood are in those two spots.

The Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which governs high school sports in Connecticut, says its policy follows a state anti-discrimination law that says students must be treated in school by the gender with which they identify.

“This is about someone’s right to compete,” executive director Glenn Lungarini said. “I don’t think this is that different from other classes of people, who, in the not too distant past, were not allowed to compete. I think it’s going to take education and understanding to get to that point on this issue.”

Well think again. It’s not about the right to compete, it’s about the right for male-bodied people to race against female people in sex-segregated competitions. It is very different from other classes of people, who, in the not too distant past, were not allowed to compete, because it’s not about preventing them from competing.

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