Deminski — Transgender student athletes are cheating

Before you blow up my inbox with stupid hate mail, let's get something straight upfront. I am the same guy who has defended transgender students all along. I am the same guy who is on record saying a transgender student should have the right to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender with which they identify. I am on board with so many other rights issues with transgender students.

It's when it comes to transgender student athletes being allowed to play for the gender team with which they identify that a line must be drawn. There can be a huge and unfair advantage in this and we need to curb our political correctness.

This week the the state's athletic association, the NJSIAA, updated its policy on transgender athletes. Suddenly gone is the requirement of documentation from a physician or a revised birth certificate. Now the only requirement is that the athlete says so.

Steve Goodell, attorney with the NJSIAA, says, "They (LGBT advocates) really made a convincing case that this is not something the students are making up or trying to game the system."

Yes, I agree. I do not think a student athlete is going to lie about feeling transgender and live life as a transgender just to get onto the other gender's team. I am in complete agreement. But that has nothing to do with it. The bottom line is this can lead to an unfair advantage or to put it into sports lingo an unlevel playing field.

The vast majority of transgender people under the age of 18, so students, are not undergoing any type of hormone treatment or other medical sex reassignment. In fact to do so has been considered ethically dubious in the medical community. Therefore a transgender female athlete will still have the strength of a male. And vice versa. So what you have here is the fact that generally speaking the male of our species is physically bigger and stronger than the female. If you allow a physical male to compete on a team of physical females, the unfair advantage is obvious. If you allow a physical female to compete on a team of physical males, there can be a safety issue depending on the sport and the position.

I understand fully that part of the torment of someone who is transgender is feeling trapped in a body that they were not meant to have. I get it. That's why I agree with most all other transgender rights issue. But the fact is that body they are trapped in is simply different than the rest of the bodies on the team they may want to play for. All the political correctness in the world cannot get around that. And this should not be allowed. It is not fair.

Consider the student athlete who is working so hard to get the attention of recruiters because they are counting on a scholarship. Is it right for a female athlete to suddenly have to compete against a male athlete? We can change the name and the pronoun and be very sensitive to their emotional needs and allow them to use the bathroom for which they identify but on the field of play there is no denying this is a male competing against females. The logic in this is so clear it sickens me to think political correctness has gone so far as to justify cheating. If a female student athlete were taking illegal steroids to bulk up for a competitive advantage she wouldn't be allowed to play. This is no different.

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