[pefloresjr]

Colorado Tree, thank you for that thoughtful response.  Around last year's election, a family member sent a note to everyone my large mostly religious but very politically divided family about entering all discussions from a position of showing grace and tolerance.  It isn't always easy, but it is important if we want to be productive and gain understanding.  

Your post at the end was pretty close to my feelings about this.  At the college and international level, I am completely comfortable with there being a testing threshold for determining the group an athlete competes in.  I have no trust in some authoritarian governments to not force some of their citizens to alter their natural levels.  However, I think we need to be as inclusive as possible at all levels but definitely at the high school and below level because k-12 education is mandatory and because all are basically not yet adults.  I also approach this with the goal of attempting to achieve equal treatment for all whenever possible.  

Maybe that means that as many sports as possible should just be unisex.  However, I fear that the unintentional result of that would be to lessen the opportunities for, and participation by, girls in sports.  Some more physical sports will likely need to have separate competition by gender.  Since that is the case, I think there will need to be a testosterone (and/or other hormone) cut off between boys and girls sports as they have in college. That will, by definition, be somewhat arbitrary, but if determined with thoughtfulness and with the best available scientific support about expected hormonal ranges, it should be manageable.  I fear the intrusiveness of testing high school kids but in many states they are already randomly drug tested and the courts have upheld that testing.  This testing could simply be included in the existing drug tests.  

I think it will still cause some potential issues with intersex children but, if competition is divided along an established criteria, the intersex kid would simply have to compete in the group they ended up in just like all the other kids.  That might help or hurt their chances for winning, but that is the same issue faced by all kids in all sports.  I think it would also avoid charges of discrimination against one sex or against intersex kids.  I think having a standard would not only promote the public policy of equal treatment, it would help everyone know that no particular group of kids is being singled out.  

I haven't worked through all the details and I'm sure that whatever decisions are made in this area, some will vigorously object.  I also agree that it is particularly unhelpful for politicians and media outlets to use these issues as wedge issues in political culture wars.  

Cheers,
Pete F.

[pefloresjr]

Colorado Tree, thank you for that thoughtful response.  Around last year's election, a family member sent a note to everyone my large mostly religious but very politically divided family about entering all discussions from a position of showing grace and tolerance.  It isn't always easy, but it is important if we want to be productive and gain understanding.  

Your post at the end was pretty close to my feelings about this.  At the college and international level, I am completely comfortable with there being a testing threshold for determining the group an athlete competes in.  I have no trust in some authoritarian governments to not force some of their citizens to alter their natural levels.  However, I think we need to be as inclusive as possible at all levels but definitely at the high school and below level because k-12 education is mandatory and because all are basically not yet adults.  I also approach this with the goal of attempting to achieve equal treatment for all whenever possible.  

Maybe that means that as many sports as possible should just be unisex.  However, I fear that the unintentional result of that would be to lessen the opportunities for, and participation by, girls in sports.  Some more physical sports will likely need to have separate competition by gender.  Since that is the case, I think there will need to be a testosterone (and/or other hormone) cut off between boys and girls sports as they have in college. That will, by definition, be somewhat arbitrary, but if determined with thoughtfulness and with the best available scientific support about expected hormonal ranges, it should be manageable.  I fear the intrusiveness of testing high school kids but in many states they are already randomly drug tested and the courts have upheld that testing.  This testing could simply be included in the existing drug tests.  

I think it will still cause some potential issues with intersex children but, if competition is divided along an established criteria, the intersex kid would simply have to compete in the group they ended up in just like all the other kids.  That might help or hurt their chances for winning, but that is the same issue faced by all kids in all sports.  I think it would also avoid charges of discrimination against one sex or against intersex kids.  I think having a standard would not only promote the public policy of equal treatment, it would help everyone know that no particular group of kids is being singled out.  

I haven't worked through all the details and I'm sure that whatever decisions are made in this area, some will vigorously object.  I also agree that it is particularly unhelpful for politicians and media outlets to use these issues as wedge issues in political culture wars.  

Cheers,
Pete F.