I want to comment from a potential political perspective that may be developing in this case. Watching this debate about Caster it seems, is beginning to bring out the TG detractors.
QuoteIn recent times, the transgender debate has veered towards the notion that individuals should be free to "choose" their biological sex.
If a male "feels" that he is really a woman, then he should be free to alter his sex accordingly, via a surgical operation and a dose of hormones. (And vice-versa: though it is harder for a woman to "become" a man, surgically: there is also much less demand for female-to-male transgendering, than for male-to-female.)
There are also individuals whose sex is wrongly identified at birth, and who are brought up in the "wrong" gender: it seems that a newborn infant's genitals can sometimes look surprisingly ambiguous.
But there are also those who believe that sexual identity is purely a social matter, and that, because it involves social conditioning, people should be free to choose their sexual identities in adult life.
The Caster Semenya controversy contradicts this liberal notion that we are "free to choose" our sex identity. The entire inquiry focuses on a hard-science examination of whether Caster's organs and chromosomes are biologically male or female.
This is beginning to show more than just the "money" involved in sports and the competition feeling an unfair advantage being held by Caster. This author is now entering the political realm of the lunatic fringe right. In fact, the author actually is arguing against her own point, I think.
Aside from the argument as to whether she's qualified to run this race or not, Caster obviously has lived as and only known herself to be female. So, exactly when did she make this "choice" to have a female identity? Even if she found out prior to this event that she is actually intersex, it still doesn't remove the fact that she has had a lifelong existence defining and living her life as female. "Liberal notion" I think not. Is the author trying to say to Caster that "she can consider herself female and though she has only known herself to be such and lived that life now for eighteen years, but, we're not going to recognize you as female? And, it's all in your poor head!" What a load of crap! Yes the "hard science" only proves that she has undesended testicles and, her testosterone levels are abnormally high. But, it does not prove what gender her brain says she is! I would defer here to the article in the science forum about the mutating Y chromosome!
Somehow, we collectively, have to find a way to bash these idiots over their stubborn ass hard heads with the "science" that they so willingly wish to put in front of us in which the conclusions all to often really only tell part of the story. By combining all of these studies together I think it's pretty easy to see that we are not just making up in our heads the thoughts about who we really identify as, but, rather we may in fact be a product of the ongoing evolutionary process. After all, where has it been written that evolution of the human being has ended?
OK, now all those out here that are religious, please note, I am not trying to begin a evolution vs. creation argument. As a matter of fact I support both concepts equally. So, I have no side on that front. My point in this post is that I can already hear the radical anti-trans element out there trying to make hay out of this story of Caster Semenya being deceitful about her gender (sound familiar) over her right as a human being to be considered for who she is.............a woman.
Dawn
