I received an email the other day from the captain of the my women's sports team. She said a captain's meeting was being held (last night) to discuss where FTM's fit in the league. Our captain asked for our input in the matter.
I sent a note to her saying that testosterone could create a performance imbalance, but if the person weren't taking testosterone, then I guess it would just come down to why a man would want to play in a women's league. My note was intentionally middle-of-the-road, but provided both pro's and con's to the situation. The response I received back from her stated that the main issue right now was for safety.
While I would be worried about some 6'3" man crushing me in a game, an FTM would likely clobber me no worse than the woman who steam rolled me this past weekend. Our captain stated that they were worried about testosterone-induced mood swings on the field.
This is not the first time I have seen FTM's try to stay within the lesbian community. There have been plenty of instances on craigslist where FTM's post in the women for women areas. While some lesbians are ok with it, others think they should be posting in the male for women areas. Craigslist created a different area called Miscellaneous Romance to deal with transgender people trying to date, since a lot of us either don't fit well or people feel deceived by our status in certain sections. Unfortunately, a lot of people misinterpreted the Miscellaneous Romance section as the 'freak place' to post, and thus, this section doesn't fit the needs of transgender people, as well.
[EDIT] I just received a response that the league voted on the FTM issue. They brought up the performance disparity and emotional stability issues. The team that initiated this discussion said that they have two FTM's, one is on testosterone, while the other is not, and that if either of them got too aggressive, they would be booted from the team.
The captains voted to allow the FTM's to play since the philosophy of the league was to be welcoming to all in the queer community. They figured that FTM's would likely not be welcome in an all-men's league, and the league doesn't want to shut them out of the one place they feel comfortable playing. They stated the same would be true of MTF's. (coolness)
So, anyway, I guess things have turned out fairly well. We have yet to play the team with the FTM's, but will do so in a few weeks in our last game of the year. It could be kinda interesting, especially if I have any ties to them.
Last year, when I first started playing, there were two players that I actually thought were guys. Seriously. They are women, though, and do not appear to be transgender at all, but I still have trouble using the proper pronouns with them.
2 comments:
It sounds like a great step was just taken towards making our lives even better and that much easier (now if just the rest of the world would catch on).
But what happens in a year or two when these FtoMs are basically Male? I forsee this matter coming up for another vote in the near future.
...so do i...so do i
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