AMA- I'm lesbian trans and don't want to indoctrinate your kids....

A Look At the Numbers and Times: No Denying the Advantages of Lia Thomas

As the controversy over transgender participation in women’s sports continues, including through newspaper discussion and television debate, here is a look at how Lia Thomas fared against biological women during her recent season at the University of Pennsylvania.

Just how much of an advantage did Lia Thomas possesses over biological females? The numbers paint a clear picture. The fact that the University of Pennsylvania swimmer soared from a mid-500s ranking (554th in the 200 freestyle; all divisions) in men’s competition to one of the top-ranked swimmers in women’s competition tells the story of the unfairness which unfolded at the NCAA level.

In her final meet, Thomas finaled in three events at the NCAA Championships, highlighted by a victory in the 500 freestyle. She also finished fifth in the 200 freestyle and was eighth in the 100 freestyle. Although she didn’t contest the event at the NCAA Champs, Thomas had one of the country’s top times in the 1650 freestyle. Here’s a look at her performances throughout the season, including their comparative status to her times as a member of Penn’s men’s squad.

• In the 500 freestyle, Thomas’ time of 4:33.24 from her NCAA-title swim handed her the fastest time in the nation by more than a second over Arizona State’s Emma Nordin (4:34.87). Additionally, Thomas’ difference from her personal best with the Penn men’s program was just 6%, as opposed to the typical 10% to 11% difference generally seen between men and women.
• Thomas’ best time in the 200 freestyle ended up being her 1:41.93 mark from the Zippy Invitational in December. That effort ultimately ended up 3.76% slower than her best time before her transition. Again, that time was between 7% and 8% faster than the typical separation between men and women.
• When Thomas won the 200 freestyle at the Ivy League Champs in 1:43.12, she was even with runnerup Samantha Shelton at the midway point, but crushed the Harvard swimmer over the last 100, highlighted by a 25.04 split for the last 50 yards. The closing split of Thomas was faster than the finishing laps of Missy Franklin in her American-record performance, and the best closing effort of the likes of Katie Ledecky, Mallory Comerford and Siobhan Haughey, among others.
• In the 100 freestyle, Thomas’ best time prior to her transition was 47.15. At the NCAA Championships, she posted a prelims time in the event of 47.37. That time reflects minimal mitigation of her male-puberty advantage.
• During the last season Thomas competed as a member of the Penn men’s team, which was 2018-19, she ranked 554th in the 200 freestyle, 65th in the 500 freestyle and 32nd in the 1650 freestyle. As her career at Penn wrapped, she moved to fifth, first and eighth in those respective events on the women’s deck.

 

Do you think it might be better to slowly stop taking these pills/drugs? And for sure don't mix them with alcohol. If it's making you depressed/suicidal and you are not eating, maybe it would be best just to go all natural and be yourself for awhile to clear your mind. I have no idea...just a thought. What are you studying in grad school? I know some people in Athens if you're interested in talking to someone. My best friend was in the graduate social work program there recently. It is a pretty, chill natural area and close to mountains, rivers and waterfalls. Do you ever go hiking or floating down the chattahoochie?

 

The teal deer is that the progressives are shooting themselves in the foot by pushing wildly unpopular ideas/ideologies. As an example they presented the questioning by Senator Hawley of a professor about her use of the term people with a capacity for pregnancy.

The article says that the progressives, in their bubble, think this professor "shut down" Senator Hawley, but the average American thinks she is a loon and that what Hawley is asking her is common sense.

 

here's the gist:

Everyone agrees it was an epic own. There’s much less agreement about who got owned.

In Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) asked University of California at Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges whether she thought a baby that is not yet born has value. This ensued:

“I believe a person with the capacity for pregnancy has value,” she answered. “They have intelligence. They have agency —”

“No, I’m talking about the baby,” Cornyn interrupted.

“And I’m talking about the person with a capacity for pregnancy,” she retorted. When Cornyn noted that she wasn’t answering the question, she said, “I’m answering a more interesting question to me.”

The whole thing quickly became a Rorschach test. Many progressives cheered to see Professor Bridges school a reactionary Republican. But conservatives also cheered, because they see a gift to Republican election campaigns.

Unlike a Rorschach test, however, this one has a right answer, and the progressives have it wrong. Moreover, the fact that they can’t see just how badly this exchange went for their side shows what a big mistake it was to let academia and media institutions turn into left-wing monocultures.

Within those rarefied circles, Bridges’s answers were exquisitely and exactly correct.

Yet outside those circles, Bridges’s answers don’t really sound so convincing. In most of America, “Does a late-term fetus have value?” is a softball.​

 

this part:

In even tones, Bridges replied that while many cisgender women have the capacity for pregnancy, many don’t, while some trans men and nonbinary people do. But after a little back-and-forth, she gave up. “So, I want to recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic,” she said with an exasperated laugh, “and it opens up trans people to violence.”

Within those rarefied circles, Bridges’s answers were exquisitely and exactly correct. She allowed no hint that late-term fetuses might have moral value, because that might suggest their interests could be weighed against those of the, well, pregnancy-capable. Nor did she concede an inch to the idea that biology can trump gender identity. And when she ran out of patience with Hawley’s questions, she pounced in exactly the prescribed manner: Your questions are transphobic, Senator, and you are putting trans people at risk of violence or suicide by denying their lived reality.

<snip>

When I was reporting on the story of transgender college swimmer Lia Thomas, I noticed a curious disconnect. If you read newspapers, watched television or listened to academic experts, you might have thought that most people supported Thomas, with some dissent from a few reactionaries or jealous competitors. Yet the overwhelming majority of people I actually spoke to thought it was unfair for her to compete in women’s events, even though most of them were liberals who would never dream of voting Republican.

They were, however, a fearfully silent majority, which meant Thomas’s supporters never had to come up with good arguments. Instead, many of my questions got essentially the same answer as the one Bridges ultimately gave to Hawley: Even asking the question is transphobic and dangerous.

Within a narrow set of media and academic circles, this was a devastatingly effective tactic that made it impossible for opponents to organize an effective response. Outside those circles, however, it failed utterly; the swim federation swiftly made new rules to bar Thomas, along with other athletes who transitioned after puberty, from participating in future races.

I wondered then whether that decision might have gone differently, or at least been less surprising, if Thomas’s supporters had been forced to grapple more directly with the things her opponents were saying — quietly, in private, where they couldn’t be overheard. And I wonder, now, what further surprises are in store if progressives can’t figure out how to talk to the majority of the country that disagrees with them on a whole lot of things.

​

 

I still think the Lia Thomas situation is overblown and will stress we need to look at the results. Yes Lia Thomas appeared to make a big jump in standings following her transition but given that she was beaten by several biological women still shows that trans women aren't making it impossible for biological women to compete. Otherwise Lia Thomas would've won every race at WR pace.

The fundamental question to me is if transitioning is hard biologically how much does the biological advantage that men on average have is preserved through transition. Lia Thomas shows that some might but it's not an overwhelming advantage.

Most important though is that Lia Thomas is just one data point. I can only think of two data points regarding trans athletes and that is her and a trans athlete that I coached who didn't dominate her division either. I think most of the arguments against, and for trans athletes, are being made with very limited information. Given how few trans athletes there are I don't think the evidence is there yet to say anything definitive. I also think given how small the number of trans athletes there are they aren't the threat to Women's athletics that many are claiming.

 

I wasn't great on the bbs in general in the early days, but I've been aware of trans people since Christine Jorgensen (my dad was danish) and Wendy Carlos, and have been around gay people (mostly men) my entire professional life. With the exception of children, I'm probably as open-minded a person as you will find on this board when it comes to who-bonks-whom.

 

The fact that there are actually people on the Left who think that this crazy professor "won" this argument is just insane. Hawley is an *******, but he was on the right side of this particular conversation. The professor is absolutely an example of woke lunatics who have infiltrated universities and public life. I can guarantee you that more than 80 % of the population think she's crazy. This kind of bullshit is NOT what will win democrats elections. If anything, people like this will lead to Trump coming back.

 

100 % this. Democrats who support this are crazy. The fact that fringe lunatics like this woman have become professors at universities is just insane.

 

I don't know that she is a lunatic, fringe or otherwise, but the smug self-righteousness is very common and very damaging

 

I have two friend that have gone through this transition. Both are in loving relationships. One was married before the transition and her wife knew where they were headed before they did. They are still together.