Thursday, November 5, 2026

there are more concrete issues at play, as well.

some sports have change rooms, for example. i can tell you that i don't think i have some inherent right to barge into a female change room, but i don't think that's the same thing as participating in the competitive sport. i'm very cognizant of this concern and want to ensure i'm welcome in any space i try to enter.

the flip side of this is that i was the 11 year old kid that the girls dragged into the female washroom. to hang out. the teachers had to yell at the girls in my class to stop physically pulling me into the female bathroom. i wasn't just welcome in there, i was invited. 

and this is a difference that needs to be respected. we're used to having rights in our society and trans people do need to have some rights. however, being trans is, in some ways, more of a privilege than a right, and in a lot of ways the reality is that being trans means understanding it as a privilege that necessitates invitation, rather than a right to be enforced. 

trans kids shouldn't have to say "but i have the right", when they're excluded. rather, they should understand that they need to get invited. and, in most cases, they will get invited when they're trans. if they're not invited, there's usually reasons for that.

but these are decisions to be made by their peers, not by their parents. the thing that bothers me is when the parents try to step in to "protect" the kids, when the kids aren't asking for protection. that's a symptom of helicopter parenting past the age where it's needed. you need to let your daughters figure this out themselves, and they'll tell you who the girls are, who the cute boys are and who the opportunistic creeps are. the opportunistic creeps, to the extent that they exist, can't be told they have rights. but the girls are the best way to identify them, not your congressperson.

they're not going to really listen to you anyways, so it's up to you to do it the easy way or the hard way. it's easier to listen to your daughters and respect what they say than to try to force your values on them and get rejected.

some sports are very physical, like wrestling. pre-op transwomen participating in wrestling are always going to generate a set of awkward concerns. it's maybe the only sport where i'd support screening for physical sex as relevant.