DALLAS — Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico on Wednesday said he opposed transgender student-athletes competing in girls’ sports “if it endangers safety or fairness,” reversing course on previous positions he took while in the Texas House opposing restrictions on trans athletes.
81 Comments
Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz · 47 pts · 3d
Democratic candidates need to stop bending the knee to fascism for votes and instead attract voters by pointing out all of the horrible economic and foreign policy decisions the Republicans have enabled Trump to implement.
artyom@piefed.social · -1 pts · 3d
Unfortunately that's clearly not enough.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 3d
So, how many times do they need to back the bus over vulnerable minorities after throwing them under there?
jimmy90@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 3d
this is fascism? seems like a bit of a leap
or are you trying to get people to not vote for dems over this one issue
foolish that's how you got trump remember
Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz · 9 pts · 3d
Every fascist needs scapegoats to blame societal problems on; transgender people are often chosen as scapegoats by modern Western far-right parties. Every weasel word used in place of 'fascist' serves to normalize the degradation of society with the racism, xenophobia, and bigotry that are hallmarks of the far-right.
Of course the Democrats should be the ones to hold the House and Senate after the midterms if possible to turn Trump into as much of a lame duck as possible, but Democratic candidates should not stoop to the level of Republicans on civil rights issues merely to attain a handful of additional bigoted voters.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2d
Especially since this won't pick up a single republican vote. Talarico did this for no gain whatsoever.
WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com · 4 pts · 2d
Not even just modern unless you use a broad definition of modern that include's Nazis in Germany in the leadup to WWII+Holocaust.
athatet@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 2d
This one issue of ‘let’s kill you and your friends.’ Sure lemme just go ahead and ignore that.
LostWanderer@fedia.io · 41 pts · 3d
James Talarico could've literally said nothing about transgender issues and focused on economic, the current failed systems, lack of safety nets. Hostile sentiments towards Trans Americans are already fairly high, this dumb fucker didn't have to add fuel to the fire. It didn't occur to him to direct energy towards things that matter: Dismantling the federally protected and elected ring of pedophiles, billionaires, and corporations that are working together towards a very nasty purpose. You know, that major goal using Project 2025 as a template to dismantle democracy; to make working class people have no choice but work, keep us scared, desperate, and sick. They might not win it since there are more of us than them, but, we still need to stand up to these chuds.
Cataath@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2d
The real answer should have that, of the 345 million Americans that are are facing homelessness, water shortages, diminishing crop yields, runaway inflation, countless consumer scams, souring gas prices, collapsing education systems and infrastructure, this is an issue that affects maybe a dozen people.
Yew@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 3d
Which is basically never. He's trying to walk the fence and appeal to everyone.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2d
Just going to get dogpiled by Matt Walsh types screaming "What is a Woman?!" from the cheap seats.
artyom@piefed.social · 29 pts · 3d
Ah, the classic meaningless political statement.
the_q@piefed.social · 27 pts · 3d
Fence riders get splinters in their asses.
charokol@lemmy.zip · 27 pts · 3d
Dignifying this “issue” with any stance is the wrong move. Why is this what we’re debating when the country is being destroyed by pedophiles and billionaires?
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
Can't have trans people thinking anyone is in their corner.
charokol@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 2d
You can show your support for trans people while also not deigning to debate a super-specific issue that affects so few people that the only point in debating it is to drive a wedge between people that should otherwise be united against a greater common enemy
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d
Then he shouldn't have taken a position. At least Harris kept embarrassed silence for ever having acted like trans people are human. Talarico ceded ground, and did so after the primary. Even Fetterman waited until after the election.
Malica@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 2d
Because it keeps us occupied and out of the way.
BigMacHole@thelemmy.club · 25 pts · 3d
Good! NOW he Can get the "I want to KILL ALL DEMOCRATS!" vote while Alienating the "We REALLY WANT to Vote Democrat!" vote!
xenomor@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 3d
Well, you’re not a real Democrat until you become explicit about your cowardice.
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 3d
Unfortunately, hes still the lesser of evils.
Malica@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 2d
Paxton is a legitimate monster
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d
No arguments here.
LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 3d
And thus evil marches ever forward .
mrmaplebar@fedia.io · 0 pts · 3d
It's so over-the-top to call that stance "evil"...
barooboodoo@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 3d
What do you call it when someone throws a tiny persecuted minority under the bus over a non-issue?
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 3d
Centrists call it a good start.
mrmaplebar@fedia.io · 1 pts · 3d
All he said is that it "needs to be fair", and that is so obvious it almost goes without saying. Sports do need to be fair; it's why even Men's sports sometimes have weight classes. Like it or not, his answer is reasonable.
And, yes, it's ridiculously melodramatic to call that "evil" or "being thrown under a bus".
This entire topic of conversation is so stupidly hypothetical and hyperbolic, not to mention practically irrelevant to the job of a US Senator.
But of course, how could I forget that every 2 years people have to take the bait and start arguing over asinine culture war wedge issues while the rich and powerful fuck us in the ass and rob us blind...?
It's bait. It's a non-issue and a fake problem. He fell for it. You fell for it. And I'm sure a bunch of dumbass Texan voters on both sides will fall for it too. Happens every time. Hook, line and sinker.
Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz · 11 pts · 3d
His answer is not reasonable in the slightest because he also implied that there are situations where transgender participation is 'unsafe', perpetuating the false and transphobic stereotype of transgender women being men trying to assault women.
searabbit@piefed.social · 2 pts · 3d
It's still a fake non-issue. I used to fall for the anti-trans propaganda because I do watch and have participated in women's contact sports, so I know how already inherently unsafe it is, and the only reason it does not matter is because the percentage of trans women in sports is negligible so it's exceedingly unlikely to be a problem. It's not a real issue that affects me or you, most likely, so there's no point in engaging with the hypothetical at all. Trans people deserve human rights, respect, dignity, and privacy, and sports organizations and schools should figure out their own rules that work for their own communities.
Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 3d
Even if minute in terms of the number of athletes affected, each person that cannot participate is being denied equal participation in society. More broadly, the same people pushing to ban transgender sports participation are seeking to remove transgender recognition from society as a whole.
Letting local communities selectively deny transgender people equal rights is not acceptable. Civil rights are not something that should be optional. No school or sporting organization in any state should be discriminating against transgender individuals in any capacity with respect to their gender identity.
mrmaplebar@fedia.io · 1 pts · 3d
That is not at all what was said or what was being implied...
Sports can be dangerous in and of themselves, which is why there is an entire field of sports medicine, as well as safety guildlines for just about every professional and amateur sports league that exists.
It's not unreasonable to think that a circumstance could arise where two people of the same gender identity fall into radically different body weight/height classes. And in that circumstance it would not be safe or fair for those to people to compete. (This is why boxing, for example, is already broken up into weight classes.)
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 3d
There's always an excuse.
athatet@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 2d
Trans people are less than one percent of the population. They are the absolute last thing making sports unfair.
barooboodoo@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 2d
Uhhh I was replying to you but okay I guess. Other comments have sufficiently explained why sports aren't fair or safe so I won't retread that but yes the real issue is that he took the bait and threw trans people under the bus for basically no reason.
balsoft@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 2d
I will concede that this issue is complicated.
However, I'd like to note that sport is fundamentally not "fair", however you define it.
If it is supposed to be about "the person who does X best wins" there would not be gendered leagues or weight classes or doping regulations, and there would only be one champion per sport who would die of performance enhancement drug overdose shortly after winning.
If it is supposed to be about "everyone gets an equal chance at winning" it would be a lottery.
Fundamentally ("the purpose of the system is what it does"), professional sport is first and foremost about entertainment and not fairness. Humans like to watch other, more skilled/fit humans do stuff, this is why we have all those competitions in the first place. There needs to be a component of skill/effort and unpredictability for it to be an interesting competition to watch. The reason gendered leagues, weight classes, paralympics etc exist is for representation of those classes of people in this (very important) genre of entertainment. Which is awesome.
However, what becomes obvious is that by denying trans athletes the chance to compete with people of their gender, you are denying those trans people representation of their identity. I also understand that in this particular situation, allowing trans people to compete could take away representation from cis women which I understand and is a valid concern of a disadvantaged group. But (at least from my cis-male perspective, so take it with a grain of salt) it generally doesn't, because there are very few transfem athletes, especially at professional sports levels, and years of transitioning generally take away enough of their performance for it to still be an interesting competition between AFAB women and AMAB women.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 3d
You consider anything that harms trans people to be good.
mrmaplebar@fedia.io · 2 pts · 2d
What an absolutely unhinged takeaway, not to mention a total straw man...
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d
I do not trust anyone who celebrates abandoning vulnerable minorities.
And I do not care if you want to make ableist insults about it.
mrmaplebar@fedia.io · 1 pts · 2d
Well... Now that it's so abundantly clear that you're unwilling to discuss this in good faith, I think my part in this conversation is officially over.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
"Good faith" means I should trust you after you support throwing trans people under the bus.
Because after all, they're not netanyahu, so no centrist will ever give a shit about them.
JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 3d
That didnt stop the sitouts from sitting it out the last time. Just sayin.
Ribbons@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 2d
I've seen people elsewhere handwave this as "playing politics" since it's Texas and all, but there are ways to cede ground to people you're trying to sway without completely fucking throwing an entire marginalized community under the bus once again. Yeah, using flowery wishy-washy language provides a convenient out if you put all of the weight on the word "if" but reading between the lines shows that we're just a political playing chip on the best of days and that you also just want us dead all the same on the worst of days.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 2d
Politicians gonna pol.
But they don't have to like this.
DeadEndLink@lemmy.ca · 13 pts · 2d
Surprise! DNC sells out another minority.
BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2d
In pretty much every case there is no risk to safety or fairness. The best the right can come up with is anecdotes.
sukhmel@programming.dev · 8 pts · 2d
I wonder if it's the same fairness issue that forbids women to compete with men on the shooting range for outperforming the latter
CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2d
And now he will be purity tested out of existence, lettin paxton win. I bet he helps the trans community.
CptOblivius@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
Yes don't let perfect be the enemy of good. No one is perfect. I agree with Talarico on 90%+. Paxton less than 10.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 2d
This is fresh betrayal, after the primaries so we're stuck with him.
Well, it's not betrayal for you.
frisbird@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 2d
That's not how this works. The way it works is that the Democrats triangulate to make their position more palatable to racists, homophobes, and Christian nationalists and then they lose their base who knows better than the candidates that the far right will never vote for a D and triangulating just continues to repeat dangerous lies that the extreme right use to justify their violence. We need more full-voiced opposition to the right with strategic approaches to the middle, not tactical capitulation that reveals just how hollow and weak the candidates who claim allyship are.
I bet you Talarico is in favor of weight classes in boxing. Does that mean he goes around saying "I am opposed to fat people in sports when it effects safety and fairness". No. Because it's not a political issue. It's a technical and professional one that's already being addressed and he doesn't need to go in and make fat people unsafe by saying he opposes them and thinks they are unsafe and are unfair.
Redditmodstouchgrass@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 2d
The entire idea of sports is against safety and fairness. Might as well stay in a padded room all your life.
mrmaplebar@fedia.io · 5 pts · 3d
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but he's not wrong, is he?
In lieu of gender-based leagues (a flawed concept in the first place), sports should probably be divided into physical weight/height classes in order to make sure that people of various builds have a fair shot and aren't going to be murdered in a big rugby tackle or whatever. That's not an unreasonable or anti-trans position to take.
charokol@lemmy.zip · 13 pts · 3d
And then you’ll hear complaints when smaller-built guys start getting classed with women
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 3d
Used to happen (and prob still does) in HS wrestling. There were never enough girls so they'd just wrestle with boys, and since it was by weight class they were almost inevitably with the smaller guys.
mrmaplebar@fedia.io · 1 pts · 3d
People will always find something to complain about, but classes based on objective and quantifiable metrics like weight and height would be more fair and safe than subjective gender identity-based classes, and there would be very little room for debate.
Small guys (and girls too) can always bulk up if they want want to play with the heavyweights. It's the obvious solution to this trivial and mostly imaginary "problem".
khannie@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d
The issue with that approach is that women who are the same weight and approximate leanness as a given man are nowhere near as strong. I used to compete in a weight category sport and was genuinely surprised at the strength difference I had over similarly sized (absolute ass kicker) ladies.
I had just assumed we'd be comparable given we were fighting around the same weight and they were lean as fuck.
I'm guessing the main conservative talking points are around trans women having an unfair advantage based off that strength difference when they were pre-transition. I've no knowledge or understanding of whether the drop in testosterone / rise in oestrogen would maintain any advantage over time (and if anyone does know I'd love to learn).
Edit: I see OP posted another comment with links to studies basically saying the edge deteriorates to zero over time. Not sure what the fucking problem is then except for pearl clutching.
LodeMike@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 2d
Ah yes sports, the notoriously "fair" activity sports.
QueenHawlSera@piefed.social · 4 pts · 3d
And just like that I no longer support him.
humanspiral@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 2d
This is not a government issue. NCAA, WNBA, Tennis federation, IOC decide on their own. School boards can decide without governor/senate input.
voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 2d
Man, I was already holding my nose voting for him in the primary because I didn't think texas voters would go for Crockett, a black woman, in the general. We had already lost a close battle to replace Cruz in the last general election of a texas senator and i did not want a repeat.
This is truly disappointing, I'll definitely going to be writing a letter of disappointment to his campaign, not that that does squat.
wjrii@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3d
Disappointing, but maybe not the hill to die on in this state and this election. I'd love to move the Overton window back to where this waffling risks his getting a viable primary challenger from the left, but first let's work on getting the kids the HRT they need without the hospitals getting sued into oblivion.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 3d
There's always more hills to cede.
It's not like this one had anyone democrats considered worth protecting on it.
Midnight1938@reddthat.com · -7 pts · 3d
Could someone just explain why, since its known trans athletes will have different physical attributes than the biological ones (which is what these guys keep spouting afaik)
Why cant there be 3 categories instead of just mens and womens?
Nouvellalia@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 3d
Can you post me a genuine, not supported by explicitly anti-trans groups, study that shows your feels to be true?
QueenHawlSera@piefed.social · 10 pts · 3d
You gave up the game when you said biological instead of cis.
Midnight1938@reddthat.com · -5 pts · 3d
Oh no im not American or chronically online
The horror
TRAHR@quokk.au · 9 pts · 3d
After around 2 years a trans woman on HRT is on par physically with a cis woman.
A 2024 paper published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that when comparing transgender women, cis women, cis men, and transgender men who compete in regular competitive sport, that transgender women had lower lower-body strength and reduced lung capacity than cis women. Bone density was also equivalent.
That study verifies a report by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) in 2024 that trans women who go through testosterone suppression and gender-affirming medical care do not possess a biomedical edge over cis women in sport. The CCES review of a decade’s worth of peer-reviewed research advocated for evidence-informed policies, rather than ones driven by prejudice or fear.
Midnight1938@reddthat.com · -1 pts · 3d
Interesting Thanks
But it would then be a different thing to bar entry under 2 years no?
TRAHR@quokk.au · 11 pts · 3d
A lot already do, trans women don’t have an issue with that.
We do have an issue with being called biological men and that we’re all just men in women’s clothing competing with them with “superior” men’s bodies and being barred entirely.
Midnight1938@reddthat.com · 0 pts · 2d
Wow
So they really just mad for the hell of it
TRAHR@quokk.au · 9 pts · 2d
Look at the WNBA, not a single trans women has ever played in it yet they’re causing all this drama about us.
They just want us dead.
turdburglar@piefed.social · 6 pts · 3d
sorry, what’s the third category then?
CannonFodder@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 3d
Trans female, I guess. I don't think anyone cares about trans males playing in the male league. But it's stupid - if we need different divisions, we should categorize by weight, like they do in boxing.
turdburglar@piefed.social · 5 pts · 3d
ok so how many trans women do you think exist who live locally and wish to play this specific sport?
seems like it would be a pretty lonely team unless you start some sort of bussing arrangement.
has this idea fallen apart for you yet?
CannonFodder@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 2d
Did I not say it was stupid already? But you can fight me over nothing if it makes you happy.
searabbit@piefed.social · -3 pts · 3d
Your argument doesn't make sense because it assumes playing any sport is a right. If I want to play a particular sport, it's on me to jump through all the hurdles to make that happen such as passing try outs, paying for the private sports clubs, or finding a league for my specific demographic and skill level, or bringing my community together to make a new league. If I have a physical disability I'd have to make sure that's accommodated on top of that (usually not). I think most people don't ever get the chance to participate in most sports anyway.
turdburglar@piefed.social · 6 pts · 3d
my argument is that there are not enuf teenage trans women in a random small town in ohio to make up a whole high school soccer team.
i’m not sure what this has to do with any of that 👆
im also not on board with you connecting being trans to having a disability.
eupraxia@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 2d
The discourse on this issue is way overfocused on elite athletes, imo. Elite athletes have different reasons for pursuing their sport and are up against the upper limits of what their bodies are capable of. The real value of sports for the vast majority of people is in the exercise and community, and their performance is largely dependent on skill, not their genetics. Most people don't pursue a sport, but we would all probably benefit a lot from one.
Unfortunately, the discussion re: elite athletes is causing restrictions on trans athletes to be introduced at amateur levels and even among child athletes, where the competitive concerns are completely irrelevant. Given how important sports and games can be for motor learning, creating situations where kids are excluded or otherwise made to feel uncomfortable in athletic spaces is doing them a lot of harm.
Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d
Disposable.