mhaze,

My apologies. I misunderstood you.

Of course there are problems - that need to be
debated. Vulnerable women continue to get the
short end of the stick on the growing conflict
between women's rights and transgender rights
when it comes to female - only spaces and services.

Under self-identification laws in some states
(Victoria, Tasmania, SA, NT, and ACT) trans people can
self-nominate their sex as male, female, or another
non-binary descriptor of their choice and can change
the sex on their birth certificate accordingly.

In contrast in NSW and Queensland they are required to
undergo "gender re-assignment surgery," before updating
their birth certificate.

The consequence of such laws is that biological males may
self-identify into women's spaces, services, and sports and
under the anti-Discrimination law can't be treated
differently from biological women.

Men have been able to self-identify into vulnerable women's
only spaces like prisons, domestic violence centres,
hospital wards, changing rooms, bathrooms, and tragically
all have been examples of women being sexually assaulted by
trans-identified males who were given access to these services.

Self-identification laws should never have been passed when
the clear outcome was that they would undermine the rights of
women and girls. However, the bigger problem is the
Sex Discrimination Act.

This was amended in 2013 to remove the biological definition of
"woman" and "man." Without a sex-based definition of woman in
the Act Australian law is no longer able to differentiate between
woman and males who identify as women.

It's a matter of urgency that the Act is amended to restore
protections for the sex based rights of women and girls.

We have the question of how to accommodate transgender
athletes in competitive sport, or even whether they
should be accommodated at all?

This is something else that needs to be debated. We need
to think about the role of the law in protecting the
rights of individuals especially when the rights of some
people appear to conflict with the rights of others.

On the one hand there's transgender athletes who want to
compete in the gender division with which they identify.
On the other hand there are political activists and
atheletes especially biologically female athletes who
believe that allowing trans athletes to compete in women's
divisions is inherently unfair.

Ho do we allow transgender athletes to compete in a
meaningful way?

I remember reading about Cate McGregor admitting that
allowing her to play cricket after she transgendered was a
mistake - because she did have an advantage having gone
through puberty.

In November 2021 the International Olympic Committee changed
its guidelines and now leaves the determination of eligibility
to each individual sport.

Under the new guidelines transgender women are no longer
required to reduce their testosterone levels below specific
bounds to compete.

I have a transgender rellie. Just another person. Maybe we could have some other threads, such as "What are black people like?", "What are communists like?", or "What are Catholics like?" for example.

Hi Fester,

Met lots of black fellas, they're a bit up and and down, some are tall some are short, generally a bit like white fellas. Catholics, they're a bit harder to identify, unless they're wearing a dog collar and nothing else and sneaking up behind you, the rest don't normally carry signs saying "I am a Catholic" so they tend to blend in with the general population. Communists, only ever met one bloke I would say was a true communist, and he was a decent sort of chap, so I'd say Communist are decent sorts of chaps, but it was a limited sample of just one. Although so on here claim I'm a Communist, and I'm a decent sort of chap, so that makes two. Didn't know Joe Stalin personally, but from what I've read, I don't think he was a decent sort of chap. Hope I was helpful.

Nice effort Paul, but I think that Borat is the gold standard for learning about different cultures and lifestyles.

Hi Fester,

Borat, what was it; "She is my sister. She is number-four prostitute in whole of Kazakhstan". I liked the movie, sick as it was, but funny.