a "transgender thirteen year old child" winning the running, high jump, javelin and discus events at a school sports day. They are saying it was "not fair". The issue has been reported in our state newspaper and it will no doubt bring about a lot of discussion. Nothing has been said about how the other students competing against this one feel. Nothing has been said about how the student feels either.
I am wondering how the student relates to the other students in the school. What sort of relationship do they have? Do they have friends? Is there some good medical reason for a thirteen year old to be "transgender"? How do they cope with what must be a very, very challenging situation?
I have no idea of course. I do not know the student, their family, their friends or anything else about them.
At thirteen I was not an "easy" child. There were multiple reasons for that but some of them were simply to do with what all children go through as they transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. It is a difficult time.
My brother, not in the least a "sporty" child was being made to feel a failure because he simply did not want to throw a cricket ball or kick a footy. We lived in an area where these things were considered an essential part of life. It is what you did. He now feigns an interest for the sake of his grandchildren but that is all. When he was forced to participate he was playing with boys. The idea that a girl might be part of the team did not occur to them. The word "transgender" would have meant nothing.
Middle Cat played every sport she could find. She was on the state teams for two of them. She has coached teams and trained teams. She knows the rules and regulations and more. She grew up in a time when girls played sport with girls and boys played with boys apart from a brief time on the school football team in a remote area. There were not enough boys to make up the minimum requirement for a team and she insisted she could do it. Yes, she could do it but only because almost all the boys were younger and smaller than she was. She was not competing on an "equal" basis and nobody pretended that she was.
There will be students at the school mentioned who are feeling disappointed, very disappointed. Whatever they might be told and whatever they might say they will feel disappointed. The students who came second will "know" they might have come first if the transgender child who could run faster, throw further and jump higher had not gone in front of them. They will wonder what they are being taught about not just gender issues but about so much as well.
I do not know what the answer is. I suppose it depends on how people feel about the "transgender" issue. It would be interesting to hear the honest opinions of all the students concerned.