Yearwood’s father, whose teen is now girls’ state champ, says he doesn’t think about whether or not it’s fair. Which is convenient, since his kid won.
“This is not about winning and losing races. This is about the health of my teenage daughter. In terms of the fairness aspect, I don’t think about that as a father. I only think about, is my daughter happy, healthy and able to participate in what she wants to do? I don’t care if she wins or loses. I don’t care if she wins and gives the medals back. She got to compete as a girl where she feels she should compete. That’s all that matters to me.”
I should note that she’s not given the medals back. And also that track meets are generally about winning and losing races.
I guess my problem with Yearwood competing as a girl is this: biologically-born women will almost always lose in this situation. If a person is biologically female but identifies male and runs track against boys, the chance of the transgender person winning in that scenario is much less likely. But when a transgender person who was born a male goes head to head against females who were born females, they are more likely to win. This rankles the feminist in me, and makes me wonder if we will just go toward unisex sports, where again, biological females will be given less of a chance to shine.
I don’t have the answers for this, but I am comfortable saying I don’t think it’s right, especially when Yearwood hasn’t had any therapies or procedures to bring her closer to being a biological woman.
But, unlike other bloggers, I’m not here to spew venom at transgender teens or their parents. I’m just saying, if I were Kate Hall’s parents, I’d be pretty devastated for my kid right now…and I wish things COULD be fair for her.
One last time, though, I’m not demonizing Yearwood…in this news clip she certainly seems like a nice kid—and let’s all remember, just 15 years old.
What do YOU think? Is it fair for Yearwood to compete against biological females when she is still biologically a male?
