Some may or may not know about the statemant made from Martina Navratilova concerning the rights of transgender in sport to compete in their new assigned gender , she claims it was an unfair advantage . She has represented the LGBTQ cause for many years but they now disassociate her from the group .
The BBC presented a program last night fronted by Martina to discover what really lies behind the transgender story .
I have to say this is the first program I've seen where the transgender community were shown in the RW trying to fit in with society and compete on equal terms . There was no discrimination, the proram used the TG label across the board whether the person in question had transitioned or on hormones or not , also the transsexual label was never mentioned . It was so good not to see people playing up to the camera they wanted to tell their stories and the difficulties they were having in the RW .
At one point Martina herself admitted it's far easier coming out as gay than to come out as TG .
For many sports the problem is the testosterone level , performance is very much related to that . It was good to see Loughborough University putting so much research into this subject , they realise the TG question is growing not diminishing, they have to find ways to level the playing field . The thoughts that the IOC have made the wrong decision did arise . In some sports I wonder if a handicap system could work , the figure worked out on T levels and an increasing time penalty added depending on the T level , the thoughts are mixed sports are more liekly to happen so this could be one solution.
A golfer was featured , she competes on the male circuit but would prefer to compete on the female circuit . In top flight golf a man is bound to out drive a female but there again it could be offset by placing their tee offs further back . An interesting example was a racing driver who may be the first to compete in the Le Mans 24 hr race , she actully claims she performs better now she's resolved her dysphoria . It was also great to see a football team totally trans friendly .
Maratina heself came over as a very caring and sensitve person , determined to put her mistake right , I hope she can .
The one aspect that may also have to be resolved is the purse size , a male sportsman still earms far more in most sporting activites than women
From a personal perspective art is self levelling we compete on equal terms especially when the exhibitions come round , it is an ideal situation for me, art being more important than gender and having now met my group as Teresa I know it can work , I gained a great deal of strength from this televised program , I hope they continue to make programs like this one .