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Gender testing for Olympic runner

Started by Fausto, August 19, 2009, 08:26:18 PM

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Fausto

"When I die, I hope you will use my body creatively." - Shin Chan

"Tonight, we will honor the greatest writers in America with a modest 9 by 12 certificate and a check for three thousand dollars...three thousand dollars? Stephen King makes more than that for writing boo on a cocktail napkin." - Jimmy Breslin

meQal

I read the story then found a picture of the runner in question. I can see why people are questioning her gender because the picture I saw looked like a man. Granted I have known women who looked more like men than women. So who knows. If she is just a masculine looking woman, I hope she is ex-honorated and it puts an end to the questions about her gender, however if she is proved to be a man, then I foresee a whole new can of worms opening up. In a world with sexual reassignment surgery, would disqualifying a person from a sport based basic gender testing as mentioned in the article qualify as discrimination? I don't know how a court would rule on this if challenged.
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Allhallowsday

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Jim H

Quote from: meQal on August 20, 2009, 01:38:53 PM
I read the story then found a picture of the runner in question. I can see why people are questioning her gender because the picture I saw looked like a man. Granted I have known women who looked more like men than women. So who knows. If she is just a masculine looking woman, I hope she is ex-honorated and it puts an end to the questions about her gender, however if she is proved to be a man, then I foresee a whole new can of worms opening up. In a world with sexual reassignment surgery, would disqualifying a person from a sport based basic gender testing as mentioned in the article qualify as discrimination? I don't know how a court would rule on this if challenged.

It's already happened in the past.  Ewa Kłobukowska was banned from competing eventually.

In any case, it doesn't matter how they do this, either, since the Olympics are essentially private events.  It'd be like if a woman who tried to join a male pro baseball team sued.  Doesn't work.

Fausto

She could also be intersexed. Some people are born as one sex and dont develop secondary characteristics until later in life, or have other biological issues. I'd be curious to see what the organization would do in such a case, its not as if they can really hold that against her, unless they decide its some sort of disability, which would suck.
"When I die, I hope you will use my body creatively." - Shin Chan

"Tonight, we will honor the greatest writers in America with a modest 9 by 12 certificate and a check for three thousand dollars...three thousand dollars? Stephen King makes more than that for writing boo on a cocktail napkin." - Jimmy Breslin

Jim H

Quote from: Fausto on August 25, 2009, 05:12:31 PM
She could also be intersexed. Some people are born as one sex and dont develop secondary characteristics until later in life, or have other biological issues. I'd be curious to see what the organization would do in such a case, its not as if they can really hold that against her, unless they decide its some sort of disability, which would suck.

What they do today is try to determine if them begin intersexed is an advantage.  For example, if they're competing as a woman but they produce testosterone like a man, that's a huge advantage.  If the nature of their sex isn't a competitive advantage, they're allowed to continue on.