Being blind

I was reading the news about Caster Sememya to run again in women's international track events. She was the woman who swept several sprints in Berlin last summer, winning by more than 2 seconds in some races, dominating the competition. It was then the other women competitors voiced their view that "she" wasn't just a woman. You can search the news stories over the last year to see the various views athletes and the media have taken with her.

I haven't changed my view of the situation then, because the South African doctor who examined her before her departure from Berlin advised the South African Athletic Association not to send her as she wasn't the women she appeared to be and any gender test would show the truth about her. But she went and the controversy began.

But that's not my argument anymore. It's that the transcommunity has not changed their view that she had the right then and more so now to compete as she is and not have to undergo any medical treatments required of transgender athletes to compete fairly with the other athletes. They still keep arguing the other athletes, the atheletic community and the athletic organization simply have to accept her rights.

My argument is that for the sake of one, who clearly demonstrated some unusual advantage, everyone else has no right to contest her rights. The individual is more than the whole. They argue this applies to all transgender people, but more so in some cases where it's clearly and obviously misplaced at best and wrong at worst.

The are simply blind to the reality of the whole. They assume all transgender people have the disadvantage and deserve advantages wherever they can get them. Except that Caster wasn't wholy born female but, as some sources have reported, some form of intersexed, probably mild to moderate AIS, meaning a male with the appearance of female gentalia, but no female reproductive system.

She may think of yourself as a girl (gender identity), raised a girl and accepted as a girl, but it doesn't make her female, and enough to compete with other women. But that doesn't seem to bother the transcommunity. They prefer blindness to reality and understanding. They prefer to discriminate against other women than acknowledge they may be wrong. They prefer to simply deny the truth.

The truth other sports have proceedures for transgender athletes to compete on par with their other same gender athletes and all have complied to compete, taking the mandatory two-plus years to transistion. That's what Caster should have done and what the IAAF should have mandated, striping her of her medals, records, and rights to compete until she complies.

But she didn't and screamed discrimination. And the transcommunity screamed with her. And those who voiced support for the other women, they were verbally pummelled into silence. They not only didn't want to hear the truth, they wanted their truth to be right. Except it wasn't right or fair.

And now after nearly a year from the events in Berlin and Caster is allowed back, they're arguing they were right all along, except it's clear between the lines in the news, Caster did undergo some medical treatments and proceedures to comply with the IAAF's rules for transgender athletes. Something she should have done then.

Being blind has some advantages, as we know. We can deny the truth and reality and only see our view as right and fair. And in doing so with Caster and against everyone else the transcommunity showed their colors, or rather their inability to see the color, only their black and white world, except everything and everyone else is black.

And only then do we see the transcommunity's self-righteousness and self-serving blindness. Sadly too, because it only adds to those who do help and support transgender people and the transcommunity to winch and balk. And then walk away, in their forced silence. Being blind not only hurts yourself, it hurts others who want to care, only to be rejected by not being blind.