Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stepped into the debate over trans rights on Wednesday, saying “biological males” should be banned from women’s sports, change rooms and bathrooms.
“Female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males,” Poilievre said in Kitchener, Ont.
The Conservative leader made the comments after being asked if, as prime minister, he would introduce legislation to prevent “transgender women” or “biological men” from participating in female sports or entering female prisons and shelters.
“A lot of the spaces … are provincially and municipally controlled, so it is unclear … what reach federal legislation would have to change them,” Poilievre said.
“But obviously female sports, female change rooms, female bathrooms should be for females, not for biological males,” he added.
I’m not into competitive sports, but I don’t think they’re fine. I’m in favor of gender neutral or weight classed leagues.
On some level though I think it’s okay to tell trans athletes they can’t compete in certain leagues. I’m colourblind and I can never be a firefighter or a pilot or a cop, and I had to back off from my dream of doing art school because I didn’t think I could compete. There are biological restrictions which preclude things we want, and I do think being trans precludes competing in the sex based leagues, but as mentioned earlier we can revise our leagues to make them a better fit on a per sport basis.
While it is true that most trans women are very bad at sports because they’re big nerds and generally can’t compete, there are a few trans women who through great effort have managed to reach a level on par with cis athletes. For example a few years ago a trans person won an Olympic medal for the first time, and that’s huge. Now obviously this is after 15 years of trans women being allowed into the Olympics, and hundreds and hundreds of cis women winning medals, so this isn’t to make the claim that trans women are generally equal to cis women in sports. But eventually someone trans was good enough to compete at the Olympic level, and that’s something to be proud of! I don’t think we should be barring ALL trans people from sports just because most of us suck at them.