The Games

Trans athletes are a part of the Olympic games and of course it stirring up controversy among the conservatives. I think that it is going to come to the forefront tomorrow when Laurel Hubbard competes, she is favored for the Sliver while a Chinese weightlifter is favored for the Gold, according to FanDual…

China's Li Wenwen is FanDuel Sportsbook's favorite to win the women's 87kg weightlifting gold medal at -370 odds. With numerous super heavyweight world records under her belt, it's no surprise to see Wenwen being the favorite in Tokyo.

New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard has the second-best odds to win the gold medal at +340.
If Ms. Hubbard wins watch thee “shit hit the fan” from the conservatives.

A member of the USA BMX freestyle squad is also trans, Chelsea Wolfe is a backup on the teams and she is not expected to compete in the games, the Palm Beach Post reported,

Wolfe will be the first out trans athlete on Team USA, where she'll serve as an alternate in the women's BMX freestyle competition this weekend – the sport's first appearance at the Olympic games.
[…]
Wolfe is an alternate at this year's Olympic Games, which means she'll only compete if one of the two riders representing the U.S., Perris Benegas or Hannah Roberts, pull out of the competition.

Our neighbors to the north also has a trans athlete, Goal magazine wrote,

There has been much discussion in certain corners of social and traditional media about the presence of transgender athletes at the Olympics currently taking place in Tokyo.

And yet under the radar, the first out transgender athlete has already been helping their country bid for a medal over the past week. Soccer star Quinn has helped fire Canada into the quarter-finals of the women's football [Soccer for those south of the boarder] tournament, where they will face Brazil on Friday.

The 25-year-old is a key part of this Canadian team, capable of playing in central defense or in a holding midfield role, and has 65 caps for their country - paltry in comparison to the 301 amassed by captain Christine Sinclair, but a sign of their importance nonetheless.

We are not just competing but also judging…

Canoeing-Transgender judge champions daughter's fight for gender equality
Reuters
By Tim Kelly
July 27, 2021


Kimberly Daniels is at the Tokyo Olympics to judge canoeing slalom, where her daughter Haley is representing Canada in an event newly introduced at the Games as a bid for greater gender equality.

But now Daniels worries she may steal the spotlight herself with the attention she is drawing as an openly transgender Olympic judge.
[…]
Daniels, who was a canoe slalom gate judge at Rio in 2016, had not planned to transition until after the Tokyo Games, but due to the one-year pandemic delay, she has arrived in Tokyo as a woman.

The IOC does not have any restrictions on transgender judges or transgender male athletes. A 2015 decision allows transgender women to compete in women's events if their testosterone levels have tested below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least a year.

Not everyone in the Olympic community likes us.

Axios at the Olympics: Games grapple with trans athletes
By Ina Fried
July 31, 2021


After 125 years of having no openly transgender competitors at the Olympics, there are several transgender and nonbinary athletes at this year's Games.

Between the lines: While still small in number, the presence of trans athletes has been a major point of controversy at these Games, coming up repeatedly at IOC press conferences and in newspaper headlines around the world.

• Even the cover of the magazine of AIPS, a trade group for global sports journalists, is devoted to “the transgender issue."

[…]
The big picture: Most of the objections to trans participation in sports centers on transgender women and the belief by some that trans women retain an unfair advantage even after taking hormones to lower their testosterone.

• The science on that is inconclusive, not to mention the fact that non-transgender women have a wide range of naturally occurring testosterone levels.

[…]
Between the lines: While some are calling for the IOC to tighten the rules in the wake of Hubbard’s presence, others say that such an effort would be less about ensuring trans women don’t have an advantage and more about excluding them entirely.

• Budgett noted that while there is no question that men have advantages over women, there is not enough research to really understand what advantages transgender women may retain over non-transgender women.

The question is what will the IOC do to include us in future events?

IOC acknowledge current transgender guidelines out of date with new framework to be revealed
Inside the Games
By Michael Pavitt
31 July 2021


International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical and scientific director Richard Budgett has acknowledged current guidelines around transgender athletes are no longer fit for purpose, with the organisation set to publish an updated framework to guide International Federations in devising their own rules.

The participation of transgender athletes in elite sport has been pushed into the spotlight in recent months, with New Zealand weightlifting Laurel Hubbard poised to become the first openly trans woman to compete at the Olympic Games since the current IOC consensus statement was published in 2015.
[…]
The IOC held a consultation process to devise a new framework but confirmed last year that existing guidelines remained in place for Tokyo 2020 as qualification was underway for the Olympic Games at the time.

Budgett said the new framework would not have a sole focus on testosterone, with safety among the considerations when determining guidelines for International Federations.
Hopefully they will see the light, and still allow us to compete and not do what Rugby did.
World Rugby last year approved updated guidelines, with the governing body concluding transgender women should not play women's contact rugby.

A review deemed allowing trans women to compete in women's rugby could lead to injuries due to "physiological differences".

Some National Associations expressed opposition to the rules introduced by the governing body.

It is not just trans people in sports but also our lesbians and gay sisters and brothers who are facing discrimination.

Japan Failed to Improve LGBTQ Rights Ahead of the Olympics. Japanese Athletes Are Coming Out Anyway
Time
By Amy Gunia
July 8, 2021


Shiho Shimoyamada had just moved from Japan to Germany to play soccer professionally in 2017 when German lawmakers voted to legalize same-sex marriage. She and her teammates were on the bus home from a match, and the news brought animated conversations from LGBTQ players about how the decision would improve their lives.
[…]
Japan lags far behind its rich-world peers in LGBTQ rights. Same-sex marriage has not been legalized, there is limited legal recognition for same-sex couples and few protections against discrimination in the workplace or in public. Japanese law also requires transgender people to be surgically sterilized if they want legal recognition of their gender identity.

Many LGBTQ people in Japan hoped that the 2020 Olympics would force changes that would allow them to have a better future. Dozens of LGBTQ athletes from around the world will be competing in the Games starting July 23, including New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who will make history as the first openly transgender athlete. However, there are no publicly out LGBTQ Olympic athletes representing Japan.

We are at the crux of LGBTQ+ rights, it can go either way with the growing anti-LGBTQ+ movement around the world by the right-wing conservatives making us the scapegoats for the woes in the world.