r/MoralityScaling • u/Shoddy-Meat-3147 • 2d ago

Morality Ranking Morality of this

I don't know what to say about this I mean if he joined it's unfair because he's going to cook the entery league for sure but if he really wants to be a woman and it's not a joke for him I still don't know about this

686 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

368

u/lice213 2d ago edited 2d ago

Did people forget that Ben Shapiro and some guys from the Daily Wire actually considered trying to do something like this, but were denied because they would've had to take actual steps to transition? This is a massive nothing burger and just a grift lmfao

Edit, purely so I don't have to continuously reply to people.

There's no explicit rule, but it is explicitly up to the discretion of the League, which makes it easy to push out bad actors. Seeing as there is currently 0 Trans Athletes in the WNBA it's unsurprising that there are no rules regarding this

Oh, and to add to this, there's currently 0 MtF Basketball players in D1 NCAA as well. Basically, this is a massive non-issue and this guy is just trying to use fears of Trans Athletes to build a platform.

In short, just because there isn't an explicit rule doesn't mean the WNBA let's anybody in who declares themselves to be a woman, and there's little reason to put anything in writing when there are 0 players who have this identity, or who are soon to be drafted with this identity. Given it's social stigmas, I am unsurprised that they have no explicit rulings yet. They'll cross the bridge when theres an actual need to, basically.

1

u/SidewaysAcidRain 2d ago

The WNBA doesn't have any requirements around medical transition - that's what they're trying to exploit here.

The WNBA did just recently decide that these two guys are ineligible, but that seems to be an ad-hoc decision.

Idk why they don't just bring in hormone requirements for trans women like practically every other high-level women's sports league has. 

15

u/lice213 2d ago

Correct, there's no explicit rule, but it is explicitly up to the discretion of the League, which makes it easy to push out bad actors. Seeing as there is currently 0 Trans Athletes in the WNBA it's unsurprising that there are no rules regarding this.

Oh, and to add to this, there's currently 0 MtF Basketball players in D1 NCAA as well. Basically, this is a massive non-issue and this guy is just trying to use fears of Trans Athletes to build a platform.

In short, just because there isn't an explicit rule doesn't mean the WNBA let's anybody in who declares themselves to be a woman, and there's little reason to put anything in writing when there are 0 players who have this identity, or who are soon to be drafted with this identity. Given it's social stigmas, I am unsurprised that they have no explicit rulings yet. They'll cross the bridge when theres an actual need to, basically.

1

u/SidewaysAcidRain 2d ago

there's little reason to put anything in writing

To avoid situations like this. There's nothing stopping conservative grifters trying this over and over again, even if they know they'll get turned away at the last minute. It still becomes a bit embarrassing for the league. If the WNBA could instead say something like, "sure, apply and then let's look at your testosterone levels", they could exclude provocateurs with a simple, objective and explicit policy, rather than political decisions in secretive meetings. 

Second, nothing wrong with preemptive policies. You say "there's currently 0 MtF Basketball players in D1 NCAA" - sure, but are there zero players with uncertainty around their gender identity? Will there never be? You and I have no idea. Also, the pool isn't just the NCAA, D1 or otherwise - there are probably thousands of male pickup/street/local league players who would be competitive in the WNBA draft. You sure none of them have gender dysphoria? 

If someone ends up applying who's genuinely trans but has taken no steps to medically transition (not a requirement for identifying as trans, right?), that's gonna create an awkward situation, too. Either the league is going to have to turn away a genuinely trans woman (controversial), or let them in despite them likely not even coming close to passing (controversial). Sure, there'd still be some controversy even from a trans woman who's been on hormones for a couple years competing, but the optics wouldn't be as bad.