For Kelsey Gellner, a Seattle-based pediatric nurse, a statewide proposal to bar trans girls from sports participation feels like a violation of her duty as a medical professional. The ballot initiative includes a requirement she calls “invasive and extreme”: all students who wish to compete on girls’ teams would have to undergo genital exams.
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Gellner said a genital exam was wholly different from a sports physical, which is used to determine metrics like vision and heart health and, crucially, doesn’t require a student to remove her clothing. She added that any policy that puts girls through intrusive medical procedures “opens up a can of worms” given the horrific crimes of Larry Nassar, an ex-USA Gymnastics doctor who was convicted in 2023 of sexually abusing girls for decades.
“While I believe that a vast majority of people who enter the medical profession do it for the right reason, writing legislation that opens the door to predators is just not responsible,” Gellner said.
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This is what fascism looks like.
Repubs can’t wait to volunteer for this job.
Do the people voting for this shit understand that their kids will also be subject to this bullshit? Do they think that somehow, magically, it will only affect trans kids?
Do the people voting for this shit understand that their kids will also be subject to this bullshit?
Don’t spread these LIES. Just like banning abortion, it’s only a ban for THOSE promiscuous girls, not my darling baby girl. If she ever got into “trouble” she would get an exception.
- Nearly word for word from an in-law
So they’re stupid and insane. Got it.
If they suffered this way, why shouldn’t other people?
Conservatives are obsessed with genitals and children. It’s weird.
1 in 4 girls are sexually abused before age 18 and 1 in 6 boys. That’s a lot of pedophiles. It’s them, the right wingers, they’re the pedophiles. That’s why they don’t care about the Epstein files.
Just call them what they are. Perverts.
It’s the same word.
Children’s genitals, to be more apt.
They want to see adult genitals too. Trans bathroom laws affect cis women more than trans women.
Conservatives/fascists get off on denying autonomy to others. Women in particular.
Yep my first thought was Larry Nassar. It’s just going to reduce female participation in sports.
Aha, so this was the endgame all along. Someone gets the job of checking every underage girls genitals and when the doctors refuse to do it, it’ll be a Presidential appointed position.
Do sports physicals not require that anymore? Every year I played sports middle through high school you had to drop trow during your required annual physical. This was 90’s - 2000’s.
I realize this is specifically about treating trans people horribly, but I’m still curious for anyone who recently played school sports in the US.
Wait, what‽ seriously you had full body physicals for high school sports?
That’s how they do sports!
…in PRISON
It’s an older reference, sir, but it checks out.
Yeah, one of the many reasons I was never interested, another was our mascot.
Yeah, anyone who wanted to play had to
Holy shit that’s messed up, I didnt play competitive intramural, but I’ve never needed a dr to look me over for any particular sport I’ve done outside of school either.
The closest thing would be a hernia check for boys, which is generally considered optional. There is no corresponding check for girls. They may be asked if they are menstruating, and if it is regular. That’s about it. And none of that information would be communicated to the school. It’s just for their medical history. There is no part of the form where the doctor is required to verify the existence or nature of someone’s sex organs.
I’d also like to point out that the initiative provides no source of additional funding to cover the processing and keeping of records it will force schools to gather. Consider that girls sports already gets significantly less funding than boys sports. This will widen that gap considerably.
I entered high school in 2009. The only exam they required of athletes was a concussion baseline. I might have needed to get a note from my pedestrian.
Back in grade school, we had vision, ear, and the occasional lice exam.
America? It figures.
Should probably do hormone level testing only Edit: not that I support this in school sports, it’s just the least invasive most useful measurement
They should probably just let people play fun games.
Or that
