Summary
A Senate bill to ban transgender women and girls from female sports teams failed to advance in a test vote, falling short of the 60 votes needed in a 51-45 party-line tally.
The bill sought to define Title IX protections based on reproductive biology at birth. Republicans argued it ensured fairness in women’s sports, while Democrats called it unnecessary and divisive.
Trump previously signed an executive order aligning federal policy with this view, and the NCAA changed its rules accordingly.
LGBTQ+ advocates condemned the bill as exclusionary.
Only transgender women? Why not transgender men? More evidence that at the bottom of the anti-trans debate is just plain old homophobia.
Honest answer: because trans women might have an unfair advantage due to biology/testosterone levels. Otherwise the homophobia would include trans men. Don’t get me wrong–it’s still ultimately down to transphobia, but they have an easier excuse for it with trans women.
They don’t tend to acknowledge or believe trans men exist anyway. It’s not on their radar.
its interesting though that seemingly the entire antitrans community only concentrates on MtF. Thinking back, i dont think ive ever heard an argument against FtM specifically from them.
I think it’s at least partly related to patriarchy. Same reason bisexual men and bisexual women are generally treated differently. Women are seen as much less of a “threat” to masculinity and generally more socially accepted (albeit more objectified & marginalized in different ways) in the patriarchal system. I think a lot of men use their attraction to women as “proof” to themselves that they’re not gay (and to them gay = feminine = bad), and the existence of bi men undermines their masculine foundation to an extent.
I think the underlying idea with trans people is “of course women would want to be men” whereas “a man who wants to be a woman” is disrupting the patriarchal logic of maleness being more desirable. The idea that a man could actually be a woman (and even take radical steps to affirm that) is more transgressive in a system that highly values male dominance.
The anti-trans community does have a branch devoted to hating on trans men. It just looks different and has different targets. Trans hate in this direction is often quite patriarchal. It looks at trans men as a loss of a valued resource in the form of a reproductive object. It paints them as lost and confused little girls who were led astray by peers and the confusion of existing under patriarchal oppression into taking the easy way and becoming traitors to their category. Trans hate towards Trans men has largely the same hallmarks of homophobia and the social oppression that women will regret any non-natural change to their bodies or that they will regret not having babies. Trans men are framed as “a mistake”.
The second half of transmisandry is erasure focused on refusing to acknowledge some of the biological realities of Trans men. For example that for some trans men it is still possible to become pregnant or have periods. This second half props up the first half as it erases the fact that the social category of men do get pregnant and when they do resources are often riddled with stigma, services do not support them as frequently and they are treated as less valid a parent.
I think that comes down to homophobic, heterosexual men feeling like they will be “tricked” into being attracted to a trans woman.
You don’t see that level of homophobia as much among women.