> - Why do I have to choose between 1. people who deny that trans people exist and 2. people who think that it isn't a problem when one inmate gets another inmate pregnant in a women's only prison?
And how often has the latter actually happened? That is part of the polarization issue: absolute nothingburgers are blown way out of proportion or outright manufactured as a "strawman" strategy. Besides, the threat for women in prison aren't fellow trans inmates, it is guards whose power is completely unchecked in prison.
> Or in sports, were womens sports, were people who were male athletes who never had a chance can transition and easily win as women?
"Easily" is not the word I'd describe. An actual transition is very risky and taxing on the body, being on 'roids or whatever is more comfortable than that from what I hear.
In any case, segregation of men and women in sports is a relatively new thing in history, dating back to around 1920-ish when the first bans for women appeared under the guise of "protecting their health / modesty". Plain and simple, men were afraid that women were just as competitive as they were, most sports are skill sports and not brute-strength sports.
Additionally, what even makes a man and a woman? Simply nailing it down to penises and vaginas doesn't cut it, there's quite a ton of different hormonal disorders that give you an XX person presenting as a man or an XY person presenting as a woman. Often enough that's only caught when they grow up to be adults and discover they're infertile because everything else "just works". And then come all the other examples in the spectrum between the poles. Where does one want to draw the line?
The more sensible thing is to rank athletes on other metrics: body weight and body fat/muscle distribution, age, or skill level like chess (mostly) does.
> - or why do I have to choose between 1. people who hate certain groups of people and 2. people who think it is OK when others arrive here and openly abuse our hospitality?
It's not OK but JFC there is no 100% foolproof system that allows for no cheating like the anti-migrant crowd tends to suggest. No matter what there will always be a certain percentage of fraud in any system.
> Why did it take years to expel an internationally wanted terrorist?
Dunno about this specific case since it lacks context, but everyone has the right to due process, including non white people.
> There certainly is a lot of room between these options.
Yeah, not to even engage in discussions with people who just want to cause pain and drama and manufacture problems. A lot of that is manufactured by Russia or other enemies anyway - turns out "think of the children" can be modernized to "think of the women", it's a perfect wedge issue since it is very hard to argue against the emotional message with facts.
[1] https://daily.jstor.org/gender-incommensurability-in-sports/