Feb 4, 2022 02:16 AM
South Dakota bans trans girls, women from sports teams
https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/02/04/s...rts-teams/
INTRO: Transgender women and girls in South Dakota will not be able to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender at accredited schools and colleges after the state’s GOP governor enacted a “fairness in women’s sports” law on Thursday.
Gov. Kristi Noem’s decision to sign SB 46, which quickly made its way through the statehouse at the start of the 2022 legislative session, makes South Dakota the first state this year to enact an anti-trans law, according to the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s leading LGBTQ rights groups.
It also makes South Dakota the latest Republican-led state to approve such a measure following a slew of similar initiatives nationwide last year.
SB 46 stipulates that “only female students, based on their biological sex, may participate in any team, sport, or athletic event designated as being for females, women, or girls.” The legislation defines “biological sex” as the sex listed on a student’s birth certificate that was “issued at or near the time of the student’s birth.” The bill is set to go into effect this summer.
While sex is a category that refers broadly to physiology, a person’s gender is an innate sense of identity. The factors that go into determining the sex listed on a birth certificate may include anatomy, genetics and hormones, and there is broad natural variation in each of these categories. For this reason, critics have said the language of “biological sex,” as used in this legislation, is overly simplistic and misleading.
Advocates of such measures have argued that transgender women and girls have physical advantages over cisgender women and girls in sports. But a 2017 report in the journal Sports Medicine that reviewed several related studies found “no direct or consistent research” on trans people having an athletic advantage over their cisgender peers, and critics say this legislation adds to the discrimination that trans people face, particularly trans youth... (MORE - details)
Love of nature is partially heritable, study shows (natural environment hobbies)
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/941537
RELEASE: A person’s appreciation of nature and their tendency to visit natural spaces are heritable characteristics, according to a large-scale study of UK twins led by Chia-chen Chang at the National University of Singapore, publishing February 3rd in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.
Researchers surveyed 1153 pairs of twins on the TwinsUK registry about how they experience nature, asking them to rate their familiarity with and desire to be in nature, and how frequently they visit natural spaces such as public parks and private gardens.
They found that identical (monozygotic) twins, who share almost 100% of their genes, were more similar to each other in their orientation towards nature and how frequently they visited nature compared to fraternal (dizygotic) twins, who share around 50% of their genetic material. Heritability ranged from 46% for nature orientation to 34% for frequency of garden visits, suggesting a moderate influence of genetics over how people experience nature. However, environmental factors explained more than half of the differences between individuals. People living in urban environments tended to have less nature experiences, due to for example limited access to gardens, highlighting the importance of availability in shaping nature-seeking behaviors. Heritability also declined with age, suggesting that genetics may become less influential as people age and experience a unique set of environmental conditions.
Spending time in natural spaces has been found to improve mental well-being, but different people experience and benefit from nature differently. This study provides the first evidence for a genetic component to both our predispositions towards nature and our tendency to visit natural spaces. Nature-oriented people may actively seek out nature even if it means traveling from their home, but diverse urban planning is needed to provide access to natural spaces – and the benefits they offer – for all, the authors say.
“Spending time in nature links to better health and wellbeing,” adds Chang. “A twin study shows that a person’s desire to be in nature and how often they experience it are influenced by both genes and personal experiences.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/02/04/s...rts-teams/
INTRO: Transgender women and girls in South Dakota will not be able to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender at accredited schools and colleges after the state’s GOP governor enacted a “fairness in women’s sports” law on Thursday.
Gov. Kristi Noem’s decision to sign SB 46, which quickly made its way through the statehouse at the start of the 2022 legislative session, makes South Dakota the first state this year to enact an anti-trans law, according to the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s leading LGBTQ rights groups.
It also makes South Dakota the latest Republican-led state to approve such a measure following a slew of similar initiatives nationwide last year.
SB 46 stipulates that “only female students, based on their biological sex, may participate in any team, sport, or athletic event designated as being for females, women, or girls.” The legislation defines “biological sex” as the sex listed on a student’s birth certificate that was “issued at or near the time of the student’s birth.” The bill is set to go into effect this summer.
While sex is a category that refers broadly to physiology, a person’s gender is an innate sense of identity. The factors that go into determining the sex listed on a birth certificate may include anatomy, genetics and hormones, and there is broad natural variation in each of these categories. For this reason, critics have said the language of “biological sex,” as used in this legislation, is overly simplistic and misleading.
Advocates of such measures have argued that transgender women and girls have physical advantages over cisgender women and girls in sports. But a 2017 report in the journal Sports Medicine that reviewed several related studies found “no direct or consistent research” on trans people having an athletic advantage over their cisgender peers, and critics say this legislation adds to the discrimination that trans people face, particularly trans youth... (MORE - details)
Love of nature is partially heritable, study shows (natural environment hobbies)
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/941537
RELEASE: A person’s appreciation of nature and their tendency to visit natural spaces are heritable characteristics, according to a large-scale study of UK twins led by Chia-chen Chang at the National University of Singapore, publishing February 3rd in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.
Researchers surveyed 1153 pairs of twins on the TwinsUK registry about how they experience nature, asking them to rate their familiarity with and desire to be in nature, and how frequently they visit natural spaces such as public parks and private gardens.
They found that identical (monozygotic) twins, who share almost 100% of their genes, were more similar to each other in their orientation towards nature and how frequently they visited nature compared to fraternal (dizygotic) twins, who share around 50% of their genetic material. Heritability ranged from 46% for nature orientation to 34% for frequency of garden visits, suggesting a moderate influence of genetics over how people experience nature. However, environmental factors explained more than half of the differences between individuals. People living in urban environments tended to have less nature experiences, due to for example limited access to gardens, highlighting the importance of availability in shaping nature-seeking behaviors. Heritability also declined with age, suggesting that genetics may become less influential as people age and experience a unique set of environmental conditions.
Spending time in natural spaces has been found to improve mental well-being, but different people experience and benefit from nature differently. This study provides the first evidence for a genetic component to both our predispositions towards nature and our tendency to visit natural spaces. Nature-oriented people may actively seek out nature even if it means traveling from their home, but diverse urban planning is needed to provide access to natural spaces – and the benefits they offer – for all, the authors say.
“Spending time in nature links to better health and wellbeing,” adds Chang. “A twin study shows that a person’s desire to be in nature and how often they experience it are influenced by both genes and personal experiences.”