Is that legal??

unfortunately, yes.

Cincy (of all places!) has a Drag Race every year -- it's down the block (or 2 blocks) where several gay bars are downtown. I am in awe of anyone who can sprint in heels.

we have one of those, too. It's usually held the week of Halloween. Most of the participants just use it as an excuse to show off or do outrageous costumes, but some of those bitches are cutthroat about getting to the finish line.

I just watched yesterday's TDS...if I kill Betsy McCaughey, somebody here will say I was with you, right? I promise I won't take any trophies or anything. Because I am beginning to understand those murders where they rip the tongue out and keep it, and it's not even eight o'clock here.(Of course, Olbermann will have to act horrified she's dead for a day and a half, but since that's about what her family will do also, given what she considers charm, I think he'll manage.) Bitch, you don't give a crap what happens to "seniors"(kinda hate that expression--will probably hate it lots when I am one) once you scare them about national healthcare.So, at the risk of writing the anti-Special Comment, eat shit. Oh, excuse me. Eat shit,*madam*. Much classier, don't you think?

Is that legal??

Seska, I'm a lawyer/librarian and I work for a law school. It's perfectly legal.

And, the whole faculty can just take the semester off thing annoys me to no end, too.

After the announcement went out that I'd given birth, it was interesting to me that almost every one of the female faculty members sent congratulations, even if it was only by email, unlike the male members of the faculty who were silent (but for 2).

some of those bitches are cutthroat about getting to the finish line.

I would never get in the way of a drag queen sprinting. EVER.

when it comes to certain physical endeavors (sprinting being one of them), women are not on a par, physically, with men

This is true of running in particular just because male and female hips are built so differently (since men don't have to, you know, GIVE BIRTH with theirs). Even if you match up everything else (height, weight, leg length, etc), there are basic mechanical differences in how men and women run.

(And obviously this brings up all sorts of messy issues when you consider athletes who don't fall neatly into either binary sex category, but if we as a society ever get to the point where "legal ability to be an Olympic medalist" is the most pressing issue in sex/gender discrimination, I think we'll be doing pretty well.)

There was a Spanish runner a couple years ago who ended up banned from competing in women's races because of androgen insensitivity syndrome. 'Technically' she was an XY, physically she was female (missing a uterus), and had been young enough that her 'delayed' menarche had been attributed to lean body mass and training regimen. What a horrible way to find out something like that about yourself!

Didn't they use that in an episode of House (although I think they changed it to gymnastics)?

JZ, is there no Montessori alternative that's even remotely affordable? (Presuming, of course, that you'd even be down with the Montessori style.) Here it was $3K for four months, which at least breaks down to something more reasonable.

I would never get in the way of a drag queen sprinting. EVER.

HELL, no. I'm not afraid of much, but an angry drag queen gives me pause.

if we as a society ever get to the point where "legal ability to be an Olympic medalist" is the most pressing issue in sex/gender discrimination, I think we'll be doing pretty well.

Right on.

Seska, We do ave FMLA--Family Medical Leave Act--which requies employers to let employees take 12 weeks UNPAID leave for family or medical reasons. Most employers here ue that or some use Short term disability insurance to give mothers a week or two of pay--AFTER the person exhausts ALL their paid vacation and/or sick leave. It's a crap system that means any family who can't afford any appreciable time without a paycheck to put wee babies in daycare immediately at considerable expense for the parents.

God bless the US of A. @@