There have been various debates on trans athletes [in competitive sports] here on BigCloset. Here is a Fact Check on that subject.
I do not intend to open a controversy or even a debate on the place of transgender athletes participating in various professional, so-called amateur or school-based (secondary and tertiary level) sports events or competitions. Sadly the right and far-right political actors of the host country for the upcoming Summer Olympics are imposing unilateral rule changes based on ideological backlash.
After seeing a lot of ideological hate-mongering from so-called sports journalists, the Deutsche Welle yesterday published a science based fact check that pretty much achieves a neutral presentation of the available scientific facts without presenting or promoting a bias one way or the other. You can view this 8:42 minute report at Fact check: Banning transgender athletes from women’s sports – fair or unfair?.
Please consider this blog purely as a FYI.
Comments
Well
The excuse that is used is that an MtF athlete has a decided advantage. Assuming for a moment that's true. The advantage comes from going through male puberty.
BUT they also seek to prohibit T-Blockers, insisting that those are unsafe for kids. (Decades of research and implementation prove otherwise.)
The Cool Hand Luke of Junk Science.
Your Testosterone gives you an advantage.
Fine, I'll work with my child's doctor to secure T-Blockers
NOT SO FAST!!!
I lament the eleven-year-old trans girl getting kicked off medical help!!!!!!
Love, Andrea Lena
Hypocrisy
You don't allow TG girls to compete in women's sports, but you deny TG kids the treatments that will permit them to avoid a male puberty.
And allowing blockers and hormone treatments during teenage years prevents there from being a problem. Added to that is the actual percentage of TG participation in those sports where there might be some advantage is miniscule.
The solution is medical; the problem is political.
Thanks for the link
It’s a good overall summary, but a lack of details limits its usefulness. For instance, Lia Thomas won one race, tied for fifth in another, and finished eighth in her best event. Laurel Hubbard did get to compete, but couldn’t complete her first lift and did not place. If she had matched her best performance, she still would have been a distant second. No trans athlete dominates her sport the way Katie Ledecky does.
But for detractors, a trans athlete even placing third is “unfair”.
We need more real data, which we will only get by letting more trans girls participate. But GC politicians are blocking that, especially in the U.S. and UK.
And sports are not just about who wins. 99+ % of the participants lose. But there are social and psychological benefits to being able to participate. But the detractors don’t care.
The Newsom California compromise might help, but most states will just block it. Utah just passed a law to allow a relative of a Senator to get a lighter sentence for a statutory rape of a 13 year old girl. Utah only had one trans girl competing, but they passed a law to ban her and ‘protect’ the other girls.
The comment thread was discouraging. The usual facile, question begging assertions with no real discussion. But it’s near impossible to have a useful discussion on YT.
Gillian Cairns
Trans in sport - Repost
I posted this earlier this year, but I think it bears repeating as recent history in UK and USA are proving my points:
This is a controversial subject, even among ourselves. I know that the last time it was debated here several people took issue with my position, but I probably have the highest level of sports participation here, and I can say without doubt that had I tried to compete post transition I would have benefitted from my “male” puberty and be placed higher than a “born woman” for want of a better term.
I wish that I hadn’t had that that early testosterone poisoning, but then I wish for a lot of things that I cannot have. Like a uterus and ovaries. Sometimes you just have to accept reality and move on.
To be clear, I agree that no male puberty = no problem in competition. Also, sports like equestrianism are not affected by gender / hormones / type of puberty.
However, the key point is people’s perception, and – most importantly – fairness to other women. It doesn’t matter at a recreational level of sport, but as the stakes rise – world championship, Olympic medals etc – then it DOES matter, because even if there were no actual and real benefits to testosterone there would still be the perception of “unfair”. As soon as a trans athlete starts beating “real women” for something of value then we will be resented and vilified. And, again, they would have a point in most sports. If a trans woman won an Olympic medal in most sports I would not be able to defend the rules that permitted it. Female athletes were subject to sex testing at the Olympics from 1968 – 1996, it was a mouth swab so chromosome testing I would think. Frankly, I’m surprised it stopped…
If we consider ourselves women then we should defend and support women athletes and not try to take their achievements away due to the unfortunate condition of our birth.
I gave up my sport when I transitioned. I had vague thoughts of going back later, but quickly realised that it wouldn’t be fair, and that, even if there was no advantage, that I would still never be forgiven.
Most people in the civilized western world are generally accepting and supportive of us these days. Digging in and demanding this is about the fastest way of undoing that tolerance that I can think of.
Sorry if my opinion offends anyone, but this is important and I have been there, done that and I have applied those opinions to myself and paid the price of losing my sport as part of the cost of my transition. It’s not a perfect world and, as many women learn, sometimes you really can’t have it all – no matter how much you wish things were different.
We can’t simply think about what is fair to us, and should think instead about the fairness for all women.
Nothing would ever be enough
Regardless of handicapping or weight classes the moment a transwoman wins something significant the cry of “unfair” or “cheat” would start, and with it would come the backlash.
If one of us won an Olympic or World gold medal I would weep, and it wouldn’t be tears of joy. I would be crying for the XX women who felt cheated, and for the rest of us who would pay the price. If this happened a few times then I could see XX women dropping out of competitive sport because what would be the point. And how is that fair. It’s not always just about what is fair to us, and we should consider the impact on ALL other women.
You across the pond in the USA are already paying the price as trans in sport is often the way in for our enemies. I like the USA, I’ve been several times in the past but I’ve been afraid to go back since Trump was elected, and things have only got worse since 2020 as we are an easy target for other people’s hatred.
But the principle is wrong
This 'trans is cheating' crap now extends beyond mere physical sports, even maths competitions IIRC have now been gender separated. Those poor cisgendered women just can't catch a break, right ?
God forbid we defend any positon when the opposition is wrong and it is instantly 'we are bad'. And that is the problem. Being cisgendered is not special, sorry, this would mean if a cisgendered woman took anabolic steroids on the sly when growing up then she should be banned from competing also given what you are saying. I don't see that happening anywhere.
F the human race and their irrationalities.
Principle v pragmatism
I've already said my opinion of the principles here, but even if I agreed with you on competitive physical sports I don't want to lose our fairly general acceptance and tolerance over it. I transitioned 35 years ago (I think you are similar vintage) and even in the UK I feel like the clock has turned back that far, and worse in the USA. I'd really like to spend my old age not looking over my shoulder and being harassed like I was in the 1980's and 90's.
I'm minded of a sailing poem I learned in my teens:
"Here lies the body of Johnny O'Day who died maintaining his right of way. He was right all along, but he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong"
How much are we willing to give up in the fight over a morally ambiguous and unprovable principle? No-one is going to die because they are excluded from the Olympics or other, lower level, competitions but people will die as a result of us being made into non-persons.
The last time I looked anabolic steroids and many other performance enhancing drugs will get people banned from competitive sports, Male - Female - CIS or anything else. I think the entire Russian team was banned from recent Olympics for it.
Of course I agree the maths should not be gender separated, and neither should chess and other cerebral contests.