Transgender women in sports. Much noise has been made regarding this topic, and much noise will continue to be made until we are accepted by society. Yet, our detractors do have a point that must be addressed. Without puberty blockers, trans women's bodies will develop differently than cisgender women, and the jury is out on whether this gives trans women an advantage in women's sports.
An article in science.org discusses World Athletics's decision to ban transgender athletes from competing in women's sports. The reason that many give is that there is not enough information on the advantage transgenders may have due to their atypical body development. Yet, without being willing to gather that information, this becomes a "Catch-22" situation. We have no data, so we won't collect that data. AARGH! Even cisgender females such as Caster Semenya are harmed by the athletic organizations, as she has a natural, but abnormal amount of testosterone in her system. And yet, most of the science-based discussions rightfully focus on fairness in competition, and not on a person being trans or not.
However, things seem to be very different in non-elite competitions, and this is where social prejudice sets in. The "Redder" the state is, the more likely is it to have laws which hurt trans kids from participating in school sports. Like their adult counterparts, trans children are the focus of communal hatred, as I believe these laws were passed to prevent trans kids from leaving the closet. But these bans conflict with Federal Title-IX laws, which are meant to give equal opportunity to all without regard to gender. ESPN's website has an interesting article discussing how young trans athletes are getting caught in the debate on whether trans people should have the same rights as cisgender people - at least in sports.
In the end, "fairness" can never be a "one size fits all" policy. We need to know how much of an advantage being transgender gives a person before and after puberty. And we need to know where it doesn't give us an advantage. So how do we get this information without competition? Until the sports authorities are willing to collect this information, trans athletes will continue to be hurt as children and as adults.
