Transgender Women in Sports

Background of the Issue

One of the most controversial issues at the moment in the field of sports is the growing tendency of male athletes to become transgenders and entering women’s competitions after all the required operations. Even though it may be seen as a perfectly fine approach to rivalry among athletes, research suggests that certain predominantly male features do not disappear after surgery, such as physical force and the overall physique.¹ Therefore, the current policy-making efforts of pro-transgender athletes and their advocates revolve around refuting the Title IX provisions that avert them from joining most of the conventional competitions. The idea that one’s genetics and reproductive biology at birth should be considered the key denominator of one’s participation in certain sports events does not appeal to transgender individuals.² At the moment, the majority of schools getting federal education funds do not choose to violate the Title IX provisions or bend their rules in any way in order to create room for transgender athletes.

Despite the overall confusion and numerous questionable decisions, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, decided to sign an executive order that would allow biological males self-identifying as females to participate in women’s sports competitions. This is a serious indication of the fact that the number of administrative actions from the Department of Education is going to reduce.³ Despite the fact that the overall goal of the policy is to blur the lines between community members, it seems to deploy more obstacles to conventional female sports where girls have to compete against former boys and do not possess any competitive advantage or at least access to the circumstances of a fair rivalry.⁴ Without any specific guidelines, the new policy becomes a damaging factor that can become a long-term source of issues for female athletes across the globe. The question of sexual and gender-based discrimination is often mentioned when discussing the need to include transgender females in conventional competitions, and there are no crucial delimitations that would protect biological women from discrimination.

Statement of the Problem

One of the ways to explain the current situation would be to look at the new policies as an attempt to deploy legislation that would reduce the number of unfair treatment scenarios. The Education Department, along with other federal agencies, will be required to determine what kind of new guidance might be necessary to prohibit discrimination while not affecting conventional athletes.⁵ The notions of gender and sexuality cannot be eradicated from this discussion because they are entrenched in the new policy deployed by the Democrats and Joe Biden. In other words, the inherent unfairness of having biological boys and girls compete against each other is what actually keeps the rivalry alive and mediates most of the unfairness that transpires in sports from time to time.⁶ This is the main reason why transgender females should not be allowed to participate in the same competitions as biological women due to the physical differences that cannot be suppressed by medication. If no actions are taken, there is a high degree of certainty that female sports are going to be destroyed by unfair competition soon.

When looking at the issue of transgender athletes from the perspective of biological women, it will be easy to understand that the only objective most of them pursue is the possibility to participate in fair competitions where they can test their abilities. The conquest to prevent transgender women from penetrating sports where only biological females reside is a rather conservative but rational effort.⁷ The need to protect the Title IX provisions basically stems from a natural willingness of female athletes to preserve their right to fair competition and avoid being included in discussions on racism, prejudice, transphobia, or any other sensitive topic. When a man identifies as a woman, it erases most of the prospects for females that are linked to sports. Even though transgender athletes do not win in 100% of competitions, the presence of unfair advantages is evident since the line between male and female sports events becomes thinner. This trend is not healthy and has to be addressed as soon as possible in order for female athletes to pursue their aspirations and expect fair competition only.

Key Issues Related to Transgender Women in Sports

The division of sports into female and male categories has been established due to mostly evident physical advantages possessed by men that the latter displayed from puberty onwards. Therefore, differences in sports performance between sexes may be described as contingent on certain bodily characteristics that cannot be altered biologically. In order to witness the difference, one could easily compare athletics world records to see that there is a substantial 12% variance between female and male results.⁸ The level of testosterone that is characteristic of males can be evidently met in transgender women since they would preserve the biological peculiarity of producing much more testosterone than a common woman. As a result, a transgender woman that altered their gender after puberty is subject to greater strength and power.⁹ Most of the competitions worldwide are set up in a way to separate the sexes and ensure that the rivalry is fair and does not jeopardize participants’ safety and health.

Accordingly, the need to establish the new definition of fair competition in the age when transgender athletes have the possibility to take part in the Olympics represents one of the puzzles that are yet to be solved. The problem is that transgender athletes could reduce the uncertainty of outcomes of competition since the presence of determining factors such as strength and power would reduce the number of opportunities for female athletes.¹⁰ Natural talent and training seem to be somewhat depreciated by the advent of transgender female athletes since they do not fall under any conventional classification, but they participate in sporting events as women. The parallel between such cases of unfairness could be drawn using an example from boxing, where a flyweight competitor would never go against a super heavyweight fighter. Therefore, conventional sporting values are challenged by the presence of transgender athletes, and the ‘faster, higher, stronger’ motto does not make as much sense nowadays because competitions are nearly rigged by an unbalanced rivalry.

The Case of Laurel Hubbard

The problem of transgender rights in sports goes beyond local competition standards. One of the reasons why female transgender athletes have gained so much attention lately is the story of a weightlifter named Laurel Hubbard, who is going to participate in the Tokyo Olympics. Despite the fact that the story serves as an inspiration for quite a few other transgender athletes, the number of questions surrounding the case is too large not to scrutinize the clash between conservative values and advocates for progressive freedoms and rights.¹¹ While participating in the women’s 87kg+ division, even if Hubbard wins the competition, she will not be too likely to succeed in terms of appealing to a larger community. The increasing amount of criticism aimed at the 43-year-old weightlifter from New Zealand cannot be ignored, especially knowing that Hubbard will become the first-ever transgender athlete to compete at a sports event as large as the Olympics.¹²

This situation also paves the way for questions regarding how the International Olympics Committee would regulate such instances of perceived unfairness in the future since it is rather unlikely that Hubbard is the first and the last transgender athlete. Despite an evident upside attained by the opponents of transgender rights, the inability to establish a fair competition for all female athletes will result in multiple protests.¹³ It should be expected that more sports organizations and bodies are going to come up with even stricter policies to regulate the participation of transgender athletes in international competitions. The overall permissiveness of the existing legislation does not reflect the interests of transgender athletes, and Hubbard’s admission to the Olympics is an unparalleled experience that will define further deployment of sports policies linked to transgenders.¹⁴ Without a doubt, her participation in the Tokyo Olympics is a milestone that is going to be celebrated by transgender supporters across the globe, but a great deal of inspiration will be mixed with condemnation and unresponsiveness.

The possible backlash that is going to affect Hubbard and her potential successes in the Olympics should not be translated into an open hatred toward the general transgender population. Instead, this new experience should be perceived as a means of collecting evidence regarding transgenders’ performance in comparison to conventional female athletes. In the case where Hubbard medals, it will become one of the key opportunities for conservatives to argue that transgender women should be either banned from such competitions or face more restrictions.¹⁵ The Covid-19 situation will serve as a mediating factor for her performance since fewer fans will be able to yell and boo Hubbard. Even though the whole scenario is rather hostile, it is not clear whether the decision to include the former male New Zealander in a women’s competition. The aggressive nature of Western media is going to focus on Hubbard in order to make more generalized conclusions about how transgender females could be perceived by larger communities.

Accordingly, the potential intrinsic advantages possessed by a transgender athlete have to be linked to strength and physiology, making Hubbard prone to criticism since she is going to compete in weightlifting. There have also been female athletes asking to exclude Hubbard from the Olympics. This shows how the growing sense of unfairness begins affecting people across the globe, especially with pro-transgender actors also contributing to the discussion on why the New Zealander’s participation in the Olympics could be a discriminating experience. The rise of transgender rights requires people and organizations to move one step at a time instead of trying to alter all of the existing policies at the same time. The complicated nature of mediating transgender athletes’ participation in serious sporting events also requires more agencies across the globe to pay more attention to human biology and what goes beyond it.

As it has been mentioned before, gender transition does not have a person alter all of their biological markers. This basically proves that the difference in performance that is characteristic of males and females is going to become even more evident when more athletes similar to Hubbard are going to join the conquest for the Olympic gold. More to say, the gender bias is going to affect biological women in a series of unexpected ways because they will be most likely to abandon professional sport having to compete against former men on an equal footing.¹⁶ As for Hubbard, her participation in the Olympics is going to become a large-scale test of approval of transgenders across conventional and sporting societies. There is no doubt about the fact that Hubbard’s situation contains even more pitfalls that are not yet visible to the public, but it does not justify her participation in the Olympics since her gender transition occurred after puberty. The advantages of allowing transgender individuals to compete on seemingly equal terms are too thin to be noticed, while the disadvantages of this kind of decision include unfairness, jeopardy, reluctance, and confusion.

Conclusion

Based on the information obtained within the framework of the current paper, it may be concluded that the changes instilled by the Democrats and Joe Biden have been aiming at achieving a certain degree of equality. Nevertheless, it may be hard to answer the question of who is going to benefit from this kind of ‘equality,’, especially in the case where just a few to no female athletes were asked to compete with transgender rivals. Instead, the current situation is rather descriptive in terms of how the new policies are keeping the essential opportunities for female athletes in the background and pushing the transgender agenda forward. The process of including transgender women in female competitions jeopardizes the safety of all participants and is most likely to lead to just one possible outcome where more male athletes are going to pick the transgender way in order to start winning. Instead of leveling the playing field, the administration seems to have stricken the situation off balance.

The concept of equality in sports is a dynamic phenomenon that cannot be stable for a long time. The decision to make attempts in the area of increasing the visibility of different minorities is understandable, but the means of achieving the alleged ‘equality’ are too brute to be considered reasonable. Currently, there is no real connection between fairness, common sense, and safety because a fair sports environment presupposes that most capabilities of participants are at least distantly equal. The inclusion of transgender athletes such as Laurel Hubbard in conventional competitions brings injustice to the field of sports and gives damage multiple careers of female athletes who would not be interested in competing against former men in the fields where physical force is a decisive factor. Political decision-making seems to have gone too far with the alleged progress that does not bring anything but hostility to the table. Female athletes might have to use every opportunity they have to protect their right to fair competition and revert the effects of the extreme agenda proposed by the Democrats.

References

1. Bianchi, A. (2017). Transgender women in sport. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 44(2), 229-242.
2. Dubon, M. E., Abbott, K., & Carl, R. L. (2018). Care of the transgender athlete. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 17(12), 410-418.
3. Fischer, M., & McClearen, J. (2020). Transgender athletes and the queer art of athletic failure. Communication & Sport, 8(2), 147-167.
4. Gray, A., Crandall, R. E., & Tongsri, J. (2018). Transgender student‐athletes and their inclusion in intercollegiate athletics. New Directions for Student Services, 2018(163), 43-53.
5. Jones, B. A., Arcelus, J., Bouman, W. P., & Haycraft, E. (2020). Authors’ reply to Richardson and Chen: Comment on “Sport and transgender people: A systematic review of the literature relating to sport participation and competitive sport policies.” Sports Medicine, 50(10), 1861-1862.
6. Kamasz, E. (2018). Transgender people and sports. Journal of Education, Health and Sport, 8(11), 572-582.
7. Kottak, C. P. (2015). Cultural anthropology: Appreciating cultural diversity. McGraw-Hill Education.
8. Richardson, A., & Chen, M. A. (2020). Comment on: “Sport and transgender people: A systematic review of the literature relating to sport participation and competitive sport policies.” Sports Medicine, 50(10), 1857-1859.
9. Sailors, P. R. (2020). Transgender and intersex athletes and the women’s category in sport. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 14(4), 419-431.

Footnotes

1. Fischer, M., & McClearen, J. (2020). Transgender athletes and the queer art of athletic failure. Communication & Sport, 8(2), 147-167.
2. Bianchi, A. (2017). Transgender women in sport. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 44(2), 229-242.
3. Kamasz, E. (2018). Transgender people and sports. Journal of Education, Health and Sport, 8(11), 572-582.
4. Sailors, P. R. (2020). Transgender and intersex athletes and the women’s category in sport. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 14(4), 419-431.
5. Fischer, M., & McClearen, J. (2020)
6. Dubon, M. E., Abbott, K., & Carl, R. L. (2018). Care of the transgender athlete. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 17(12), 410-418.
7. Kottak, C. P. (2015). Cultural anthropology: Appreciating cultural diversity. McGraw-Hill Education.
8. Gray, A., Crandall, R. E., & Tongsri, J. (2018). Transgender student‐athletes and their inclusion in intercollegiate athletics. New Directions for Student Services, 2018(163), 43-53.
9. Kamasz, E. (2018)
10. Bianchi, A. (2017)
11. Sailors, P. R. (2020)
12. Richardson, A., & Chen, M. A. (2020). Comment on: “Sport and transgender people: A systematic review of the literature relating to sport participation and competitive sport policies.” Sports Medicine, 50(10), 1857-1859.
13. Jones, B. A., Arcelus, J., Bouman, W. P., & Haycraft, E. (2020). Authors’ reply to Richardson and Chen: Comment on “Sport and transgender people: A systematic review of the literature relating to sport participation and competitive sport policies.” Sports Medicine, 50(10), 1861-1862.
14. Sailors, P. R. (2020)
15. Richardson, A., & Chen, M. A. (2020)
16. Jones, B. A., Arcelus, J., Bouman, W. P., & Haycraft, E. (2020)