Transgender Athletes
While scientific and societal views of sex and gender identity have changed significantly in recent decades, a vexing question persists regarding athletes who transition from male to female: how to balance inclusivity, competitive fairness and safety - Gillian R. Brassil and Jeré Longman
image by: Campaign for Southern Equality
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Trans Athletes and Fairness
For almost a century now the international sporting community has grappled with the question of determining who gets to compete in the female sports category. Fifty years ago the question was answered with humiliating physical exams, but in more recent decades most international sporting federations have embraced a science focused approach.
The International Olympic Committee, for example, uses testosterone levels considerably above the female range, not gender, as the main determinant of who gets to compete in the women’s elite sport. But last October, World Rugby made international headlines when it announced a very different approach. The governing body’s new guidelines prohibit…
Resources
Lawmakers Say Trans Athlete Bans Are About Protecting Women’s Sports ...
So why are these three states targeting trans boys and men?
Should Trans Women Compete in Women's Sports?
Students debate what’s fair and what’s not.
So You Want to ‘Save Women’s Sports’?
More than 20 states are considering bills to ban transgender kids from girls’ sports. If only people really cared about female athletes.
Sport’s trans issue is here to stay. But at last, the debate is starting to change
Swimming is the latest sport to become embroiled in discord but there are some signs of courteous, informed discussion too.
The battle over trans athletes in American schools heats up
Inclusivity bumps up against fairness.
Who Should Compete in Women’s Sports? There Are ‘Two Almost Irreconcilable Positions’
Some experts say inclusion and competitive fairness conflict as leaders consider how to regulate the athletic participation of transgender women.
Why are transgender Olympians proving so controversial?
The science suggests males retain an advantage over females, no matter how they identify.
Transgender Athletes
Be it resolved, yes you can have fair Olympics with transgender athletes competing against cisgender women.
A ban by World Rugby could prove influential for transgender sports
It is the latest development in a bitter argument. On October 9th World Rugby, the global governing body for rugby union, decided to bar trans women—people who are biologically male, but identify as women—from playing in the international women’s game, on the grounds that it is unsafe.
A Level Playing Field for Transgender Athletes
To balance fairness and inclusion in elite sports, Olympic officials can look to the precedents they set when they assessed the advantages of prosthetic limbs.
A Researcher Is Trying To Settle The Transgender Athlete Debate — Using Science
The debate on whether transgender females should be allowed to play women's sports has become increasingly politicized. One transgender athlete and researcher is forging a middle ground with science.
Americans Strongly Support Trans Rights — In Some Cases
Americans strongly support trans service members being in the military — even as they say trans athletes should compete in sports according to the sex listed on their birth certificates, according to a new Gallup survey.
I’m a Trans Runner Struggling to Compete Fairly
Trans athletes are trapped in a culture war. I’m not a cheater but I may have an unfair advantage.
Letting trans women play in women’s sports is often unfair
Other sports could learn from World Rugby’s approach.
New guidelines for transgender participation unveiled by UK sports councils
The long-awaited report argues there is no magic solution which balances the inclusion of trans women in female sport while guaranteeing competitive fairness and safety. And, for the first time, it tells sports across Britain that they will have to choose which to prioritise.
Testosterone and the Transgender Athlete
Male and female may not always be clear-cut categories, but it’s hard to preserve fair competition without them.
The Battle Between Professional Sports and the Intersex Community
Where else is the divide between male and female so clearly defined than in professional sport?
The debate over transgender athletes’ rights is testing the current limits of science and the law
With both sides claiming discrimination, can existing laws and principles provide a way forward?
The science behind sex, gender, and athletic competition is still pretty shaky
Harper’s research indicated that, collectively, transgender women were running at least 10 percent slower after HT, and were no more competitive in female divisions than they had been in male ones.
This scientist is racing to discover how gender transitions alter athletic performance—including her own
Following her groundbreaking study of transgender runners, Joanna Harper now advises sporting bodies on the role of testosterone in athletics.
Trans Athletes No Longer Need Gender-Reassignment Surgery to Compete in the Olympics
Under earlier IOC guidelines, anyone who transitioned from male to female was ineligible to take part in international competition until they had undergone gender-reassignment surgery, followed by two years of hormone therapy.
Trans Girls Belong on Girls’ Sports Teams
Policies permitting transgender athletes to play on teams that match their gender identity are not new. The Olympics have had trans-inclusive policies since 2004, but a single openly transgender athlete has yet to even qualify.
Wave Of Bills To Block Trans Athletes Has No Basis In Science, Researcher Says
The often heated debates around these bills have centered on whether transgender women and girls have an unfair advantage over cisgender women — a term used for those who identify with the sex assigned to them at birth.
What Actually Happens When a Trans Athlete Transitions
Fears of trans women taking over women’s sports simply doesn’t match up with the reality of the effects that transitioning and hormone replacement therapy have on an athlete’s body.
Trans Athletes and Fairness
Be it resolved, safety and fairness preclude participation of trans athletes in high level women's sport.
Ten ethical flaws in the Caster Semenya decision on intersex in sport
This ruling is neither necessary, reasonable nor proportionate. It is simply unjust discrimination.
Hostility to elite trans athletes is having a negative impact on participation in everyday sport
Many of the trans women I’ve interviewed were worried that they possessed the competitive advantage so often cited in the media as the primary reason to exclude trans women from elite sport, only to find that it didn’t exist for them.
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