I have almost chosen "Stop the steal" for the title of this post but at the last moment I hesitated and opted for a more tame one. Letting transgender women participate in women's competitions is stealing from the "real" females. Don't get me wrong. I have a great respect for the members of the LGBTQ community. I think that they are really courageous to affirm their difference and opt for a non-standard mode of living. Homophobic slurs make me bristle just as sexist or racist ones do. However when it comes to competitions that's where I draw the line. Men who made the transition to women should not be allowed to participate in women's competitions.
Faced with the problem, FINA, the international Aquatics federation, decided to bar transgender women from female competitions if they have experienced male puberty. In a very detailed document, which explains the rationale of the decision, FINA decided that male-to-female transgender athletes can compete as women only “provided they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 [which marks the start of physical development], or before age 12, whichever is later”. This is a groundbreaking decision coming after the one of the international Rugby federation: they have also banned transgender women from women's competitions.
As expected LGBTQ activists are fighting back calling the FINA eligibility criteria "discriminatory". To my eyes this is ludicrous and somewhat sad when such arguments come from a group called "Athlete Ally", showing that they do not care about sport and are just using it in order to support their agenda. They go as far as seeking scientists who start splitting hairs about the choice of the age of 12 years for the deadline of the transition.
FINA, in a quest for fairness, has promised to create a working group to establish an “open” category for trans women, a category that would help promoting inclusion.
Why did I talk about "stealing" at the beginning of the article? Let's see what scientific research can tell us about the differences between men and women. To put it in a nutshell: genetically male athletes are (on average) 40 % heavier, 15 % faster and 25-50 % stronger than women. B. Kay, notices, ironically, that doping confers an advantage of "just" 9-12 %.
The story of CeCe Telfer is edifying. Craig Telfer is a 400 m hurdler. Participating in the NCAA Division II competitions he was ranked 200th in 2016 and 390th in 2017. He skipped 2018 and transitioned to women's category in 2019. And, lo and behold, she won the national title. Of course the NCAA regulations concerning testosterone suppression are rather vague. And in 2021 Telfer was ruled ineligible for the US Olympic Trials since she did not meet the eligibility requirement. But it remains that CeCe Telfer had a personal best of 7.67 s over 60 m as a man and 7.63 s as a woman (which her coach explains as due to assiduous work and high motivation).
But let's come back to the testosterone suppressing measures recommended by the various governing bodies. Their effect is estimated at a mere 5 %. Of course, when a gold medal is decided at less than 1 % those 5% can prove crucial. We have seen this is the case of C. Semenya, who had trouble breaking the 2 min barrier when she (temporarily) underwent hormone therapy. But the fact is that being a man confers an enormous (and unfair) advantage. Ross Tucker, the arguments of whose I am summarising in a post of mine, is explaining that playing with testosterone levels us useless. Once androgenisation has occurred, during puberty, it is already too late. Lowering testosterone levels does not bring fairness into sport because testosterone has already done the work.
Unfortunately the IOC framework on fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination based on gender identity and sex variations, is drafted mainly from a human rights perspective, with less consideration for medical/scientific issues. In fact, the IOC plays a totally hypocrite game transferring the responsibility for gender classification to the international federations. The latter must provide evidence-based eligibility criteria while in principle allowing athletes "to compete in the category that best aligns with their self-determined gender identity". But having no gender eligibility rules, that is, allowing for self-identification would amount to a free choice to compete in any gender classification, and as a consequence women would disappear from sport.
So, where do we stand in Athletics? Curiously the majority of transgender women participate in track events. A nightmare scenario I am revisiting in my head is for a mediocre javelin thrower, one with a 60 m personal best, to transition to women's category. Throwing with the 600 gr implement she would expect performances around 70 m, an instant conversion from Mr. Nobody to World Elite. Let's hope nobody concerned reads these lines and gets the idea on how to destroy women's throwing events.
Lord Sebastian is preoccupied with the current situation, fearing that the “integrity and future of women’s sport” is at stake. He called on the IOC to introduce regulations that can be applied across every sport and insisted that “gender cannot trump biology”. In his own words:
“My responsibility is to protect the integrity of women’s sport. We take that very seriously and, if it means that we have to make adjustments to protocols going forward, we will. And I’ve always made it clear: if we ever get pushed into a corner to that point where we’re making a judgment about fairness or inclusion, I will always fall down on the side of fairness”.
And he hinted at possible changes to the WA regulations, changes that may impact also DSD athletes:
“We have always said our regulations in this area are a living document, specific to our sport and we will follow the science. We continue to study, research and contribute to the growing body of evidence that testosterone is a key determinator in performance and have scheduled a discussion on our DSD and transgender regulations with our council at the end of the year".
I have disagreed with almost all of Coe's decisions since he took the reins of World Athletics. However, were he to decide to ban transgender athletes from women's athletics, I will be in total agreement with him.
No comments:
Post a Comment