Is it fair for female transgender athletes to compete in womens elite sport?

Today, transgender females are allowed to compete in women’s sport, but the trans athletes would have needed to have either gone through sex reassignment surgery or have taken hormone therapy for over a year. This heated debate has separated the sporting community for many years now and will for many more to come. It is widely believed that it is unfair for female transgender athletes to compete in women’s elite sport. In this article, I will be discussing firstly all the advantages that men have compared to women in sport; then, I will discuss what transgender athletes believe; next I will discuss what female cisgender athletes believe; finally, I will discuss the difference between professional female sport players to professional male sport players.

Firstly, it is scientifically proven that men are stronger, faster, and more accurate at throwing than woman. So surely, a female transgender athlete, who was born male and who has gone through male puberty, has all of those unfair advantages against their female competitors. Carole Hooven, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard, said that; “At age 15, boys beat girls in the 30- meter dash by more than four seconds on average.” This shows us that, even at the early age of fifteen, boys show huge advantages against girls their own age. Prior to puberty, boys and girls do not differ much in strength, speed or accuracy, however once boys have gone through puberty, they gain all their advantages. After going through puberty, boys “are automatically able to become taller,” says Linda Blade, a coach and president of athletics Alberta. Not only do boys become taller, but their lungs also get larger, their muscles become more developed and larger, their hand span is larger, their waist becomes slimmer, their heart becomes bigger, and their bone structure becomes longer and larger. All these characteristics are advantages for male athletes compared to female athletes. This demonstrates why female transgender athletes have an unfair advantage in women sport, because male athletes have all of these extra characteristics that allow them to become stronger, faster, and more accurate than the women against whom they are competing. Males having larger lungs means that they will not run out of breath quickly and can take in more oxygen at any given time compared to females. Males having a smaller waist means that they would be able to fit on a bike more easily compared to females. These are all unfair advantages if the female transgender athlete has gone through puberty as a male. Therefore, as men are stronger, faster, and more accurate at throwing than woman they have an unfair advantage, and if a female transgender athlete has gone through puberty, she will have the same advantages.

Racheal MacKinnon is a female transgender cyclist, who believes that female trans athletes should not be forced to take hormone therapy, which is what many sporting federations, including the International Olympic Committee, have in place. Hormone therapy is required for female transgender athletes to lower their testosterone levels to allow a fair competing field. For an average female, her testosterone levels are below 3nmol/L. The rules which many sporting federations have in place for trans athletes is to have testosterone levels below 5nmol/L. She says, “The idea that we need to protect women’s or female sport from other women and females is itself inherently discriminatory. No testosterone policy will ever work. They should respect an athletes legally recognized sex or gender.” If there is a race between a motorbike against a bike, who is most likely to win - the motorbike. It is not a fair race. Neither is a race where a female transgender athlete, who has all the power to power the huge engine, against a female, who has a smaller amount of the power and a smaller engine. Having these rules in place that transgender female athletes need to have below a certain measurement allows these biological women a chance to compete against the female trans athletes. Jillian Bearden, another female transgender cyclist, believes that trans athletes should be required to take hormone therapy. She also believes that if you want to compete with women you have to “comply with the rules.” These rules are set in place, not because sporting federations do not want female transgender athletes to compete, but to allow fairness in the sport in which they are competing. Therefore, having these rules in place allows female athletes to have a fair playing field against female transgender athletes and it limits unfair advantages that female transgender athlete hold against women.

Cisgender female athletes, who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, say they feel like they are being pushed out of their sports by trans athletes. Madison Kenyon, age 19 and a runner at Idaho State University, told ABC News, “I’ve seen them [transgender athletes] beat some of the fastest girls in this nation. We’re not here for a participation trophy. We’ve been working so hard. We’ve been making so many sacrifices, and we’re not here to participate. We want to compete, and we want to compete on a fair playing field.” Chelsea Mitchell, age 18, is also a cisgender woman who says she lost several state tracks titles after running against two trans female athletes in high school. Both girls have joined lawsuits against trans women’s participation in women’s sports. Kenyon said, “For female athletes, it’s most fair for biological women to be competing against biological women.” This demonstrates that female transgender athletes, who have that unfair advantage and are still competing in elite sports, make the field in sports unfair and can lead to girls losing championship titles, to a competitor with many unfair advantages.

It is scientifically proven there is a significant difference between professional female sporting stars and professional male sporting stars. The largest difference between professional female sports players and professional male sports players is without a doubt the power that men can generate on average compared to women. Serena Williams, a professional tennis player, said that the male tennis star Andy Murry would beat her easily in ten minutes, maybe even five to six minutes if she were to play him. Serena says, “The men are a lot faster, and they serve harder, they hit harder, it’s just a different game.” This demonstrates how much difference there is in tennis between the male and females, a difference which is reflected in other sports. Allowing a transgender female athlete to compete in a tennis tournament would more than likely mean the female trans athlete would come out on top, which is not fair to the other competitors, as they have not got all the advantages as a female transgender athlete does. Ira Hammerman, an Israeli physicist, said that “In 2019, out of about 2,500 men, almost one-third of the total number of men competing worldwide in the IAAF 100-meter event, beat the fastest women’s time. Without segregation, it is not just that men would win- women would never qualify for the competitions in the first place.” This shows us that, if female transgender athletes were competing in the 100-meter event, they would knock out the top spots, and more than likely the whole event, as they have unfair advantages in the sport. Therefore, it is scientifically proven there is a significant difference between professional female sporting stars and professional male sporting stars making it unfair for transgender women to compete.

In conclusion to this article, it is significantly unfair for female transgender athletes, who have gone through a male puberty before transitioning, to compete in women’s elite sport because of all the advantages they hold against biological female athletes.