Should Transgender Athletes Compete in Sports

Introduction

In recent years, there has been growing attention and public debate over the inclusion of transgender athletes within sports. More and more transgender people, in all walks of life, are finding the courage to come out and participate as their authentic selves. In this process, there is as much a need for clarity and nuance as in the question of transgender participation in competitive athletics. Whether transgender, intersex, and/or gender nonconforming, these athletes are distinct from cisgender women and men, participating at every level and across numerous athletic disciplines.

Critics of transgender inclusion imply that these other nonbinary athletes exist only as a foil to allow transgender women to dominate the feminine field. These complex social norms – particularly those that apply to transgender men, women, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes – continue to elude most public discussions of the topic.

Both laypeople and scholars grapple with the dichotomous physiologization of sexed bodies in a seemingly neo-Darwinian age: that, for instance, a transgender woman may display superior athletic ability or that a woman without a womb is somehow less than (and perhaps even a 'fake') a woman. Biological reductionists support legislation that bars transgender women from competing against other women, while on the other side of the aisle reside other biological reductionists who would strip sex from the realm of athletics entirely. Arguments about sex and sport historically align with broader rationales for the enforcement of gender differences. These gender differences have been harnessed by both cisgender and transgender athletes alike in their claims to athletic dignity. While critics bemoan these individuals' ability to succeed within this sporting society, transgender athletes are more than mere victims of gender, sex, and the sport for which they love to compete.

Ethical and Legal Considerations

Many conversations regarding the inclusion of transgender individuals participate only in the medical aspects of transition. More abstract debates, which occur largely independently of the medical treatments an individual is undergoing, consider the legal standards that pertain to the participation of transgender athletes in competitive sports, and the appropriate balance between principles such as fairness and inclusion, competitive equity, and human rights. Ethically, the principle of fairness is cited by those who argue for excluding transgender individuals from participation, but those supporting inclusion also argue that insofar as fairness is achieved in single-sex competition that permits the use of hormones or other gender-confirming treatments, there is no strong obligation to be inclusive. Societal values and regulatory frameworks, out of which sports policies are created, interact in complex ways to create environments that are, or are not, supportive of transgender individuals participating in the sports they love.

Legal Principles and Policies Legal implications that have emerged in civil rights cases, court cases, and legal articles are inconsistent. Policies of sports organizations are similarly incongruent, such as those that allow Olympic athletes to compete in their affirmed gender following surgery and two years of hormone therapy, with others adopting policies that require much more. A court or legislative decision can mandate legal conformity regarding the right of transgender individuals to participate in sex-segregated sports and the standards that will apply. However, in practice, forcing agreement is harder to achieve because of embedded religious ideologies and established viewpoints. It must also consider the rules of multiple specific organizations and resolve the tensions between the legal standards and the professional judgment exercised by sports organizations. That professional judgment will continue to be, and should continue to be, influenced by broader societal debates. It is important to ensure that the pendulum does not swing to such an extreme that carefully implemented sports policies, which embody an ethos of fairness, inclusivity, and integrity, are dismantled in the name of a single principle.

Performance and Fairness in Competition

A range of athletic performance outcomes are related to physiological traits such as maximal oxygen consumption, muscle mass, and hemoglobin level, all of which exhibit sex-based differences. In particular, sports performance, as reflected in endurance, strength, speed, power, and agility, has been linked to testosterone concentration among women athletes and female participants who were previously girls during their postnatal development. In addition to oversight criteria such as hormone levels, rules have embraced a spectrum of sex-related physiological characteristics such as androgenized genitalia or undescended testes.

Biological variation limits the possibility of offering exact oversight demands due to the notion that athletic performance depends not just on testosterone release, but also on other metrics. In particular, the assumption presents a uniquely paradoxical oversight need when considering the matter of a 'level playing field,' about which there remains no generically accepted definition. Acknowledging the concept of competitive equity, it is worth considering how reduced cisgender representative presence confronts beliefs that diverge from the mission to efficiently combine two diverse pools of candidates, equal in terms of their caliber to compete, while neglecting the possible advantages of enhanced competitive balance. Investigations found a substantial level of dissatisfaction, worry, and opposition to the incorporation of transgender stakeholders into various sports, mainly due to equity and competitive equilibrium concerns. In contrast, transgender stakeholders demonstrated a more affirmative attitude in relation to the integration following one singular perception associated with increased participation. Collectively, studies undoubtedly reveal ambiguity on both the legal and moral aspects with contradictory findings. Regulations proscribe transgender stakeholders from participating in most competitive sports except for minimally restrictive and inclusive ones. To handle new strategic stresses, regulating bodies must develop complex oversight methods to establish just fairness criteria connected to the interests of maintaining sports' transformative powers in order to promote impartiality.

Impact on Transgender Athletes' Well-being

In June 2021, a report explored the experiences, challenges, successes, and barriers faced by transgender and gender-nonconforming high school and collegiate student-athletes competing in competitive sports. This report, based on interviews with transgender and gender-nonconforming student-athletes and former student-athletes, faculty mentors, and staff-athletes, also discussed the resources and supports many transgender competitors identified as helpful and necessary for their continued participation in competitive athletics. During this study, 85% of participants emphasized the positive impacts of sport, including developing a “sense of community and shared experience,” enhancing “mental health through physical movement and personal commitment and perseverance,” and a place for individuals to “push themselves to their limits and beyond.”

However, the report also acknowledged that sports can have a “hurtful effect on a lot of individuals who are trans,” citing “verbal harassment by spectators and competitors, messages written on materials before or during games, and more subtle messages of ‘misgendering.’” Many studies document the deleterious mental health outcomes of discrimination, stigma, and athletic-related barriers on transgender and non-binary people. Research conducted with both collegiate and high school athletes found lower psychological distress among transgender and non-binary athletes who competed at their self-identified gender, had their pronouns and names respected, and had inclusive locker room and restroom policies and practices in place, relative to those unable to compete at their self-identified gender or whose educational institutions did not have policies in place. Discrimination, lack of social support, and barriers to accessing affirming healthcare, among other factors, make lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning-identifying athletes, in general, at greater risk for poor mental health outcomes than their heterosexual and cisgender peers.

Conclusion and Recommendations

While this essay raises as many questions as it aims to answer, it is clear that creating an inclusive environment for transgender athletes is of utmost importance. Without inclusive practices to mirror evolving societal attitudes, transgender people will remain one of the most marginalized groups in society. While it is of the utmost importance to ensure fair competition for all athletes, it is clear that there are a number of interlocking social and medical factors that impact an individual's eligibility to compete. On this basis, it is pertinent to argue that national and international sports organizations should make a coordinated effort to create a working policy that can accurately balance fairness and inclusivity. At the same time, future research should continue to examine the persisting issues of sex verification and gender policing, questioning the science, assumptions, and factors that impact transgender participation. Furthermore, an improved policy should demonstrate an ongoing commitment to discussion and dialogue with transgender advocates and transgender athletes themselves in an effort to ensure inclusivity across all relevant sports. Looking to the future, a clear need for further dialogue and debate exists on this issue. In the long term, the injustices faced by transgender women in competitive sport must be addressed—a commitment to exploring these issues is the only way that fair and inclusive practice can be effectively developed. Further targeted research is required both in Australia and internationally in order to address the gaps identified in this essay to develop a policy framework that allows for the full participation of transgender athletes in sport. More than 169,000 transgender people played school sports in the U.S. in 2017, and likely millions more engage in physical activities on a regular basis. Sport is an integral facet of life and should be an option for individuals of all gender identities. In order to achieve this, more attention needs to be given to correcting misinformation and continuing grassroots-level efforts to transform harmful narratives and attitudes.

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