There is currently a raging debate taking place regarding whether or not trans women should be allowed to participate in the women's category in sports, i.e the category that their gender identity aligns with. The people opposed to allowing this to happen, make arguments ranging from differences in bone structure to advantages granted by testosterone. In this article, I want to point out the problems in these arguments, and explain why I think allowing trans women to participate in the category they identify with is the right thing to do. To dismiss all criticism as transphobic (even if that is the real motive) would be unfair on my part, so I will attempt to disprove the criticism at its best.
The problem brought up most often is the idea that a person born with a “biologically male” body has inherent advantages to it, because of bone structure, height, hormones, etc… and that this is unfair to other women in the division because of this. There are a few problems with this.
Firstly, it is not entirely true that testosterone gives you such an absolute advantage in sports. Studies conducted on the subject have only found a positive correlation in 5 out of 21 sports. Moreover, there are also advantages to what we call the “female frame”; ie a smaller frame. A closer center of gravity can be helpful in many endurance sports, as well as in other sports like gymnastics. Athletes like Hannah Mouncey have talked about how having a big frame actually went against her in terms of agility and recovery. If your biology does give you an advantage, then it is probably roughly symmetric for all categories.
Secondly, and more importantly, there is a great amount of variation within cis men as well. The normal range for testosterone in men is 300 - 1000 ng/dL, which means that the concept of fairness EVEN WITHIN just cis men isn’t really something we see if we consider testosterone to be a panacea for athleticism. Moreover, performance in sports is affected by a myriad of factors, ranging from muscular strength to even the length of your limbs. The argument about how male and female bodies fall into entirely separate categories, with no overlap, is an argument that cannot be made without excluding cis people who are a bit too tall or short, and that would make no sense.
Thirdly, and finally, transitioning also has a very significant impact on your physiology. Rachel McKinnon is a trans athlete, who had become a spectacle of sorts a few years ago when she won the UCI Masters Track World Championship, with many calling her victory unfair. It is important to note, however, that the person who came third (who also called it unfair) had previously beat McKinnon in 10/12 matches, and that transitioning had caused her strength, speed, and agility to go down, with her power output being “dead-center average for a woman” once the procedure was over. This is one of many examples, which demonstrates the fact that post-transition athletes are effectively the same as any other cis athlete in that category, and to say otherwise requires science to be ignored almost entirely.
Finally, I want to deal with the idea that “men are going to start identifying as women and destroying women's sports". If we ignore for a minute the fact that the people saying these things are often the same ones who are fine with women being underpaid because “they aren't bringing enough money in” (i.e. they do not care about women's sports anyways), are we really suggesting there are numerous male athletes who will declare they identify as women, go through exhausting transition processes such as hormone replacement, gather the required medical and psychological proof of their fake gender dysmorphia (prolonged distress causing a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity), go through their entire lives living under the pretense of being female, all while facing prejudice that trans people face on a daily basis — only for a few gold medals and some cash?
In conclusion, sports has never been fair. There is already a huge amount of diversity in body types within sports, and certain people are born with bodies that will do better in a sport than others, for no merit of their own. The average difference between men and women is far smaller than between the weakest and strongest woman, or the shortest and tallest woman. We should not allow our misguided hatred of a very vulnerable group to come in the way of allowing people to participate in the things they care about. The Olympic charter states that the practice of sport is a human right, and it is our duty as a society to ensure everyone gets this right.