How can sporting bodies accomodate transgender athletes?

Emma Hunter takes a look at one of sport's most controversial debates...

Emma Hunter
14th February 2023
Image: The Courier
Writing an article always makes me shiver with a mix of excitement and nerves, but I approached this one with much more anticipation than normal. This is partly because the people-pleaser in me doesn’t want to provoke anyone – something so easily done, given that a challenge to your identity (whether gender or sporting), as one of our most essential qualities, is so heart-wrenching.

As a cisgender woman in sport I have only experienced the latter, and can only imagine how horrifying it is for something as important as your gender. It’s also because I feel trans voices are largely underrepresented around this debate – in fact, female voices in general often are – and that this space should be given to a trans person over me. But the entire fact that this article prompt was unclaimed until I picked it made me think: why isn’t there more input from trans people themselves on transgender policy in sports? Considering the answers led me to approach this debate from some slightly different angles.

The lack of transgender voices could come from an unwillingness to comment, which I reckon could be due to a (possibly unconscious) fear of retribution. After all, trans people are marginalised and discriminated against in society as it is, so nobody could blame them for taking a 'head down, keep walking' attitude. Maybe then we need to create a culture where trans athletes feel comfortable expressing their opinions, such as by giving trans people more roles in sporting bodies or even, yes, allowing people to compete in the gender category that aligns with their identity. I also have a feeling, though, that despite how polemical the issue is in the media, on-the-ground trans sportspeople don’t consider this is a top priority and therefore don’t comment – in which case it could be that current policies (mostly that athletes’ hormones must be at levels considered normal for a biological female) are enough as it is and we should concentrate on issues more important to the trans community.

We need to create a culture where trans athletes feel comfortable expressing their opinions, by giving trans people roles in sporting bodies and allowing people to compete in the gender category that aligns with their identity

Another thought is that the lack of trans voices could simply be due to a lack of trans people in sport in the first place. If this is the case I think the debate should focus more on making sport accessible to the trans community. The power that physical activity has to improve your mood is incredible – I’ve experienced it may times – making it all the more important to reduce access barriers to sport for trans people, who have lower sports participation rates but higher rates of mental illness than the general population. Surely allowing trans athletes to compete in the category they identify with will help achieve this.

At a grassroots level the answer seems straightforward enough. I think it’s important for recreational athletes to take a more relaxed approach, but I recognise that at higher levels reputation and money raise the stakes considerably. It is valid to claim that having trans women compete against cis women makes the competition unfair. Even if their hormones have been at ‘acceptable’ levels for an long enough time period, the fact remains that any trans woman who transitioned after puberty will retain some physiological advantage. This is the reasoning behind separate male and female categories in the first place, and I think that the fairness they create should be preserved. There’s a reason why trans men haven’t been anywhere near as successful overall as trans women, after all.

Clearly something needs to change

Clearly something needs to change, and different organisations have suggested various options. Both sides give valid arguments, but I feel that no solution will be satisfactory to all. By giving you my backwards-and-forwards stream of thought, I hope to have taken fairness and inclusivity into account, to look at the debate from lesser-considered angles.

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