Sports: Gender-Based or Sex-Based?

Student’s Opinions Article https://www.wsj.com/articles/should-trans-women-compete-in-women-s-sports-11573602744

While listening to the News last week, I was interested to hear a story regarding the argument of allowing Transgender Women compete in Women’s Sports. I believe the reason I was so interested in this article was not because I had a strong opinion, but because it is an issue that has many complex issues. Upon researching this topic more, I found an interesting article displaying three college student’s viewpoints. All four of the opinions show different sides and present different facts. After reading and thinking critically about the issue at hand, I still do not have my mind completely made up, but I thought this issue could serve as an interesting topic that goes along with conversations we have had in class.

The main argument for why Transgender Women should not be able to compete in Women’s sports is that regardless of what gender someone identifies as, a biological born male will have more testosterone than a female. Due to this, men naturally outperform women. This creates an unfair advantage for the biological women competing in these leagues. In fact, if a women was caught artificially increasing their testosterone through drugs, they will get kicked out of most sports leagues. This argument sparked a thought about elementary school physical fitness testing. In these tests, girls had different times, weights, and expectations as boys. Looking back, I wonder if these standards were set with the idea that boys have more testosterone to outperform the girls- or with the small-minded view that boys are just more athletic than girls.

An argument that is in favor of allowing Transgender Women to compete in Women’s sports brings forward very interesting points. They start with the idea that America prides itself on the universal ideas of freedom, and excluding transgender athletes goes against the principles we stand upon. This viewpoint counteracts the testosterone opinion by saying “that may be true, but it is a small price to pay in the pursuit and maintenance of freedom and well-being”.. It can be powerful beyond measure to be accepted and by the same token, psychically damaging to be excluded because of who you are.”

To be completely honest as a high school varsity athlete, I would not believe it is fair to play against biologically born boys. On the other hand, I am not able to adequately put myself into a person who has transitioned shoes. I cannot imagine what they have gone through, and perhaps allowing them to play in Women’s sports ins a small price I could pay to make their story a little bit easier.