Transgender female athlete controversy heats up
Transgender women and girls competing in female sports have always stirred controversy since humans born and designated as males decided to undergo medically induced changes to become transgender females.
Sports has become the arena of controversy because sport is sex-segregated simply because of biological difference. The presumption is that male humans are stronger than female humans and therefore competitions need to be segregated in order to have “a level and fair playing field and protect women’s sports.”
The controversy and arguments for and against the participation of transgender women in a competition against cisgender — alternatively called cisexual or cis women — revolves around the competing interests and needs for inclusivity, safety, and a level playing field. Cisgender refers to persons whose gender identity matches their sex designated at birth.
Some sports allow transgender women to compete against cisgender women. While achieving the socially noble objective of inclusivity and respect for human rights regardless of sex, the move has had unpleasant and sometimes violent consequences.
Just before the Holy Week break in the Philippines, CNN reported that former (US) NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines said she was assaulted (Thursday) on the campus of the San Francisco State University (SFSU). CNN stated that Gaines was at the school to speak about her views opposing the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports, according to the event announcement. Gaines said, “I was physically assaulted by one person.”
KRON (TV) in San Francisco had a separate but similar report of the incident: “Former Division 1 college swimmer Riley Gaines said she was verbally and physically attacked following a speech she made on behalf of Save Women’s Sports at San Francisco State University. Save Women’s Sports aims to bar trans women from competing in women’s sports and instead create a new division for where trans athletes would be allowed to compete and has been labeled an anti-trans organization. ‘I was ambushed and physically hit twice by a man,’ Gaines tweeted. This is proof that women need sex-protected spaces.”
The KRON report adds that “Video posted to Twitter shows police escorting Gaines through a crowd yelling ‘Trans rights are human rights.’”
KRON quoted former Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner, now known as trans TV personality, Catlyn Jenner, as offering support to Gaines against the “radical rainbow mafia” — “Never back down. Never give up! I am praying for you” and “condemn SFSU.”
The controversy strikes at the roots of the “Sports for All” philosophy which proclaims that everyone should have the right to play the sport of his/her choice regardless of age, talent, ethnicity, color, religion, and gender. It is clear that there are other competing and conflicting interests which are just as valid.
The basic argument of those opposed to the participation of trans women in women’s sports is, as pointed out by various quarters like the highly respected World Athletics, which recently banned trans women from women’s track and field, is that trans women athletes have an unfair advantage over, and put at some physical risk, cisgender athletes due to the natural difference in human physiology even if the trans women went through a period of testosterone suppression.
Advocates of the participation of trans women athletes in women’s sports, especially in youth sports, argue that one of the objectives of sport is to promote “learning to live with others” and social cohesion at the earliest stages of a person’s life. The American Medical Association, per sources like Wikipedia, states that “legislation barring trans women from women’s sports harms the mental health of transgender people.”
Even attempts to arrive at some compromise through regulations that take into account and balance the competing interests and needs have drawn flak.
These regulations revolve around sex verification in sports to ensure fair competition and cisgender women’s safety. Some sports associations have amended their eligibility rules to address the participation of transgender women through sex verification by traditional physical examination, sex chromosomes, and sex hormones. Such eligibility rules have however been branded by trans community leaders as discriminatory against transgender and intersex women (girls who “at puberty display biological sex characteristics which are not typically male or female”).
Perhaps tracing the history of women’s involvement in sport — which was regarded as a strictly male domain up to the late 19th and early 20th century — would help. The Puritan era of the late 16th and 17th century had affected the attitude of society up to the early 20th century on the proper role of women in society. Women were denied the right of suffrage in America even though it was the model of a functioning democracy which respected individual rights. It wasn’t until 1920 however that the US allowed women the right to vote. Denied a basic human right for so long as Puritanism lingered on, women were not allowed to participate in sports which, as stated earlier, was the domain of men. A woman who played and excelled in a sport during the early 20th century was not “lady like.”
The discriminatory attitude towards sportswomen somehow lessened when certain outstanding talented women made inroads into high performance or elite sports. Olympic history shows that women were allowed to compete in the modern Olympics for the first time in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. Helen Pourtales of Switzerland became the first woman to compete in the Olympics and the first female Olympic medalist as a member of the team that won the 1- to 2-ton sailing event.
Over the years, as schools and communities offered more opportunities for women’s access to sports through scholarships and sports facilities, great women athletes in various sports emerged. Then came the participation of gay athletes who publicly revealed their preferred gender identity and demanded equal rights.
As society became more liberal and new needs and interests emerged, there developed a new phenomenon, the trans female and trans male athlete in different sports: from athletics, aquatics, and rugby to weightlifting.
The issue of trans athletes has not yet reached controversial proportions in the Philippines, but it will only be a matter of time when the situation takes a different turn. LGBTQ groups are very active in community sports like volleyball. It is not uncommon to see LGBTQ groups organize their own tournaments and sometimes practice and play against top level women’s collegiate teams whose training regimen includes being exposed to power volleyball.
If and when the trans community in the Philippines decides to be more active in promoting the rights of trans female or inter sex women athletes, you can be sure participation of trans women athletes will be as hotly debated hereabouts as it is in the Americas and Europe.
Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.
