News
PJ Media has an article titled, “Study: Olympic Guidelines Give Transgender Women an 'Intolerable' Advantage in Women's Sports” about the controversial topic of allowing MtFs to compete in women’s sports. There have been a number of trans women dominating women in sports such as weightlifting, volleyball, MMA, bicycling, and others. PJ Media is a conservative site that is not positive about LGBT issues. But the article is about an essay in a science journal called Journal of Medical Ethics.
PJ Media states:
The study, performed by New Zealand researchers at the University of Otago in Dunedin, acknowledges that "the inclusion of elite trans women athletes in sport is controversial." Bioethicists Taryn Knox, Lynley Anderson, and Alison Heather conclude that allowing males to compete in women's sports at the high testosterone threshold established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is unfair.
They also site a Duke law professor who does not believe trans inclusion in female sports is legally justifiable. This is what the inclusion of “gender identity” would do at the federal level in the Equality Act, which is being presented as an LGBT rights bill (it does have protections like employment discrimination but gender identity inclusion will eradicate women’s sex-based rights under laws like Title 9 and replace them with gender identity rights).
Testosterone is far from the sole reason males have an unfair advantage over females in women's sports, however. Differences between male and female development begin in the womb and continue throughout life. As Duke Law School Professor Doriane Lambelet Coleman testified if the pro-transgender Equality Act allowed biological men to compete in women's sports, "the very best women in the world would lose to literally thousands of boys and men, including thousands who would be considered second-tier."
GHQ covers some of these rights conflicts in the topic CULTURAL RIPPLE EFFECTS, PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES, & RIGHTS CONFLICTS ARISING FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY & INCREASES OF TRANS-IDENTIFIED YOUNG PEOPLE. The focus there is on children in schools. No one is arguing trans student should be kept out of sports, they are just arguing for a cultural tolerance and acceptance for trans-identified males and their gender nonconformity without denying the reality they still have a biological advantage over girls/women and should compete on male teams.
References:
Knox, T., Anderson, L.C., Heather, A. (2019). Transwomen in elite sport: scientific and ethical considerations. Journal of Medical Ethics 45 (6), 395-403. doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2018-105208
O’neal, T. (2019, July 29). Study: Olympic Guidelines Give Transgender Women an 'Intolerable' Advantage in Women's Sports. PJ Media. Retrieved from https://pjmedia.com/trending/study-olympic-guidelines-give-transgender-women-an-intolerable-advantage-in-womens-sports/
We do not have open comments on the Gender Health Query website. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in what you have to say. If you have a comment, blog post idea, or any other feedback, we would be interested if the information can be supported by science research, an informed opinion, real-world observations, or personal experiences. Please contact us.