Trans Women Belong in Sports | Robina Nguyen
Cole Ramsey, 39, of South Linden, Ohio, holds a Transgender Pride Flag in front of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus to protest the passing of legislation against trans women playing sports in high school and college.
Disobedient editor Robina Nguyen explains why attacks on transgender athletes are attacks on science — and feminism.
On Oct. 15, 2021, an op-ed titled “Why can’t we say ‘woman’ anymore?” was published in the Toronto Star by columnist Rosie DiManno. The otherwise unremarkable article resurfaced after award-winning author Margaret Atwood shared the op-ed with her two million followers on Twitter. DiManno recycles an age-old transphobic argument: she claims that gender-neutral language in healthcare, like “person who menstruates” or “birthing mother,” is a result of “trans activism run amok” — and that the term “woman” is in danger of eradication.
Fans pointed out the hypocrisy of Atwood’s decision to align herself with the op-ed, given the thesis of her fiction. After all, The Handmaid’s Tale—Atwood’s infamous literary classic—explores the dangers of defining women by their reproductive abilities.
Using gender-specific language like “mother” or “woman” in healthcare settings harms cisgender women too — especially those who are incapable of menstruating or conceiving. “[The term] ‘birthing [person]’ is not just inclusive to trans and non-binary people, but also surrogates and those who give their babies up for adoption,” freelance journalist Katelyn Burns tweeted in response.
Time and time again, science has proven that trans rights do not come at the expense of cis women’s rights — and yet, state lawmakers and politicians have spent years pushing legislation to shut trans women out of public spaces under the pretense of protecting cisgender women. The real world consequences are stacking up, from the trans military ban to the removal of workplace and medical discrimination protections.
A few months ago, the House passed a bill that would bar MtF (male-to-female) athletes from women’s and girls’ sports. They claimed that testosterone causes physical changes, like an increase in muscle mass, that gives trans women an unfair edge.
But trans women aren’t the only women competing with heightened testosterone levels. An estimated ten percent of cis women have polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a common hormone condition for women of childbearing age that also results in elevated testosterone levels. Cis athletes with PCOS are not barred from women’s sports. On the other hand, trans girls and women on puberty suppression have almost negligible testosterone levels.
And testosterone’s effect on athletic performance isn't always positive. An analysis conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations showed that women with higher testosterone levels performed better in only 5 of the 21 events observed.
The wave of bills blocking transgender athletes has no basis in science. There is no epidemic of trans girls and women dominating female sports — but critical thinking is not a well-utilized tool in the transphobe’s toolbox.
Like cis athletes, trans women vary in athletic ability. In Connecticut, cisgender runners have tried to block trans student athlete Andraya Yearwood from participating in track. Yet the same girls complaining about cis women’s rights have “consistently performed as well as or better than transgender competitors.”
“Critical thinking is not a well-utilized tool in the transphobe’s toolbox.”
Women athletes are not monolithic. Excluding women who are trans invites gender policing that could subject any cis athlete to accusations of being “too masculine” to be a “real” woman. Elite sport policy is steeped in the long-term exclusion of women in sports, especially those whose bodies did not align with traditional standards of femininity. Many cis Black women, like Namibian sprinters Christine Mbomba and Beatrice Masilingi, are also barred from competing because of their higher natural testosterone levels.
All athletes compete at different advantages, but they’re only questioned when it suits right-wing agendas. “One high jumper could be taller and have longer legs than another, but the other could have perfect form, and then do better,” Yearwood points out. “One sprinter could have parents who spend so much money on personal training for their child, which in turn, would cause that child to run faster.”
Barring trans women from women’s sports echoes the anti-trangender bathroom hysteria in 2016, when politicians tried banning trans women from public restrooms by creating the “trans bathroom predator” myth. Thousands of TERFs villainized trans women using women’s restrooms by referring to them as a recent wave of male predators “dressing up.”
At the same time, more than 200 municipalities in 18 states across the nation have nondiscrimination laws protecting transgender people’s access to facilities consistent with their gender identity. According to ABC news, “none of those jurisdictions have seen a rise in sexual violence or other public safety issues due to nondiscrimination laws.”
Anti-trans laws were never about protecting cis women, but rather excluding trans people from yet another public space.
Equality is not a zero-sum game.
