The athletics world is about to undergo a pivotal stage as female athletes now turn to fight for an even playing field by excluding transgender athletes from competing.
The topic of sexual identity and inclusion in sport should not be mixed up with acceptance.
These athletes are not discriminating against the transgender community and their personal choices but have just come out to highlight the implications their inclusion is having in the female sporting community and how this matter needs to be addressed.
The effect that transgender athletes are having in female sports was first highlighted when CeCe Telfer who was born and as raised as Craig Telfer went on to win the women’s 400-meter hurdles at the 2019 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships for Franklin Pierce University by close to a 2-second difference.
This is what will happen to event after event in woman’s sport if we don’t acknowledge actual biology matters in sport. Human rights/equal opportunities of success 4biological females matter, our daughters &sisters deserve that. Find better ways to be inclusive, an open category pic.twitter.com/cLiLVkB9nI
— Sharron Davies MBE (@sharrond62) February 14, 2020
Telfer had previously competed against male athletes in2016 and 2017 and came in ranking 200th and 390th respectively.
The difference in the results speaks a lot.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the “NCAA allows male athletes to compete as women if they suppress their testosterone levels for a full calendar year.”
The biological advantage of transgender athletes in female sports has made a lot of female athletes speaking out about the diminishing equal playing field that sports is meant to uphold which is the primary factor that led to a division between male sports and female sports.
Just recently 3 high school girls from Connecticut, USA filed a federal lawsuit to stop transgender athletes from competing in ‘girls track and field competitions’ as reported by People.
3 High School Runners Sue to Block Transgender Athletes from Playing Girls’ Sports https://t.co/5BNErmN4w3
— People (@people) February 13, 2020
They stated that the transgender athletes were depriving them of ‘various opportunities and championship titles’ in their various female fields due to their biological advantages saying:
“inherent and biologically dictated differences” and further adding the following…
“male athletes consistently achieve records 10-20 percent higher than comparable fit and trained women across almost all athletic events,”
“To American girls — those born with XX chromosomes — the message is, ‘Give up. You can’t win,’ ”
Good luck to them. Pitting trans women – or worse, men who identify as women – against real women in women’s sport is not fair play, it’s a total joke, and potential physically very dangerous. https://t.co/qILDQ3YXqA
— Suzanne Evans (@SuzanneEvans1) February 14, 2020
Selina Soule, a senior at Glastonbury High School who is one of the applicants in the lawsuit went on to say the following statement in a pre-taped video:
“I’m just trying to bring back fairness to my sport and trying to make sure that young girls won’t be in the same situation that I have been and feel the same pain that I have felt,”
People on social media have been calling out for sporting bodies to finally address this issue as it has taken away a lot of opportunities from female competitors in athletics.
Although in full support of the transgender community in general, this does not take away the effect their biological advantages have given them in athletics, therefore, disadvantaging many naturally born female athletes in the process.
This, if not dealt with soon will just fuel discrimination against transgenders totally having the opposite effect that inclusion was meant to have.
A high profile incident of the athletics body addressing the biological advantages that help certain athletes outperform their female counterparts was illustrated when South African Caster Semenya was banned from competing by the IAAF until undergoing testosterone-reducing treatment although she is not transgender.
This was meant to bring back an even playing field as numerous athletes had come out in protest about the Caster Semenya’s dominance in the field due to her unfair hormonal advantage.
