Sex and Sport

A transgender individual is someone who has a gender identity or gender expression that differs from their assigned sex they were born with. Some choose to change to the opposite sex of that they were born with. You may ask how they fit into competitive sport once they have started or completed the change? That is the question everyone is asking.

The biggest argument is that women with differences of sexual development and transgender should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports. Individuals with differences of sexual development include women who are born with genetic conditions. These conditions may give them an athletic advantage more commonly official to males.

The reason for this argument is that they claim their testosterone levels and different muscle-to-fat ratios will give them an unfair advantage over their competitors. However, excluding them from competition is also a human rights violation. So, what happens in this situation? What makes a fair competition?

There is a discussion about whether transgender women do have a physical advantage or not. Are they physically stronger and more athletic? If they did have an advantage then what category would they compete in? Would it be fitting to create them their own category? But would that be discrimination against them? However, how does this compare to other athletes who are born with physical advantages such as a competitive swimmer with long arms and flexible feet? Does that qualify as a level playing field?

The transgender community is constantly growing and is a target for discrimination. Therefore, a decision needs to be made as to what competitive category they are going to allow transgender and individuals with sexual differences to compete in. Society continues to make progress and acceptance of transgender individuals. This acceptance needs to be transferred into the competitive sporting world. All individuals should be treated equally regardless of their biological sex or the sex they wish to be. All individuals have a human right to be included and this also qualifies as competitive sport. So where do we go from here? How do we make it so it is fair competition and no one is discriminated against? This is something that largely needs to be looked into further.