The American Psychiatric Association defines transgender as a person whose sex assigned at birth (ie the sex assigned by a physician at birth, usually based on external genitalia) does not match their gender identity (ie, one’s psychological sense of their gender). For the sake of clarity, we define a trans male as a person born female but identifies as male; trans female is a person born male but identifies as a female, and non-binary as individuals who may experience a gender identity that is neither exclusively woman nor man.
In recent years, there has been increasing attention to trans people within the sporting world as different world sporting bodies have made steps to include trans athletes in their sports based on hormone levels. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics lives in the memories of many not because it was held during a deadly global pandemic but for the first time in its history, four openly trans or non-binary athletes participated in the games. The list includes Laurel Hubbard (trans female) of New Zealand, who participated in the super-heavyweight category, Quinn (formerly Rebecca Quinn, who identifies as transgender), who played on the gold medal-winning Canadian female football team (selection to the female team was based on sex assigned at birth, not gender identity), Olympic skateboarder Alana Smith (born female, identifies as non-binary), who represented the US on the female team and BMX cyclist Chelsea Wolfe (trans female), who was a part of the US female team. This milestone was applauded as a great achievement by the LGBTQ+ community, while others hold the view that this is the beginning of the end of sports as we know it.
Greater focus is placed on trans female athletes and their impact on sports than on their trans male counterparts for two main reasons. One is that fewer trans males have expressed an interest, at least at the global level, in participating in male sports, and the second is that trans males are unable to meet the qualifying standard for male sports. Trans males are the only group of athletes allowed to legally inject testosterone as a part of their transitioning process, since they were found to still have disadvantages in height, weight and speed compared to natural-born males. Trans females, even after taking hormone suppressing agents, have been shown to have a 10-50% biological advantage over natural-born females. Even among the esteemed Olympians mentioned earlier, whether they were biologically male or female, all participated under the female category. That is, male sports were completely unaffected by the admittance of trans athletes to the Olympics.
It has been suggested that an “open” category should be created to allow trans athletes to participate competitively. Establishing an “open” category might seem easy on paper; it is hardly so in reality. World sports governing bodies would have the task of deciding whether eligibility is to be based on scientific methods such as hormone levels, anthropometric measures, such as weight or height, or purely on gender identity, such as stating that you are transgender. Decisions regarding the ability of non-binary individuals to float between, the open, female, or male categories, based on what they identify as at a particular time, have to be made and have serious implications for hormone use and/or abuse. It has to be considered whether intersex or females with disordered sexual development, such as Caster Semenya, are to be placed in this ‘open’ group since, although they are not trans, their bodies naturally produce more testosterone, giving them an advantage over other female athletes. These issues form just the tip of a very large and craggy iceberg and regardless of what governing bodies may decide to do, the suggestion of an open category has been shut down by some in the trans community. It was branded as being “discriminatory in nature” and marking them out as “different,” denying them what they believe is their true gender identity. The decision to allow trans athletes to participate in sports was not an easy one and is still being heavily debated by those who agree and those who disagree with the move. While participation in sport is not a fundamental human right but more of a privilege, it is admittedly unfair to ban a group of individuals from taking advantage of this privilege and the opportunities it affords them based solely on gender identity. We must, however, acknowledge that natural-born females are the ones who are at the greatest disadvantage. As time progresses, based on the long-term outcomes of the current rules and advances in research methods, perhaps the answer to include or not include will become clearer.
Inca Brady is a medical doctor practising in Jamaica and is a Graduate Student in the Faculty of Sport at the University of the West Indies.
