The following is adapted from remarks made by Joanna Harper and Gregory Brown on a Munk Debates podcast. Listen to the whole episode at: https://munkdebates.com/podcast/transgender-athletes.
Read Gregory Brown’s essay here.
I believe that the current IOC guidelines are appropriate to allow fair competition at the Olympics between trans women and cisgender women. The IOC first put in rules in 2004 and Tokyo 2020 will be the first time that we see trans women competing. There are likely to be only one or two trans women competing in the games, and that is a substantial under-representation by population. Trans women are not going to dominate the games, they probably won’t win any medals, and I do think that these IOC guidelines are appropriate.
What I don’t think, however, is that trans women should be allowed to compete in high level sports simply based on gender identity. The IOC guidelines require trans women to lower their testosterone, and I think that that is an appropriate requirement for trans women to compete in high level sports.
There are many good reasons why we separate men and women into different categories for high-level sport. It’s true that women cannot compete against men in most sports at a high level. However, trans women aren’t men. Even before starting hormone therapy, trans women have substantial disadvantages with regards to men. Trans women have lower grip strengths than cis-gender men even before starting hormone therapy.
Hormone therapy won’t erase the differences, but it does mitigate the advantages to the point where I think we can have meaningful competition. Hemoglobin levels, for instance, which are very important for endurance sports, will go from typical male to typical female values within four months. There is also a study that shows the advantages in the number of push-ups per minute that can be done, which is a strength-related activity, can be erased.
It’s also important to note that trans women also have disadvantages when competing against cisgender women. Their larger frames are being powered by reduced muscle mass and reduced aerobic capacity, and that can lead to physical disadvantages and things like recovery or quickness or other aspects of athleticism. And so the idea that trans women only have advantages is flawed.
I would also suggest that looking at population studies is a good way to see whether we have meaningful competition. NCAA sports in the United States is the best population to look at. Every year, over 200,000 women compete. The NCAA has allowed trans women to compete after hormone therapy for 10 years. If trans women were going to take over, we’d have seen it by now. Given that 200,000 women compete in high level sports, we should be seeing over 1,000 trans women in competition every year. There are far fewer than that.
So, overall, I would suggest that gender affirming hormone therapy does mitigate the advantages that trans women have over cis-gender women to the point where we can have meaningful competition.
