I typically don't talk about or have much interest in any topics in the political sphere, unless those topics bleed into my areas of interest. It just so happens that over the past couple of years, that has happened quite a bit, being a lover of true crime and sports. Being someone who has played and watched sports for my entire life, one of the hottest stories in sports right now has piqued my interest. That being the ongoing debate about Lia Thomas, the trans woman swimmer who has been competing against(and dominating) women's swimming competitions. So I'm just going to throw my take on the whole situation out there, as it's something I've thought about a lot, and predicted would happen years ago.
I fully support anyone's right to live their life the way they choose to. And the freedoms to be who they are. I don't like to judge and I want equality for all human beings, regardless or race, sex, or religion. I've long been a supporter of trans rights, just like I've long been a supporter of gay rights. And I think trans women should have the right to swim and compete in swimming competitions. However, the core important value of sport and athletic competitions is fairness. Without competitive fairness, sports would cease to exist. It's why performance enhancing drugs are banned. It's why men and women's leagues are separate. It's why able-bodied athletes can't compete in the para or special Olympics or against those with disabilities. It's unfair. In sport, especially when contracts, scholarships, careers, bonuses, and more are all on the line, competing on a level playing field is absolutely vital.
Trans women have a distinct and significant advantage over biological women. Bone density, tendon strength, bone structure, size, muscle capacity, years of testosterone running through one's body. Even transitioning cannot fully eliminate these significant advantages, as studies have shown. Not that one would need studies to show this. There is no sane argument to the contrary. I've seen some people try to argue that men have no real advantages against women in sport, and that women and men's leagues are separate because "people are afraid that women will outperform men and men are too fragile to handle that possibility." If you are reading this and believe such a thing, you might as well just stop reading now. You're wasting your time and are too ideologically brainwashed to accept logic or reason, and no opinion piece of any kind on this subject is going to change your mind. You'll just be wasting your time.
Lia Thomas was a mediocre swimmer when she was competing as a male vs other male competitors. Lia ranked 462nd among male swimmers, and is now dominating the female competition as a trans woman. The world records in virtually all male physical sports dwarf the world records in the same sports of their female counterparts. The advantage in being a male or having been a male in physical athletics are, needless to say, enormous.
With all that said, I think it's pretty obvious at this point to where I stand on this issue. I don't believe trans women should be allowed to compete against biological women in athletic competitions that are counted towards money, Olympic qualifications, scholarships, contracts, or professionally. How does one show their support for the trans community and take the other side on an issue like this? To me, the answer to that question is simple. If you always stand up for what you think is fairest and makes the most logical sense, you will never betray your values as someone who strives for good. That's what I pride myself in. Looking at all the facts, and forming a well-reasoned and sensible opinion. Which is why I've thought about it enough to come up with some potential solutions or alternatives rather than callously booting trans women from sports, locking the door, and throwing away the key. I think there are ideas to make the best of a difficult and touchy situation that affects many different people. So here are some alternatives I thought of that could allow trans women the ability to swim and compete without taking away opportunities from biological women.
An "Open League" so to speak. A league where trans women can compete against against biological women, because biological women are totally okay with it or even embrace it. This would allow trans women to still be able to compete against biological women who choose to do so, but also spare biological women who wish to not compete at a disadvantage to have their own league against only other biological women.
A trans women's league. While in theory would be a good idea, I think it's a little more impractical than the former, as there simply aren't going to be enough trans women athletes to fill out the spots necessary to make these leagues sustainable. However, if there ever are enough women to make leagues like this work, or maybe the numbers of qualifiers and competitors in said leagues are adjusted to make it work, this could be a good alternative.
Trans women just compete against men. Probably would be the least popular of these three ideas. The argument against this is "If someone is a trans women and wants to be accepted as a woman, then competing against men would be an impediment to those desires." However, it shouldn't be viewed as an insult. The pinnacle of women's athletic achievement is to compete against men. It rarely happens, and when that instance does occur when a female athlete is so dominant that they have earned the right to compete against men, it should be(and is) celebrated. There is no greater praise for a woman to say she was so good at her craft, she was able to climb out of the ranks of women's athletics and compete against men. So in this case, it doesn't necessarily have to be something viewed as "disrespectful." Still, probably viewed as the least practical solution of the three.
And those are just three ideas. Smarter people than me could come up with more ideas than that which make sense and give the fairest of opportunities possible to all parties. What we can't do is allow blatant and clear unfairness to continue and affect women's sports as we know it. If this trend continues, women's sports will be forever damaged. World records unachievable by biological women will sit atop the leaderboards across all sports, demoralizing biological women who have aspirations of competing right out of the gate knowing those records can never be broken, so why even bother? Young female athletes may drift away from pursuing sports at a young age if they feel there will be competitors in their leagues that will always have an advantage over them no matter how hard and often they train. And over time, though it will start small, and more and more trans women join leagues, we'll have fewer and fewer biological women competing in sports. Tarnishing all women's records and competitive achievements they have earned throughout the decades prior. How as a society can we claim to love and respect women and equality for women, if we are willing to stain all their accomplishments? Women have nowhere else to go as it currently stands if they can't even compete in leagues if their own. It's not like they can all just jump to men's leagues and start competing. Men have the luxury of not having to worry about the trans sports issue. There is no biological advantage of a trans man competing against men. This issue only affects biological women.
Have I offered perfect solutions? Perhaps not. Though sometimes in life perfect solutions don't exist. Often in life, you can't have solutions to dilemmas that all parties are going to completely be content with. And in those situations, the best answers to those problems need not be decided by emotion or morality, but by logic and reason. The best decisions in life are often made with no emotional investment, and doing what makes the most sense when analyzing all factors. You can be both supportive of trans rights and trans people and not side with them on every issue. There is a narrative out there that if you don't fully capitulate to marginalized groups on every single societal issue, the reason is that you "hate them." I'm sorry, but if that's the way you feel, I'm here to tell you that's not how it works. It's a completely baseless and foolish argument that holds no water under the slightest amount of scrutiny. You can be a marginalized person and still be on the wrong side of an issue. Again, logic and reason decide what is right and wrong, not someone's identity or immutable characteristics. Inclusion should never supersede rationality and fairness. Not to mention, not all trans people feel that trans women should be able to compete against biological women anyway. There have been prominent members of the trans community, like Caitlyn Jenner - a former Olympic champion and a trans woman, who feel that it is unfair. What a lot of people don't understand is the trans community is not a monolith. Like any other demographic, they're a group of unique individuals with different ideas, beliefs, and opinions.
Is this a topic I'm super passionate about? No, though I do have an opinion on it and find it interesting to discuss and analyze, as there are so many layers to this debate. However, I always try to put myself into the shoes of others, and asked myself how I would feel if I had a daughter who trained hard for much of her life, only to miss out on qualifying in a particular competition because someone in the competition had biological advantages that were impossible for her to overcome based on something they can't control, like their sex. Think that is an overblown concern? Ask Reka Gyorgy, a female swimmer who missed out on the chance to make the Finals, being 17th ranked, because Lia Thomas was competing and claimed one of those spots. And as the acceptance of trans people in society continues to grow over time, as it of course should, and more trans athletes come out and join sports leagues, how many more Reka Gyorgy's are there going to be? How many women are going to miss out on scholarships and their dreams simply because they were born in a woman's body and with female anatomy?
Right now we exist in an odd place on this topic. Where per most polls, the majority of people disapprove of trans women athletes competing against biological women, but are too afraid to put their names behind it and come out and say it publicly, because they could lose their jobs, scholarships, and potentially be harassed online by angry activists. Over time, I do believe it's an inevitability that trans women athletes will be separated from biological women in athletics. The reason I feel that way? As of now, it's been largely mediocre or lower tier male athletes who transitioned to become trans women. At some point, it seems inevitable that elite world class male athletes will come out as trans and transition to become women athletes. And at that point, if someone like Lia Thomas, who was a mediocre male swimmer ranked 462nd is dominating women's swimming competitions and beating top tier swimmers; imagine someone with the physical prowess of a LeBron James or a Connor McDavid, or a Bryce Harper, or a Michael Phelps transitioning and competing in women's leagues. They would dominate to such a degree, it would make their entire leagues a complete and total laughingstock. You'd have women's teams with those players beating other women's teams by 50 points per game, every single game. You'd have trans swimmers beating the entire field in swimming by 5+ laps. Women's sports would turn into a complete and total mockery, and at that point it would be impossible for larger mainstream audiences to ignore.
As of right now, there still aren't enough trans women athletes competing for it to become much more than "the story of the week" and there wasn't been widespread competitive balance issues affecting all women's sports leagues. But that time is coming. Whether it's in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years or longer... it's coming. And when it does, we'll see how serious we are as a society in the way in which we tackle it.
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