Imperfect as they may be, the rules that govern transgender sports in track and field were products of no less than 13 years of research involving scientists from across the globe, along with countless lawsuits and hearings in front of tribunals that are still deciding the case of Semenya, now 31.īy comparison, states in the U.S. But I had no choice,” Semenya said in a recent interview with HBO about the hormone-altering drugs she took for a time in order to stay eligible for certain middle-distance events. “It’s like stabbing yourself with a knife every day. Semenya, forced to choose between either using drugs or surgery to lower her testosterone level, decided instead not to compete at the Tokyo Olympics. That conundrum, captured most poignantly by the journey of South African sprinter Caster Semenya, has been fraught with contradictions and frustration.
The group wants lawmakers to take cues from international sports, which have come up with regulations for transgender athletes. Among its proposals: Transgender females who have not taken steps to “mitigate” their testosterone advantage through “gender-affirming” hormones can participate in non-competition aspects of women’s sports, but not in actual games unless they have a “direct competitor” in the event. They want a way to include transgender athletes in mainstream sports but ensure cisgender females remain in the mix to win, insisting trans athletes have an advantage in the “participation gap” by default.ĭe Varona’s group offers a 37-page “briefing book” on the topic. De Varona, Martina Navratilova, Edwin Moses and Chris Evert have long been at the forefront for equality in women’s sports. The complexity of the debate has also placed sports icons in peculiar positions. They see us as not human and as predators.” “That’s what they see us as now, especially in the Republican Party in Iowa.
“When I was in high school, people called me a ‘monster’ because I was bigger than the other girls,” she recalled on the Trans Porter Room podcast earlier this year, not long before Iowa passed its transgender athlete ban. I just want to play, like any other kid.”Īll the anti-transgender legislation hits home for Kyla Paterson, who was able to play soccer after the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union adopted regulations for the inclusion of transgender girls in 2014. “Then, to have the legislature pass a law that singled out me and kids like me to keep us from being part of a team, that crushed me, it hurt very much. “I was really looking forward to trying out for the boys’ golf team and, if I made it, training and competing with and learning from other boys and improving my game,” Esquivel said. It was brought on behalf of Luc Esquivel, a freshman golfer who was assigned the sex of female at birth but in 2019 told his parents he identifies as male. Last fall, the American Civil Liberties Union and others filed a lawsuit against Tennessee’s ban on transgender athletes playing school sports. Consensus is nowhere in sight, and the fights are piling up. The debate essentially boils down to advocates who want to protect the space Title IX carved out for cisgender women - women whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth - and those who want transgender athletes who compete as females to enjoy the same protections as anyone else. There are myriad rules and guidelines in place across the country, state to state and sometimes sport to sport or even school to school. Other measures do the opposite, allowing gender identity to determine an athlete’s eligibility.
Yet as of May, 19 states had passed laws banning or restricting transgender participation in sports despite the general lack of a problem to address. The number of athletes within that group is much smaller a 2017 survey by Human Rights Campaign suggested fewer than 15% of all transgender boys and transgender girls play sports. There are some 15.3 million public high school students in the United States and a 2019 study by the CDC estimated 1.8% of them - about 275,000 - are transgender. Without federal legislation to set parameters for this highly technical issue - on the front line of a culture divide that also includes abortion rights, gun control and “ replacement theory,” among other topics - high school athletic associations and legislatures in no fewer than 40 states have filled the void on their own.