A June poll conducted by CBS News found that 60% of people believe that transgender-identified athletes should play on the team of their birth sex rather than the team that matches the gender that they consider themselves.
This poll further backs up a Gallup poll conducted one month earlier which found roughly the same data, with 62% wanting transgender athletes to play on teams that matched their birth sex, 34% wanting them to play on teams that matched their gender identity and 4% having no opinion. Despite this, transgender athletes continue to make headway, such as Laurel Hubbard, “the first biological male to compete in a women’s event at the Olympic Games.”
However, some states are taking a stand for the rights of biological women to have a fair chance in sporting events. According to data collected by Freedom For All Americans, 38 states have introduced at least one bill protecting girls and women’s sports. Texas, Missouri and West Virginia have led the charge, each introducing six bills. As of now, Colorado is one of the 14 states to not have yet introduced a bill.
Idaho, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Florida have passed and signed into law legislation that preserves girls and women’s sports for biological females, though LGBT activists and their allies have filed lawsuits to challenge and overturn such legislation.
Though some have claimed that transgender athletes retain no biological advantage over the women they compete against, a recent study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that this isn’t the case. Prior to beginning hormone treatments, men identifying as women “performed 31% more push-ups and 15% more sit-ups in 1 minute and ran 1.5 miles 21% faster than their female counterparts.” After two years of taking opposite-sex hormones, while the push-up and sit-up differences disappeared, the transgender participants were still 12% faster than their female counterparts.
Additionally, reducing testosterone does not break down the advantages that biological men receive to growth in skeletal bone mineral density during puberty. One study claimed that bone mineral density was preserved in male-to-female participants throughout over 12 years of hormonal treatments. A 2020 article by Sports Medicine found that “height and skeletal parameters remain unaltered in transgender women, and that sporting advantage conferred by skeletal size and bone density would be retained despite testosterone reductions.” This has implications on sports where height and limb length are particularly helpful to have, such as basketball and volleyball. The study went on to conclude that men who have gone through puberty retain superior “strength, lean body mass, muscle size and bone density” – regardless of hormone therapy.
We must stand up for the rights of biological women to compete without being afraid of having to go up against unfair advantages in the name of “inclusion.” It is not right that we should ignore the struggle and complaints of biological women as they are denied fair treatment and lose opportunities to men who claim that they are women.
Related Resources and Articles
It’s Official: First Transgender-Identified Athlete to Compete at Olympics
Female Competitor Speaks Out as Transgender Powerlifter Heads to the Olympics
New Resource for Parents: “Responding to the Transgender Issue”
Male and Female – Biology Matters
Transgender Cyclist Takes Another Title from Women – Says Competing as a Woman is a “Human Right.”
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