Via Reuters
During the 2020 Olympics, Lauren Hubbard made history by being the first openly transgender athlete to compete. However, her glory was short-lived as it sparked many controversies in the sports community. Accusations were thrown from disagreers doubting the eligibility of trans athletes and the unfair advantages they may have. Most of the controversy is about transgender women.
From a scientific perspective, the International Olympic Committee has set guidelines to make the Olympics transgender-inclusive. To qualify for the Olympics transgender women need to have undergone hormone therapy and show that their testosterone levels are below a certain cutoff point for at least 1 year before competing, but does this mean that there is no advantage for transgender women?
A study done by Dr. Timothy Roberts, which looked at the US military personnel who transitioned while in service, found that transgender women do maintain a small advantage in terms of strength and speed, even after 2 years of feminizing hormone treatments. Although the advantage is minuscule many cis-gender women have spoken about not having a fair chance to win when up against transgender women.
On the other hand, excluding transgender athletes can be detrimental to the progress we have made up to this point. Transgender women are women. Transgender Men are still men. Why should they not be allowed to participate in sports? Why should they feel excluded for something out of their control?
So I think the real question is, can there be both fairness and inclusion in sports? The current research suggests that the answer to that question is no. At this point, they do not go hand in hand, and hopefully, as research continues to come out a solution will be found, But as of right now a choice will have to be made. Is fairness more important, than inclusion?