Blog Post 2
Lucy Thompson
PS101 – Dr. Jenkins
4/7/22
Blog Post 2
In more recent times, an issue facing the female community is the integrity of female sports. The threat of male-to-female transgender athletes dominating the competition is greater now than ever before.
As our society has advanced and people have become more accepting more individuals are coming out as transgender. This was all seeming to be fine and peaceful until transgender athletes started beating biological female athletes. And they were not just beating them by a small amount, they were blowing them out of the water. One of the most well-known male-to-female transgender athletes is Lia Thomas, a swimmer for the University of Pennsylvania who has been competing against biological females. The National Review writes, “Thomas finished first in the 500-yard freestyle (beating two Olympic medalists)” (The Editors). Thomas not only just won first place, but she beat not one, but two Olympic medalists. Thomas beat the top female swimmers that the U.S. sends to compete on behalf of the entire nation. Lia Thomas has become a very frequent topic within the media almost like a symbol for this issue facing the female community, this is not to say that there are not several more examples of transgender athletes threatening female sports because there are. The issue at hand is whether or not male-to-female transgender individuals should be allowed to compete against biological females. The issue is not if transgender individuals should be allowed to compete, but if they should compete against females which they have a biological advantage over. These biological advantages are physical as in having more muscle mass capacity, longer limbs, being taller, more stamina, etc.
This issue affects the female community because it puts women at a disadvantage in their own athletic category. Male and female sports have been separated for centuries in an effort to keep the competition fair. Title IX was created in part to give women equal opportunities in athletics. The Women’s Sports Foundation explains, “Title IX gives women athletes the right to equal opportunity in sports in educational institutions that receive federal funds, from elementary schools to colleges and universities” (Women’s Sports Foundation). Title IX has thus far been very groundbreaking in the sense that it offers women equal opportunity in athletics. However, when it was passed decades ago transgender individuals were not considered because our society was not as accepting of LGBTQ+ individuals like it is today. So, where we are currently as a country and a society is trying to figure out how transgender athletes fit into Title IX while also trying to protect the biological female athletes and keeping their competition fair.
There are different perspectives regarding the issue of transgender individuals with a biological advantage against female athletes. The perspective of transgender athletes is that they believe because they identify as female, they should be allowed to compete with and against other females. This makes sense in this perspective because if someone identifies as female and has access to all the same things females have then they should be able to compete as a female. The perspective of the biological female athletes competing against transgender is that they feel as if the competition is not fair. They feel as if the transgender athletes that were born male have a physical advantage. The onlookers surrounding the issue either want the transgender athletes to be able to compete alongside biological females or they strongly oppose it. Those that strongly oppose transgender individuals competing believe that they are destroying women’s sports and that biological female athletes should be able to compete against other biological female athletes in order to keep the playing field fair. The onlookers that support transgender athletes competing against biological females believe that transgender athletes should have the right to compete in the gender category that they now identify as. There are also numerous individuals that are not sure what they believe but know that something must be done in order for Title IX to continue to be enforced and for women’s sports to be fair.
An evidence-based solution to this problem has not yet been found by our government or by our society. If I was to offer up a solution the only one that I can think of would be to amend Title IX. I would create four gender categories for sports: male, female, transgender male-to-female, and transgender female-to-male. This way there could be fair competition between all individuals. This is based on evidence that male-to-female transgenders have a biological advantage over females. Also, I think Title IX is the best route because it is an enforced law that holds substantial power. So, if the government amended it then it would still hold its power.
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