Welcome to Trans Tuesday! This topic is such a non-issue scientifically, but it’s been used as a bludgeon against trans people (especially trans women), and a wedge to hold the door open to legalizing discrimination, so let’s talk: TRANS PEOPLE IN SPORTS 1: ORIGINS AND “ADVANTAGES”!
The entire “issue” of trans people in sports is so cut and dry to me. But this isn’t about me, it’s about everyone reading and education and, well… it seems so many people just don’t know.
This essay is never going to convince the bigots. But there are people who, without realizing, have bought into all the propaganda around trans people in sports. I’ve even had otherwise entirely supportive cis people say directly to me that “trans people deserve equal rights, but I don’t know about sports…”, not even realizing what that really advocates for is unequal rights.
You’ve undoubtedly seen tons of news stories on the topic, because Republicans won’t stop crowing about it. I’d like to point out that you only ever see discussion of trans women in women’s sports, despite the fact that you have never and will never see them support women’s sports at any other time. That alone should tell you something doesn’t smell right.
And none of them ever mention trans men playing in men’s sports. Why?
We’ll get there.
This has been brewing for a while. Here’s one of the earlier warning signs, from 2022.
I’d like to quote a few key parts of it, like this:
…only permits swimmers who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women’s events.
You’ll see why I pulled this specific quote out in a few minutes.
‘It’s what the scientists are saying, that if you transition after the start of puberty, you have an advantage, which is unfair,’ James Pearce, who is the spokesperson for FINA president Husain Al-Musallam, told The Associated Press.
That is literally not what scientists are saying at all, but you’ll also see why I pulled this section out soon. Because it’s not unfair at all, you disingenuous bigots. This is all such bullshit and it makes me so incredibly mad.
It’s garbage on multiple levels. And once you’ve read what’s to come this week and next… I honestly don’t see how anyone could have an issue with it. Well, there’s one reason. We’ll get there, too.
The biggest complaint is that trans women would have an “unfair advantage” in competing with cis women, because many of us went through the wrong puberty and thus may (may!) have higher muscle density, be taller, etc.
So there’s two main reasons this is absolutely untrue. The first of which is if you do an ounce of digging, the people who don’t want trans people competing are the same people taking away access to puberty blockers for kids and teens.
Puberty blockers are safe, make no permanent changes, and have been used for cis kids with precocious puberty (when puberty starts too early or moves more quickly than it should) for decades. And in many cases, for trans kids, they’re life-saving. I talked about that in depth in TRANS KIDS AND THE INTAKE EXAM.
Now if the assertion is that going through male puberty gives trans women an unfair advantage (again, it doesn’t, that’s a bullshit argument, but let’s meet the argument where it is)…
Wouldn’t you want trans kids to have access to care early on that would block said puberty? The kids certainly would! Going through the wrong puberty is legitimately horrific for most of us. See GENDER DYSPHORIA for more.
Those kids on blockers could then eventually go on to HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY and their bodies would develop like a cis person’s of their gender, thus eliminating the so-called “advantage” of going through male puberty.
And yet that doesn’t happen. At all. Just like people yelling the loudest about being anti-abortion weirdly don’t have any interest in increasing access to birth control and sex education, which reduce the number of abortions. Huh.
Almost like they’re hypocrites who don’t actually care about these issues at all, they just want to control people’s bodies… 🤔
If they were truly only concerned about trans women who’d gone through male puberty, they’d be the loudest advocate for life-saving care and puberty blockers for trans kids. But they’re not, are they? Does that strike you as odd? It’s so convenient for them!
In an ideal world, every trans kid would be in a supportive, loving home and would have access to the care they need. But of course we don’t live in that world, do we? And even if we did, some people still won’t discover they’re trans until adulthood. That’s how it goes.
Everyone is different, we all figure it out in different ways and at different times. So what of we who transition as adults? What of trans women like me who went through the wrong puberty and thus have those “advantages” that make competing with cis women “unfair”?
Well! A lot of those “advantages” disappear once you go on HRT. For trans women who go on it, testosterone is lowered and/or blocked and estrogen is introduced. Guess what one of the biggest effects of that is?
LOSS OF MUSCLE MASS. Not two years into HRT I struggled to open jars of jelly for my PB&J that previously never gave me issues. I work out and do strength training a lot, see TRANS BODY HACKING and my ONE YEAR, TWO YEARS, THREE YEARS, FOUR YEARS, and FIVE YEARS OUT AND ON HRT check-ins to track my progress with it. And I have to work twice as hard to maintain the same strength level as I had before going on HRT.
And that only goes for strength training! WIth cardio, I am so much slower and more easily winded than I ever was before. And there’s nothing I can do about it! I’m not trying or pushing any less than before. I just cannot do it like I used to.
One of the best analogies I’ve seen for trans women who go on HRT after going through the wrong puberty (and I paraphrase) is that it’s like putting a two-door hatchback engine in a semi truck. We’ve got these bigger, heavier, wider, taller bodies, and an itty-bitty engine that has to power it all.
Even so, I’m still pretty buff, and I’m still 6’ ½” (don’t take that half away from me, let me cling to my tall person ledge as long as I can). Guess what the average height of the cis women in the WNBA is? Six. Damned. Feet.
Cis women can be tall! They can also be buff. I mean have you watched the Olympics, oh… ever? Let me remind you of (cis!) lady weightlifters. (I’m swooning over their biceps. You will be too, if you know what’s good for you.)
How many short men and women play in the NBA and WNBA? What happens to short people who LOVE basketball and playing professionally is their dream? Don’t tall cis people have an “unfair” advantage just because they’re tall? Doesn’t the new tallest college basketball player, at a whopping 7’9”, have an unfair advantage in the game? Doesn’t he?! 🤔🤔
What about someone who loves football and wants to be a lineman, but isn’t a 300+ pound tank of a person? What if someone is a 300+ pound tank of a person but wants to be a wide receiver?
Don’t people whose bodies just happen to be best built for those positions have an “unfair” advantage? And yet where are the multitude of voices decrying the way that all of professional sports works? Where?
My favorite example is Michael Phelps, one of the most dominant swimmers of all time. In his prime he was nearly unbeatable. Do you know why that is? His body produces half the lactic acid as an average person.
Lactic acid is what makes your muscles tired. By producing less, he can swim longer and faster without tiring as much. Yet absolutely no one ever said he should not be allowed to compete with other cis men because his genetics gave him an unfair advantage.
Where was the “fairness” outrage? The article after article of hand-wringing, concern-trolling, “but but but the genetic advantages are unfair” whining? Where the hell are they?!
Oh, and it’s not just the lactic acid. His entire body just grew to be the perfect swimming machine.
And still no one said… wait, my body can’t do what his body does, he shouldn’t be allowed to compete with the rest of the men who aren’t like that!
IT’S ALMOST AS IF THOSE WHO ARE GENETICALLY PREDISPOSED TO BE GOOD AT A SPORT ARE THE PEOPLE WHO EXCEL AT SAID SPORT AND CAN COMPETE AT AN ELITE LEVEL, AND THAT’S LITERALLY HOW ALL OF PRO SPORTS OPERAAAAAATES??
Yes, you have to put in the work and the training and the effort, but all of that will still only get you to a certain point. You can be an astonishingly good basketball player and be 5’ tall, and even then you’d have a hell of a time making it into the NBA.
The entire “unfair advantage” argument holds absolutely zero water even if trans women did have an unfair advantage. And even if we did, it’s certainly not more than any other cis women genetically predisposed for a sport may have.
Some cis women have elevated levels of testosterone naturally, just because we’re all different and our bodies are amazing and unique and strange. Should they not be allowed to compete now?
If you think that’s not happening, that even cis women are being told they have to change their hormones just because their body produces more of one of them through no fault of their own, Caster Semenya would like to have a word with you. (and yes, the “trans women can’t compete with cis women” nonsense is one hundred percent weaponized and used to police Black women’s and POC women’s bodies even more).
When we tell you that transphobia and gender essentialism hurts cis people too, we mean it. That’s not why you should care, of course, trans people deserve equal rights because we’re people. But when you crack open this door, cis people get hurt too.
Why not do a test anyway? I mean that’s bigoted, but if you gotta ask… the Olympics decided to do chromosomal tests in 1996 and y’know what they found? Eight cis women had a Y chromosome! You don’t even know what your chromosomes are if you haven’t had them tested. You could be some variety of intersex and not even know it for your entire life.
Also, uh, you’re not gonna believe this, but policing trans people in sports? The nazis are the ones who started it!
And if you agree with nazis about anything, that should immediately make you reconsider that stance, don’t you think?
As a reminder, trans people were some of the first targets in Nazi Germany, and the Allies left trans people in the concentration camps when they liberated everyone else. See TRANS HISTORY 1 to learn how even the good guys aren’t so good to trans people, and how the erasure of things exactly like that are part of the problem.
And for even more on the long history of bullshit sex testing in sports, check out the Tested podcast, by NPR.
But what about cis ladies who have broad shoulders or strong jawlines? Who don’t shave their legs? Where the hell do you draw the line? Who gets to do the policing? If you want to say “no uterus, no women’s sports,” then what about cis ladies who’ve had hysterectomies?
What about the assholes who claim trans people are transitioning just to compete as a different gender to maybe have a chance at that “unfair advantage”. The unmitigated gall it takes to even think that…
You’re saying someone would upend their lives, live in a society where many people hate you for existing, where medical care can be difficult or impossible to find (see the 2022 US TRANS SURVEY REPORT, part 3), and you face discrimination at every turn… just to maybe win some sports against cis women?
GET. THE. ENTIRE. FUCK. OUT. OF. HERE. YOU. GAS. STATION. HOT. DOGS.
You’re saying you know more than we do about who we really are. You’re saying you don’t see us as women. You’re saying you know more than our doctors and therapists and professionals trained in this, who affirm we are who we say we are.
Do you remember what I had to go through to “prove” I’m transgender (go back to the TRANS KIDS AND THE INTAKE EXAM essay)? And people are doing this en masse to trained professionals? To cheat? At sports??
In fact, in fact (oh this is so pointedly delicious)…
A whole gaggle of conservative bigots made a movie about men who pretend to be trans women just to win at sports. It’s called Lady Ballers (look they’re not clever people). It’s a work of fiction.
BUT GET THIS:
It’s a work of fiction only because they wanted it to be a documentary, BUT COULD NOT FIND ANY MEN WILLING TO GO ON HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY JUST TO WIN AT A FUCKING SPORT.
The premise of Lady Ballers originated as a potential documentary in which men would pretend to be transgender and attempt to integrate women’s sports, but The Daily Wire changed the concept to a fictional comedy after failing to find any men who would agree to undergo the necessary requirements for trans women to participate on women’s teams.
Am I saying nobody would ever cheat? Of course not. But doping has been an issue in sports since sports have existed. Yet nobody said cis men and women should be banned from sports because some of them abuse steroids. So weird! Lance Armstrong famously cheated his way through his entire career, obviously cis men should no longer be allowed to compete. At anything. I guess.
I am exasperated.
People say if trans women are allowed to compete with cis women, we’d be dominant in everything and cis women would never have a shot. So… where did that happen, that it made all these bans necessary? Where are the trans women dominating sports?
We’re gonna get into that, and see what the science on trans people in sports actually says, when we wrap this up next week.
Do not miss it.
Tilly Bridges, end transmission.
tillysbridges@gmail.com