There’s a Revealing Flaw in the Attack on Trans Athletes

And what the transphobes don’t talk about gives the game away

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

It’s a simple question, but one that critics of trans athletes competing in a division different from their socially defined gender rarely ask. Or if they do, they fail to explore what the answer means for the position they hold.

Namely: what is it that you believe gives trans women an unfair athletic advantage over traditionally defined women in high school or college sports?

After all, that’s what they’re worried about, right?

The answer may seem obvious. But if it is, the implications apparently are not.

To those who view trans women as just biological men, they would likely reply that it is the presence of testosterone at levels well above “real women” that makes the difference: that, and differential musculoskeletal development, from bone density to limb and pelvis size to joint flexibility.

Trans women, they would argue, even if they are on hormone replacement and have suppressed their male puberty, will still have residual levels of testosterone above those for most traditionally defined women.

Not to mention, there is some research to suggest that even before puberty, T levels in those…