Banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports is ‘unnecessary’ and ‘restrictive’By Lisa Deaderick - June 26, 2022Last week, the international governing body for water sports, known as FINA, announced its updated policy for women’s swimming competitions, which effectively bans transgender women from competing in women’s events. This new
“gender inclusion policy” only allows swimmers who transitioned before the age of 12, or before the start of male puberty, to compete in women’s events. The argument is that there are “legacy effects” that come from the increase in testosterone levels in men and boys, allegedly giving transgender women performance advantages over cisgender women.
“FINA’s new eligibility criteria for transgender athletes and athletes with intersex variations is deeply discriminatory, harmful, (and) unscientific,” Anne Lieberman, director of policy and programs at Athlete Ally, an organization advocating for LGBTQ athletes, said in a statement.
“The eligibility criteria for the women’s category as it is laid out in the policy police the bodies of all women, and will not be enforceable without seriously violating the privacy and human rights of any athlete looking to compete in the women’s category.”While the FINA policy was informed by the work of specialist groups in athletics, science and medicine, and legal and human rights, there is another argument around the kind of science that should be considered in these kinds of policies. Joanna Harper is a medical physicist and visiting fellow for transgender athletic performance at Loughborough University in England, where she’s part of a program researching the physiology of transgender athletes. She took some time to talk about looking at the science around the performance of transgender athletes versus the science that looks at the differences between male and female athletes; her desire to begin researching this topic after beginning her own transition in 2004 and noticing the changes in her performance as a serious distance runner; and what she typically considers when advising other governing bodies, including the International Olympic Committee, on drafting similar policies. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity. )
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/columnists/story/2022-06-26/social-justice-column-medical-physicist-and-researcher-discusses-the-recent-ruling-banning-trans-women-from-elite-swimming-competitions
