Q&A: Fair Sport
Fair Sport
Question
Trump has now signed a law (or an executive order, whatever it’s called) that bans transgender participation in women’s sports. I’m in favor of it.
The question is where the line is drawn. Last year, a woman named Imane Khelif won Olympic boxing and stirred up a controversy. She has AIS syndrome (androgen insensitivity syndrome. Her chromosomes are XY and she produces testosterone in male-typical amounts, but her body develops with female characteristics and female organs, except for a uterus and ovaries). She was raised her whole life as a woman—in a Muslim country… not exactly woke…
So the question is whether now you would ban participation by anyone who, for whatever reason, produces more testosterone? If so, where would the line be? It seems illogical. One man can also produce more testosterone than his friend and therefore be stronger. And one person produces more adrenaline. (Maybe we should ban Black people from playing basketball in European leagues.) To let a scientific criterion—like chromosomal status—decide seems ridiculous to me.
Is there a way to level the playing field? Is there even a need?
What do you think about the specific case as I described it?
Answer
The question of where to draw the line challenges any attempt to make distinctions. You could ask the same thing about the very decision to have women’s sports separately. This is the sorites paradox. Sometimes one can offer a reasonable definition, but borderline cases will usually challenge it. I haven’t looked into the question of women’s sports itself, but presumably what should determine things there is sex rather than gender, since the separation is based on physical abilities.
Discussion on Answer
https://www.israelhayom.co.il/sport/other-sports/article/18095597
The question here is what defines sex: hormones or reproductive organs.
Seemingly, physical abilities are not a result of a penis or a uterus, but of testosterone.