海角大神

In sports, what鈥檚 fair for transgender athletes and their competitors?

At a recent Ivy League swim meet, spectators were split over which side of the pool to look at.聽

At one end, several women jackknifed their bodies in flip turns for the final lap of the 500-meter freestyle. Their furious kicks churned the water and left white vapor trails in the sky-blue pool. On the other end, a swimmer named Lia Thomas had already finished and broken the Harvard pool record. In the 7.5 seconds it took for the second-place swimmer to arrive, Ms. Thomas adjusted her swimming cap, took off her goggles, and took in the scene around her. In an online video of the race, which has been viewed over 5 million times, a visible banner near Ms. Thomas鈥檚 lane bears the slogan 鈥�8 Against Hate.鈥澛�

The sign, meant to oppose hatred of any kind by the eight Ivy League Universities, is a form of support for Ms. Thomas, a transgender woman. She鈥檚 made a splash not just in her sport but in the tempestuous culture wars.聽The fifth-year senior at the University of Pennsylvania has tallied record-setting wins in her first season competing in the women鈥檚 category. In a new and rare interview, Ms. Thomas told Sports Illustrated, 鈥淚 want to swim and compete as who I am.鈥�

A number of people believe that Ms. Thomas should not be eligible to swim in the women鈥檚 category at this week鈥檚 NCAA Division I championships in Atlanta. They claim that she has an outsize advantage 鈥� not just in her considerable height, but also in physical strength having gone through male puberty. Others hail the athlete as a trailblazer for LGBTQ rights. They believe that Ms. Thomas, as a transgender woman, should be allowed to swim in the women鈥檚 category. The high-stakes controversy 鈥� affecting women鈥檚 sports, Title IX, and even the Olympics 鈥� has spawned strident op-eds and social media posts by those who support and oppose Ms. Thomas鈥� participation.

It鈥檚 a sensitive subject that many people are afraid to discuss publicly. But a good-faith debate is also underway. Sports figures, researchers, and observers are offering competing visions of how to preserve fair competition while also facilitating maximum inclusion within those parameters. Their conversations may ultimately influence how the public and sporting bodies think about these issues.聽

鈥淭here鈥檚 a really good debate going on among intellectuals with integrity, about whether we should be trying to balance fairness and inclusion or continuing to center fairness and allowing as much of inclusion as possible within that structure,鈥澛爏ays Doriane Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School who studies how evolving definitions of sex affect institutions such as sports.

A swimmer and a divided country

Those debates are taking place at a time when trans issues have become a prominent front in politics. In Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to sign a bill into law that would, among other things, prohibit classroom instruction, especially in younger grades, 鈥渁bout sexual orientation or gender identity.鈥� Legislators in Idaho are moving forward with a bill that would make it a felony for parents to help with gender-affirming health care 鈥� like hormone therapy 鈥� or to take their children to another state for medical procedures related to gender transitioning.聽In Texas, a new directive to investigate parents for child abuse who help their transgender children transition was last week by a judge. Last month, South Dakota banned transgender girls and women from participating on female teams in school and college sports. It joins a growing number of states barring trans young people from school sports.

Ms. Thomas has become a proxy in these battles.聽

鈥淚 just want to show trans kids and younger trans athletes that they鈥檙e not alone,鈥� the economics major聽. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have to choose between who they are and the sport they love.鈥�

Ms. Thomas, who is from Austin, Texas, started swimming at age 5 and swam competitively in high school.聽Some believe that this week she could break college records set by Olympic icons Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin.

Sports Illustrated says that 鈥渢he most controversial athlete in America鈥� has become a 鈥渞ight-wing obsession.鈥� Yet the controversy over Ms. Thomas doesn鈥檛 neatly fit into a right-versus-left culture war, says Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of Outsports, a publication that focuses on LGBTQ issues and competitors in sports.聽

鈥淧eople who think that trans women should be treated as women in employment, in housing, in education, on their driver鈥檚 license, can all agree on that and supporting her 鈥� and, at the same time, say she doesn鈥檛 belong in women鈥檚 sports,鈥� says Mr. Zeigler.

He has observed that many people in the LGBTQ community 鈥� including some who are transgender 鈥� do not believe Ms. Thomas should be competing in the women鈥檚 category.

Last year, a Gallup poll that 62% of respondents believe that athletes in competitive sports should 鈥減lay on teams that match birth gender.鈥� Among Republicans, 83% agree with that statement, among Democrats, 41% agree, and among independents, 62% agree.

In the media and on social media, debates about Ms. Thomas often get nasty. In response, Lucas Draper, a transgender male athlete on the swimming and diving team at Oberlin college, penned a聽 in Swimming World Magazine. He called for civility and human decency in conversations about the athlete.

鈥淣o matter what your stance is on whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete, it takes no real effort to at least identify them properly,鈥� says Mr. Draper in a Zoom interview. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think that it was fair that people were targeting Lia because she鈥檚 following the [NCAA] rules as they were set out.鈥�

Requirements to swim

In elite sports, the rules governing transgender athletes are in flux at an international and national level. Various sports bodies have traditionally tested the testosterone levels in transgender athletes. (Similarly, many professional sports prohibit the use of anabolic steroids, which is a synthetic testosterone that boosts muscle mass and strength.)聽

The NCAA has historically required that transgender women undergo at least 12 months of testosterone suppression prior to competing in the women鈥檚 category. A longtime competitive swimmer, Ms. Thomas began hormone replacement therapy in 2019, two years prior to entering the women鈥檚 category, which met the NCAA鈥檚 requirements.

In January the NCAA announced it would leave requirements for transgender athletes to the national governing body of each sport.聽USA Swimming responded by setting new rules. It required a threshold of testosterone tests as well as a requirement that transgender athletes submit evidence to a panel that they do not possess an unfair biological advantage over non-transgender competitors. The NCAA subsequently decided that changing its rules midseason was unfair, which will make Ms. Thomas eligible to compete in this week鈥檚 tournament.聽

鈥淭here is a minority of extremely loud, extremely influential people who are pushing for no transition requirements,鈥� says Mr. Zeigler. 鈥淭hose people have a lot of influence in the NCAA.鈥澛犅�

The NCAA did not respond to requests for comment.

The International Olympic Committee recently indicated that it is going to scrap its testosterone test requirement. That may be a boon for Ms. Thomas, who says that she鈥檚 aiming to qualify for the Olympics.聽

Those who oppose limiting the participation of transgender athletes contend that it鈥檚 not clearly established that testosterone confers an advantage for transgender athletes. Others in the academic community strenuously disagree, pointing to numerous primary research studies on muscle strength and muscle mass.聽

Joanna Harper, a Ph.D. student and researcher at the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University in the U.K., sits somewhere in the middle of those two views. Her first-ever case study? Herself. When she started her hormone therapy treatment in 2004, she began logging the rapid decline in her performance times as a competitive long-distance runner. Similarly, since Ms. Thomas started hormone therapy in May 2019, her performance times have slowed. But Ms. Harper says that even after testosterone suppression, transgender athletes are going to maintain some strength advantage.

鈥淢y initial paper was a study of distance runners,鈥� says Ms. Harper, who has become a prominent voice in conversations about transgender participation in sports. 鈥淪trength doesn鈥檛 really matter for that sport, but strength does matter for swimming. So Lia will maintain both height and strength advantages over the cis women that she鈥檚 swimming against.鈥�

Ms. Harper believes that eligibility shouldn鈥檛 just be purely determined by gender identity. She鈥檚 an advocate for factoring in testosterone levels. That stance has drawn the ire of some LGBTQ activists.

鈥淚鈥檝e been called 鈥榓 traitor to trans people,鈥欌�� she says.

Gregory Brown, a professor of exercise science at the University of Nebraska Kearney, believes that the focus on testosterone is ultimately too narrow. He says that those who鈥檝e gone through male puberty tend to be taller and have larger wingspans, larger body mass, larger muscle fibers, larger hearts, and larger blood vessels.聽

鈥淎 trans woman still has XY chromosomes,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd there are effects of the Y chromosome that are very important to keep in mind as far as how the physiology works and administering hormones doesn鈥檛 necessarily negate those effects.鈥�

Ms. Harper counters that the hormone therapy transition may actually create disadvantages for transgender women athletes, such as reduced muscle mass and a loss of aerobic capacity. The lower level of hemoglobin in blood also diminishes athletic performance. For her, any remaining biological advantages that Lia Thomas has are within a reasonable parameter.

鈥淏ut the difference is not so large that it endangers women鈥檚 sports at all,鈥� says Ms. Harper.聽

What would 鈥渇air鈥� look like?

This year, Iszac Henig, a Yale swimmer who is a transgender man, has competed several times against Lia Thomas. Although he has had chest reconstruction surgery, he has not begun taking testosterone he wanted to be able to continue competing on a women鈥檚 swim team.

To some, the coexistence of the two transgender swimmers in the same race brings into question the meaningful differences between men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 events.聽

鈥淭he same advocates who say Lia Thomas belongs in the women鈥檚 category, will also say that Iszac Henig belongs to the women鈥檚 category and belongs in the men鈥檚 category,鈥� says Mr. Zeigler from Outsports. 鈥淗ow can somebody belong in both the men鈥檚 and the women鈥檚 category at the same time?鈥澛�

Meanwhile, 16 of Ms. Thomas鈥檚 teammates sent an anonymous letter to their school and Ivy League officials contesting the swimmer鈥檚 right to swim in the category because of 鈥渁n unfair advantage.鈥� Several parents of swimmers on the team have also expressed their disquiet over the effect on the sport in anonymous interviews with the press.

To some, the biological debates over just how large or small an advantage transgender athletes may or may not have ultimately leaves too much margin for error. It would be fairer, they say, to simply draw the line between those who have and haven鈥檛 gone through male puberty.聽

Yet some sports thinkers have been mulling the question of whether it鈥檚 possible to preserve the women鈥檚 category 鈥� and at the same time facilitate opportunities for transgender athletes.聽

Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a former gold medal Olympic swimming champion and now a civil rights lawyer at the Women鈥檚 Sports Policy Working Group, opposes Ms. Thomas鈥檚 inclusion in the women鈥檚 competition. Instead, she proposes a Solomonic solution.聽She says transgender athletes such as Ms. Thomas could still compete in an exhibition race (in which her results would not count). It鈥檚 the swim meet equivalent of auditing a class.

But that idea doesn鈥檛 sit well with some.聽

鈥淸I]n a way, what it does is put more focus on Lia Thomas, and I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 great for them because it sort of 鈥榦thers鈥� them,鈥� says Jon Pike, former聽Chair of the British Philosophy of Sport Association and a senior lecturer in Philosophy at The Open University in Milton Keynes, U.K. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 eight lanes when you鈥檙e using one lane as an exhibition lane for Lia, then someone else could be in that lane, and you are, in fact, still excluding someone 鈥� for a result that won鈥檛 count.鈥澛�

Mr. Pike has an alternate proposal. He recently co-authored a paper with Leslie Howe, a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, and Emma Hilton, a biologist at the University of Manchester in the U.K., titled 鈥淔air Game.鈥� They believe it鈥檚 vital to exclude transgender women from the female category at elite levels of sports. Ms. Howe, a feminist philosopher, believes it isn鈥檛 fair to the other swimmers.

鈥淚 have a fair bit of experience in the past, as a lesbian, in participating in gay tournaments,鈥� says Ms. Howe, who enjoys sports such as rowing. But, she adds, when it comes to mainstream sports, 鈥渋t doesn鈥檛 matter what your sexuality is or your identity. When we get into playing, it鈥檚 about the bodies competing against each other, and we have to make those categories fair.鈥澛�

Many sports 鈥� with the exception of, say, shooting and sailing 鈥� already factor what types of bodies are competing with each other, adds Mr. Pike. It鈥檚 the reason why adults don鈥檛 compete against kids or the reason why there are senior categories in golf and marathons. Weightlifting and boxing each have weight classes. Other games, such as the Special Olympics, include impairment categories.聽

To maximize inclusion, the trio proposes that the men鈥檚 category of sports be replaced by an 鈥渙pen鈥� category that would include transgender athletes.

鈥淵ou do not have to declare yourself to be a man in order to compete here,鈥� says Mr. Pike. 鈥淲e are not going to say, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e in the men鈥檚 competition.鈥� We鈥檙e going to say you鈥檙e in the open competition.鈥澛�

Ms. Harper鈥檚 response to the idea is unequivocal: 鈥淣o, I just can鈥檛 go along with that,鈥� she says.聽

鈥淭rans women are not men who think they鈥檙e women,鈥� she adds. 鈥淥ur gender identity is such a fundamental part of who we are.鈥澛�

These different perspectives seem, perhaps, fundamentally irreconcilable. But Mr. Brown believes that, as Ms. Thomas鈥檚 story becomes more of a talking point in society, it will spur calls for various sporting bodies to institute compatible rules and a stable framework. He鈥檚 optimistic that if such debates continue in good faith, and if there鈥檚 willingness to make concessions, then it may be possible to agree upon an optimal solution.

鈥淚t鈥檚 to a certain extent like compromise in marriage,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e saying you鈥檙e compromising in your marriage and you鈥檙e happy with the way things turn out every time, you鈥檙e not compromising. So that鈥檚 what we鈥檝e got to have here - is that people are going to be willing to say, 鈥極K, I鈥檓 not going to be 100% happy, but I鈥檓 going to get a compromise that I can live with happily enough.鈥欌��