Sports Editor Oisin Gaffey discusses the decisions made by sports organisations over the past four years that are failing the Transgender community.
Over the past four years, many of the world’s leading sports organisations have passed a series of laws in their respective sports that place hugely significant barriers for participation amongst the Transgender community. Sports such as rugby, swimming, athletics and cycling are at the forefront of this exclusionary process, putting sport on the back-foot when it comes to inclusivity. This disturbing tide places sport on the wrong side of history, systematically excluding the transgender community from competing at the highest level. These sporting organisations have set an alarming precedent over the past four years; one that has to change in the future.
This disturbing tide places sport on the wrong side of history, systematically excluding the transgender community from competing at the highest level.
Arguably the most significant story in this respect in recent years is the story of American swimmer Lia Thomas, who rose to prominence after becoming the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA swimming championship in 2022 when she won the 500m freestyle event.
Following her victory, the former University of Pennsylvania swimmer became the subject of intense debate amongst international media. Many of Thomas’ critics resorted to using inflammatory anti-trans rhetoric, with senior politicians in the United States and United Kingdom using the discourse to fuel their own divisive ideologies.
Many of Thomas’ critics resorted to using inflammatory anti-trans rhetoric, with senior politicians in the United States and United Kingdom using the discourse to fuel their own divisive ideologies.
Those who objected to Thomas’ eligibility to compete cited USA Swimming’s official policy for eligibility, in which it states that “trans athletes must undergo three years of hormone replacement therapy before being allowed to compete”. Thomas, six-months shy of this, was however allowed to compete as the meet was organised by the NCAA, who decided not to adopt USA Swimming’s rules.
After failing to qualify for the final of the 500m freestyle, Virginia Tech swimmer Reka Gyorgy said that she felt “that final spot was taken away from (me) because of the NCAA’s decision”, before claiming that Thomas’ victory hurt her team “and other women in the pool”.
Texas’ Erica Sullivan, who finished third in the final, quickly rushed to the defence of Thomas in light of Gyorgy’s offensive comments. Stating in an essay for Newsweek, the 23-year-old responded, “the real threats to women’s sports are: sexual abuse and harassment, unequal pay and resources and a lack of women in leadership. Transgender girls and women are nowhere on this list.”
This issue goes much further beyond the realms of swimming and sport. Indeed, the narrative that transgender women pose the biggest threat to cisgender girls and women is fuelled by the anti-trans far-right, and is a scare tactic designed to provoke fear amongst cisgender women. Anti-trans activists would have you believe, wrongly, that transgender female athletes threaten the fairness and integrity of sport. In actuality, trans women are a very small minority of all athletes. Using the example of Irish Rugby, the IRFU announced in August 2022 that ‘contact rugby for players in the female category is limited to those whose sex was recorded as female at birth’, before going on to state that there were only ‘two registered players affected’ by the changes. Why must such inflammatory language be used and such exclusionary processes be in place when no ‘threat’ actually exists?
This issue goes much further beyond the realms of swimming and sport. Indeed, the narrative that transgender women pose the biggest threat to cisgender girls and women is fuelled by the anti-trans far-right, and is a scare tactic designed to provoke fear amongst cisgender women.
One of the biggest misconceptions about transgender athletes is the callous assumption that they are transitioning in order to gain a competitive advantage. Speaking with CNN two months after her infamous victory, Thomas stated that she transitioned “to be happy” and to be true to herself. To suggest that a person would undergo transition, purely for competitive reasons, speaks to the dire state sport is in when it comes to supporting the transgender community.
In June 2022, FINA (now known as World Aquatics) announced the banning of transgender women from elite female competitions if they have experienced any part of male puberty. The decision was made by 71% of the 152 National Federations at the World Championships that year, placing a huge barrier on transgender participation within the sport.
World Athletics then followed in 2023, using parallel language to exclude transgender women from elite competitions. Speaking about the decision, President Sebastian Coe stated, “we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations”, voicing his concerns over the ‘integrity’ of the sport.
They similarly announced that athletes such as Caster Semenya, who is classed as having a difference in sex development, would be barred from competing internationally in all events unless they reduced their testosterone levels for at least six months prior to competing.
Semenya, now 33, announced herself on the world stage at just 18 years-old when she won gold in the 800m at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009. Her success was marred by questions regarding her gender and eligibility to compete, being forced to take gender verification tests before winning gold. Semenya is hyperandorgenous, meaning that she has naturally high levels of testosterone, and was thus forced by World Athletics in 2010 to undergo hormonal treatment which would allow her to compete at the elite level. Semenya is not a transgender athlete, and has never claimed to be such, and has been at the epicentre of the debate between athletics and testosterone levels.
With reference to the 2023 ban on transgender athletes, LGBTQ+ group Stonewall urged World Athletics and the wider sporting world to reconsider their position. “The trans population may be small, but they have every right to participate in sports and enjoy the many physical, mental and community benefits of sports”, they said in the aftermath of World Athletics’ ban.
As mentioned previously, Ireland is not exempt from the anti-trans rhetoric and policy discussed already. Cycling Ireland, for example, banned transgender women from competing in women-only races, following in the footsteps of its governing body, the UCI.
As mentioned previously, Ireland is not exempt from the anti-trans rhetoric and policy discussed already.
The above examples go a short distance in detailing the anti-trans positions of many sporting governing bodies in recent years, and highlight how the sporting world is failing the transgender community. By perpetuating the narrative that trans athletes somehow threaten the integrity of sport, they have used a series of laws in the past four years in order to systematically exclude the transgender community from participating in sport. This has to change.