I think this is the right approach - it’s definitely not appropriate to figure it out on the fly on a pool deck, but wow, what a lot to put on the rules committees since all of this is fairly new. The British triathlon association has made an open and XX female category. The us triathlon association has requirements including lab results to swim in the female category. Everyone is still figuring it out. There’s really no other activity or competition where this issue comes up, other than sports. Chess, academic competitions, music, art - all of those don’t have gender as a competition category. I don’t know what the right answer is. |
Definitely not allowing the opposite gender to dominate because they identify as that gender, no matter the sport. |
This seems reasonable. |
Even with testosterone suppression, it’s not reasonable to have male bodies competing against female bodies. It seems reasonable, but the science says testosterone suppression does not eliminate the physical advantages of a male body (including significant cardiovascular differences). The ref who think it’s perfectly fair to have a trans girl compete with girls needs to inform themselves. Please read this article to understand why.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7846503/ |
We swim with PAC as part of MCSL. My 10yo daughter has a trans friend M-F who swims as a girl. I’m not sure about scoring to be honest. But wears the girls swimsuit and swims in their heats etc. |
I am not the ref but my comment about being reasonable means there are at least stipulations and a strong grown teen boy can’t just show up and identify as a girl and swim with girls. |
I guess the bathing suit is similar in what it shows…. But that’s young to start treatment if that’s a requirement and 10 year old boys can be quite fast and strong. |
Eh, in swim the ten year old girls and boys are basically the same-- and that's reflected in cut times for meets. By 12, the boys have pulled ahead, but the fastest girls can keep up. By 14 it is absolutely no contest and the average boys will beat the excellent girls. |
Still not fair. There are many 10 year old girls faster than 10 year old boys. |
This will destroy girls' swimming. No way the girls can legitimately compete. |
And they want us (parents of daughters and girls) to just accept that in the spirit of inclusion. |
NP and parent of 2 year-round swimmers (one boy, one girl). I like this suggestion a lot. |
She'll be able to wear a woman's suit but will have to compete in the men's events. |
The fairest approach would be to have them swim in their own category for Trans girls. |
The heart of this debate is whether to prioritize validating gender identity or fairness in sports. Fairness is undoubtably the priority when people suggest an open category or a trans male to female category, but not a separate trans female to male category. No one is concerned about a trans male outclassing XY males, so no one argues that they shouldn’t compete with them. Then there is a practicality issue. There are probably not enough trans girls to compete against each other - is she supposed to swim by herself in every event? If respecting gender identity was the priority, I think trans girls who transition after puberty should compete as girls. But if fairness in sport is the priority, then it should be an open category. Sports should state (and admit) that their categories of male and female are not gender identity categories, but whether development was testosterone influenced or not. That’s what people should care about if the priority is fairness - did this kid develop muscle strength, ability to gain muscle with resistance training, bone growth, etc with testosterone or not? Obviously there are many nuanced cases that are not black and white under this umbrella, so the answer is not that simple. |