"How to be fair to transgender athletes"

A category for people who pretend to be the other sex sounds farcical.

Who would buy a ticket to see that!

I can understand why that might be an instant and 'obvious' reaction - but I would question it - there is already a men's category and a women's category in most sports (some even have an open category) - everyone is born either a man or a woman, so everyone already has a category. For those running sport, adding an additional category carries an overhead in admin / logistics / timings / staffing / etc. I have been a tennis referee for a number of years, and it is already complicated enough managing ages where it splits into boys and girls, without having to offer an additional category...

I think that in sport we have to start by saying:

• we have male / female categories - does this disadvantage anyone - the answer is no...

then we ask what is the impact if we did look to meet these demands:

• if men compete in women's events then that disadvantages the women - so should obviously not be allowed
• if a third category is required, then that disadvantages those who run events (often volunteers)
• if we leave it as now we disadvantage no-one...

the conclusion is I think pretty obvious...

the only challenge that exists (and which is not being fully addressed) is transmen who take hormones which could arguably give them an advantage over other women in the women's categories... but arguably they should be managed as you would any competitor who takes drug which may enhance their performance....

there is no automatic entitlement to do as one wishes - so it is important to stick to a structured, common-sense approach, and for those who want to cause issues, they should simply be told no!

I've only read a bit, he's already mixing up sex and gender (there's no reason** for sports to be categorised by 'gender' , you fool, only sex) , and people with DSDs as well as trans - they're completely different issues.

Surely it's just the same as everything else. They get their own category.

Or he'll 'feel unsafe'.

Oh the horror.

really not tricky - men compete with men, women compete with women - unless it is a sport (like eventing) where they compete all together...

yes, some men will be weaker than others, that is why sport has winners and losers - that is life!

a transwomen is a man so should not be competing with women - there are no circumstances where that makes anything fair - the transwoman already has a category in which to compete, men.

gender is a social construct and has nothing to do with sport - what colour you wear / what clothes you wear / how you style your hair / whether you wear makeup - nothing to do with sport.

physiology from being born male / female - everything to do with sport.

So, really not complicated, men with men and women with women.

I’ve seen the argument before that inclusion should be the default, so trans women should be included in the women’s category until it’s proven that they all have an unfair advantage in practice.

Nice try. We don’t include adults in children’s leagues until we can prove they all have an unfair advantage in practice.

We don’t include people with hearing impairments in the Paralympics until we can prove that they all have an unfair advantage in practice. And we shouldn’t include males in the women’s category, especially when they gave their own category to compete in.

What an absolute load of drivel!
Sport participation by its very nature IS discriminatory! We discriminate on myriad categories - in boxing / wrestling / weight lifting it’s by weight; we discriminate in the Paralympics dependent on the type and degree of disability; we discriminate by age; we discriminate by ranking. If we are going to allow men, whose performance would be mediocre in women’s competition, to compete against women, then we may as well do away with women’s categories full stop.
Women have fought long and hard for their own competition. Men have just found another way of taking our rights away.

Is it "Let him win, or he'll cry?"