They’re not being banned from sport. They have to play on the team that matches their sex, just like everyone else. Gender identities don’t play sport, bodies do. It’s been shown over and over again that taking cross-sex hormones is not enough to negate the physical advantages of being male. Mediocre male athletes…

“I’d personally love a New York City competitive professional dance team or a league where trans athletes are welcome without question or hesitation.”

They can play sports. They just have to compete against members of their own sex. There’s a reason several trans women are winning women’s medals and absolutely no trans men are winning men’s.  There’s a reason men and women’s sports were separated in the first place.

If your arguments are so strong, why didn’t you stay and put them forward? Cece Telfer ranked 390th in the men’s division in 2017, took a year out for testosterone, and then ranked 1st in the women’s division in 2019. I still haven’t heard anyone attempt to explain how that’s possible if testosterone levels the…

I hope they spend the rest of their lives in prison.  Some people are beyond rehabilitation.

“Gym memberships, equipment, food, flat tummy tea, waist trainers, juice cleanses—they all cost money. Everyone pays for the body they have one way or another, in the same way that everyone works for it. Whether you’re working to recover from a tummy tuck or working to finish a 5K, work is work and money is money.”

“not to mention the downstream implications of presuming a specific and known gender”

Why have more than half of the comments been deleted?

The misogyny is dripping from this post.  Do you honestly think the reason the Williams sisters both lost to a man ranked 203rd is that they were just “making excuses” and “didn’t try hard enough”?

“Ultimately, the outcomes of “science” are based on how it is wielded, a reflection of what one hopes to prove rather than any conclusive proof.”

That will mean the MRAs finally get their way: biological females will be locked out of professional sport.

You’re right - gender is a social construct, and it isn’t a useful method for segregating sport.  Instead, sport should be segregated by sex.

While gender reveal parties make me cringe - people need to realise that their lives really aren’t that interesting to others! - no one “assigns a gender” to a fetus. The sonographer merely observes their sex. They are not saying “this baby is going to like pink and sparkles” - that’s gender stereotyping. It is,…

Michael Phelps is competing in the open class (men’s). Sport is not segregated by wingspan or by joints. If he were competing in a category for athletes with short wingspans and single joints, he would be cheating - but he isn’t. No such class exists.

I know what sex is, but you could please explain to me what gender is? The only definitions I’ve heard either involved 1950s stereotypes (“if you like wearing dresses, you’re a girl”) or are circular and thus meaningless (“gender is the gender you identify as”).

You’re right - I don’t get to decide who is a woman. Biology does.

Society has always hated women who stand up for themselves, especially if they want to do something as unladylike as - gasp! - play sport professionally. This is just the usual garden-variety misogyny.

Why “almost”? Do you honestly believe that allowing biological males to compete against female athletes won’t have a serious effect on women’s sport?

If you remove sex separation from sport altogether and replace them with speed, ability, strength, etc. all that will happen is that women will be completely cut out of sport. Mediocre male athletes consistently outperform exceptional female ones - the biological advantages they hold over females are just too great.…

Why should women stop caring about sport? (It’s only women this is being aimed at - no one tells men to stop caring about sport. Trans men aren’t dominating men’s leagues.) Professional sport is a path out of poverty for many people, particularly PoC. But yeah, who cares? Female athletes should just “get a life” and…