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The Globe had an article up yesterday regarding transgender athletes in races with a focus on women who may or may not have taken medication to suppress testosterone levels:https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-marathon/2018/04/08/boston-marathon-trans-womenI'm specifically asking the question here (versus the main circus ring) because I'd like to know how other runners feel about this. Do you think a trans female racer should race as a female if no testosterone suppression medication has been taken? Does it make a difference to you if the racer is elite and/or the race is high stakes? If you're a cisgender female runner, how would you feel if you took second place in an important race and the winner were a trans female who had not medically transitioned? Any thoughts on transgender males who have/haven't transitioned?
Transgender folks should not be allowed to compete.
Period? End of discussion? No competition for you, go to your room! What if they are a back of the backer or mid-packer with zero hope of winning a medal? What if they (like the masses of us) just want to run a 5K or a 10K or finish a marathon. What if they are a charity runner who wants to raise money for domestic violence victims and their goal is to finish the marathon in 4 hours?
Trans athletes report they do not have an advantage over CIS gendered women. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/do-transgender-athletes-have-an-edge-i-sure-dont/2015/04/01/ccacb1da-c68e-11e4-b2a1-bed1aaea2816_story.html?utm_term=.797d85b8137dThere isn't one sport of note where a trans athlete is dominating (if you believe South African runner Caster Semenya is genetically female).
Well, if she said so it must be true.
Why were we asked for opinions, again?
Transgender folks should not be allowed to compete. Women still have the advantage as trans women of larger hearts and stronger bones and deeper lung capacity and estrogen doesn't do much to change that. Trans men - well, with rare exception, I don't know why they would want to compete because even on steroids they're not going to be as strong as cis men. Your mileage may vary on that one, obviously.
https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/us/transgender-lawsuit-crossfit/index.htmlApparently CrossFit has taken a tougher stance on this than the IOC
It sure is complicated.
Championship races (from state [including high school], regional, to nationals or international levels) and money they should go by a limit of testosterone levels. At the lower levels this is harder to manage, but another athlete that gets displaced should have a right to an appeal so they would get an award. So if a transgender athlete who gets silver or gold at the state championship doesn't want to give up the award, well so be it, make up couple more and send them those that get displaced. It would be too much to put a supertexted c or t by the name of the athlete, so results might be confusing. At the national and international level, it should be a no brainer. But the governing bodies (IAAF and IOC) have waffled (gone back and forth). The women's 800 m is now dominated by transgender women. For turkey trots or local road races with no monetary gain, that'd be real hard to enforce. Another thing--wouldn't be popular--would be to make a transgender class at some races.