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World Athletics bans transgender women from competing with other women

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Cyberpunkd

Member
Link: https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/s...rictions-transgender-dsd-athletes-2023-03-23/

MANCHESTER, England, March 23 (Reuters) - World Athletics has banned transgender women from competing in elite female competitions and tightened testosterone restrictions for other athletes, the governing body said on Thursday.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said that the decision to exclude transgender women who had gone through male puberty was based "on the overarching need to protect the female category".

The tighter measures around one of the most contentious and divisive issues in sport follow a similar move by World Aquatics in 2022.


World Athletics' council also voted to cut the maximum amount of plasma testosterone for athletes with Differences in Sex Development (DSD) in half, to 2.5 nanomoles per litre from five.

DSD athletes will also have to reduce their testosterone levels below the new limit for a minimum of 24 months across all events to compete, double the previous time.

The governing body had previously floated the option of transgender athletes being allowed to compete in the female category if they, too, maintained testosterone levels below 2.5 nanomoles per litre for 24 months.

Yet it said on Thursday that it became apparent there was little support within the sport for that proposal.

"We're not saying no forever," Coe told a news conference.

Coe announced the formation of a working group, which will be chaired by a transgender athlete, to further study the issue of trans inclusion.

"The working group will look at any prevailing or changing or furthering of our understanding in that space," Coe said. "We don't know enough, we now need to know more, and that is the journey that we're on. But we weren't prepared to risk the female category on that basis."

WA regulations around DSD previously required women competing in events between 400 metres and a mile to maintain testosterone levels below five nanomoles per litre.

The governing body on Thursday introduced interim provisions for athletes already competing outside the restricted events, who will be required to suppress their testosterone level to 2.5 nanomoles per litre for six months.

This would prevent several women from competing at the World Athletics Championships in August.

Since being barred from the 800m, Burundi's Niyonsaba turned her attention to the 5,000, winning the Diamond League Final in 2021.

She was disqualified in her heat of the 5,000m at the Tokyo Olympics for a lane violation, while Semenya failed to qualify for the Games.

Namibia's Mboma, prevented from running the 400m, switched to the 200m, winning silver in Tokyo.

DSD athletes have male testes but do not produce enough of the hormone Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) that is necessary for the formation of male external genitalia.

Coe said the decisions were made in consultation with numerous stakeholders including 40 member federations, coaches, athletes, plus a range of community groups including trans groups, United Nations experts and the International Olympic Committee.

Swimming's world governing body World Aquatics voted last June to bar transgender women from elite competition if they had experienced any part of male puberty. A scientific panel had found that even after reducing their testosterone levels through medication, transgender women still had a significant advantage.

That vote passed with 71% of the national federations in favour.

Last part about World Aquatics is interesting, I understand the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_Thomas situation would not apply to competitions on an international stage.

Regardless of where you stand on trans rights I think this is the right choice - undergoing puberty as a biological male gives your body an advantage that goes way beyond what might be considered 'freak genetics' for a female-at-birth.

We can argue that 'living with a gender identity you want' should trump any notion of sports achievement, clearly the sports federations do not agree.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
Seems fair to me. Reddit is already trying to memory hole this entire decision though. /r/sports is deleting posts as fast as they pop up.

It's just not a level playing field having biological men compete against women. Especially in MMA and contact sports.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
46jEk9r.png
 

HL3.exe

Member
This was my argument on that other site before I got banned. But it's totally reasonable.

Pre-pubescent trans participating in competition is totally fine because of the oxygen intake in the muscles. Post-puberty is a bit more difficult to measure. Until the research changes, this seems like a totally reasonable stance to protect the Integrity of the sport.
 
I’m hoping this will be like the 2015/16 immigration debate in the UK. In the Blair years you dared not even say the word ‘immigrant’ for fear of being marked a racist.

The lead-up to Brexit was weird in that overnight almost, you suddenly saw people having a rational discussion about it on mainstream channels. it was as though society had been snapped out of mass brainwashing.

I saw the same thing happen with Trump. He said some crazy shit, everyone was shocked, then it were as though a fog lifted and people started talking about things. We know that didn’t go anywhere useful but it was less suffocating, at least.
 

VN1X

Banned
Man... going through that thread now and it's actually quite sad how misguided these people are. Can't even blame 'em as they've just been completely brainwashed.

I thought I would laugh but now I cri. :lollipop_crying:
 

SJRB

Gold Member
And they fucking wonder why people aren’t more accepting.

Moderate your attitude, your language and your inability to accept any other opinion than your own, and you might actually get somewhere, you idiots.

So blindly convinced or brainwashed that they are on the "right" side that any opinion that differs even a little bit is seen as a personal assault on their entire being resulting in a disproportionately aggressive and defensive response.

It's a sad and unhealthy way to go about one's life, and I have no doubt it puts a heavy burden on one's psyche.

I don't see things working out well for someone who gets this disproportionally upset over a subject like this.

The entire trans movement has taken "if you're not with us, you're against us" to an extreme.
 
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Lunarorbit

Member
Nothing against trans people at all but this needed to happen. If under 14 boys soccer teams consistently beat women's college and pro teams then that's a problem for allowing trans athletes to compete against women.

Have an open division. It won't be fair necessarily but trans women competing against biological women is disrupting the fairness of the sports
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Yeah there has to be some logical middle ground here, if the science supports gender reassignment reducing harm I'm happy to support them, but you do have a massive muscle, support structure, bone density etc advantage if you've undergone puberty as a male, to the point it could seriously hurt a born female if we just go ahead and line people up by the gender they identify as

Anyway, transgenderism within sports is such a niche within a niche that it's orders of magnitudes more likely used as a political football than the incidence of it actually happening, most trans people don't give a shit about getting into competitive sports and they're already a fraction of a percent of the population, can we just go with that and move on
 
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Yeah there has to be some logical middle ground here, if the science supports gender reassignment reducing harm I'm happy to support them, but you do have a massive muscle, support structure, bone density etc advantage if you've undergone puberty as a male, to the point it could seriously hurt a born female if we just go ahead and line people up by the gender they identify as

Anyway, transgenderism within sports is such a niche within a niche that it's orders of magnitudes more likely used as a political football than the incidence of it actually happening, most trans people don't give a shit about getting into competitive sports and they're already a fraction of a percent of the population, can we just go with that and move on
Loads of girls’ careers and records have already been ruined.

It might affect 0.1% of the population but a) that hasn’t stopped the argument flowing from the other direction and b) it’s an indicator that our governing institutions are subject to ideological capture.
 

Zephyrus0

Banned
About time.
It's a disgrace this has been entertained for more than a second and I lost all empathy for trans people when they lied through their teeth and showed a complete lack of care and understanding for women.

They have been given solutions and they want none of them. They want women spaces. They've always made that clear.
 

dave_d

Member
Nothing against trans people at all but this needed to happen. If under 14 boys soccer teams consistently beat women's college and pro teams then that's a problem for allowing trans athletes to compete against women.

Have an open division. It won't be fair necessarily but trans women competing against biological women is disrupting the fairness of the sports
I thought the "men's" division is the "open" division. IE that division in most sports anybody that can qualify can compete.
 
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