Title IX and transgender athletes – The Boston Globe

The families of three Connecticut students sought to reverse a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference rule allowing students to compete according to their gender identity.

The OCR focused this complaint on transgender women, a tactic often taken to frighten the public. According to the OCR, the inclusion of transgender women on all-female track teams denied female student-athletes athletic benefits and opportunities, including advancing to the finals in events, higher-level competitions, awards, medals, recognition, and the possibility of greater visibility to colleges and other benefits.

There is a historical legacy in sports of women being tested to verify their femaleness. For over 40 years, female Olympians could be required to undergo the Barr Body Test if any other athlete so much as questioned their femaleness. This sets a painful precedent for allowing others to determine identity.

The case centers around Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, two Black transgender women in a small Connecticut town that is almost 90 percent white. Both women have been frequently insulted and demeaned at track meets. At the same time, these women were also supported by members of their team and the CIAC. Terry and Andrea were recently featured in the documentary Changing the Game.

These fears were motivated by unfounded claims that somehow hormones are one of the most important factors in sports. However, we know that certain athletes stand out for myriad reasons work ethic, determination, practice, skill, height, speed, strength and that hormones are just one of many factors. These conversations are the same that revolved around Caster Semenya, Dutee Chand elite female track stars. The reasons cited for excluding Miller, Yearwood, Semenya, and Chand are examples of institutions imposing arbitrary definitions of what gender and sex mean. Sports impact many parts of our lives; however, decision-makers within these organizations should not be tasked with defining what our gender means to us, especially when unsupported by empirical evidence.

This overvaluation of testosterone as an indicator of improved performance in transgender women has not been supported in the literature. Instead, recent research has demonstrated that a reduction in testosterone generally results in decreased bone density and muscle mass. A recent review from my colleagues at Harvard Medical School concluded that it remains unclear whether endogenous hyperandrogenism . . . confers any competitive advantage and the researchers pointed to a paucity of evidence supporting any actual physiologic data comparing performance in sports to hormones.

Overall, there is data demonstrating that transwomen who undergo gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) lose muscle mass, but no conclusive evidence on competitive advantage. Rene Richards, a transgender female tennis player from the 1970s, saw her national ranking decrease after transitioning to female. Either way, this means that transgender athletes do not face any conclusive advantage when competing against cisgender colleagues.

The media tend to focus on transgender women competing against cisgender women; however, there is much less of a focus on transgender men. In mandating that athletes participate in their assigned gender, we must remember that this goes both ways. Mack Beggs, a transmasculine high school wrestler from Texas, was forced to compete in the womens division. Many of his opponents forfeited their matches to Mack, and every time he completed a match, he was forcibly outed and denied his identity.

For children, belonging is what means the most. Sports are a social good, with substantial health benefits. As a public health intervention, the physical and mental benefits of sports are so widespread that it is not worth keeping a child out.

Some people might believe that gender is assigned at birth and there is nothing else that can be done about this. Regardless, it is paramount, especially now, that we as a nation still foster conversations that include transgender people.

During a time when people of color and LGBTQ+ Americans are dying at unprecedented rates, we cannot allow the Trump administration to add insult to injury. All Americans must stand up and promote inclusion across the board.

Dallas Ducar is the clinical lead for Mental Health Services at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Transgender Health Program.

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Title IX and transgender athletes - The Boston Globe