In recent years, one of the most significant issues in women’s sports has been whether transgender women should participate in women’s sports. It is essential to have respect for everyone, but there must also be some level of protection of fair play.
Women’s sports already don’t get the same audience as men’s sports do, but allowing transgender women to compete in our sport doesn’t make it any better. Biology plays a big role in this. Men and women have different levels and ratios of hormones.
Whereas men have a higher level of testosterone, which contributes to muscle mass, women don’t have that. So just because you become a transgender woman, you still have all the physical traits of a man. It doesn’t just go away. You’ll still be stronger, faster, and have a larger lung capacity.
In some sports, events come down to a fraction of a second, and these differences matter. As someone who is an athlete who plays a sport that involves physical contact with others, I am not going to want to go against men because I already know they are much stronger and faster than me, so I would already have a disadvantage.
No woman wants to have to compete against a man. Not even our own volleyball team.
On October 13, the Los Osos Varsity volleyball team was set to play against Jurupa Valley High School, which had a male student on its team. Los Osos warmed us up as if they were going to play, and then right before the start of the game, they walked out of the gym, along with their parents.
As they should, because just because you want to become a transgender woman doesn’t mean you should also play in women’s sports. Fairness is the biggest thing in athletic competition. Every athlete trains very hard to be the person they want to be.
Many female athletes have spent their whole lives preparing for college scholarships or professional opportunities. Where we athletes train, we go up against athletes who have the same strength and speed as us.
Protecting fair play is not an excuse; it is necessary to keep the athletes safe. Women’s sports were to be able to give women a chance to succeed in an area where we usually overlooked.
Defending women’s sports is not about opposing or devaluing transgender lives. We want transgender athletes to compete, but at the cost of fair play and opportunity to other athletes, including female athletes.
Some sports organizations have explored solutions, such as open divisions or other separate categories of competition where everyone can compete and have fairness without forcing female athletes into unfair situations.
The purpose of sports is to be fair, with every participant having an equal opportunity to participate. When it comes to transgender females in women’s sports, there can also be an unfair advantage that undermines the sense of fairness.
If we recognize and accept the biological difference between males and females, we can recall the reason why there are women ‘s sports. We can demonstrate our beliefs while maintaining the fairness of sports.
Women deserve a fair and even playing field, and fairness means maintaining and having clearly defined categories is essential to keeping that promise.