Topics / Gender, sex and family
Should trans women be able to compete in women's sport?
Sports bodies must decide who is eligible to compete in the female category, weighing the inclusion of trans women against fairness and safety in competition. The disagreement turns partly on evidence about how much physical advantage remains after testosterone suppression, which is still developing, and partly on how to weigh competing values when that evidence is uncertain.
Positions
- Yes, inclusion should be the default: Trans women are women and should be able to compete in women's sport by default, subject at most to proportionate, sport-specific hormone criteria. Blanket exclusion causes real harm, while the evidence on any advantage remaining after hormone therapy is uncertain and varies by sport.
- Sport by sport, based on evidence: No single rule fits all sport: each governing body should set eligibility for its female category according to the evidence on how strength, speed, body size and contact affect fairness and safety in that particular sport.
- No, female categories should be based on sex: The female category exists to exclude the physical advantages that come from male development, and testosterone suppression does not fully remove them. Eligibility for female competition should therefore be based on sex, putting fairness and safety for female athletes first.
- Open category plus female category: Sport should keep a protected female category based on sex and turn the male category into an open category that anyone can enter, so that fairness in women's sport is protected and nobody is left without a place to compete.