‘Without a sex-based category for female athletes, women are quite simply excluded from the top levels of sport.’

Great article here from ⁦@BarbaraRKaynationalpost.com/opinion/barbar…
‘First they justified trans women competing with women because they had “always” felt they were female. Then they say the “always” female trans athlete might “be” male for certain sports or at different times.’

@EthicsInSPORT
From the working group document:

‘Growing up male likely confers physical, hormonal, social and economic factors that contribute to this performance gap, but we cannot say that it is specifically due to testosterone in a way
that is significant and predictable.’
That whole paragraph is remarkable.

‘We don’t know why males are better at sports. But they are. Probably not testosterone though. And T suppression won’t remove that advantage anyway. So they shouldn’t have to reduce T to compete in the female category.

Sorry, women.’
I think perhaps one of the most infuriating absences in this debate is the complete lack of acknowledgment that female sports categories are *themselves an inclusion measure* for females.
All this analysis of prioritising inclusivity and offering opportunities to disadvantaged people never seems to be applied to the people for whom the category exists.

It’s like they’ve forgotten.

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More from @FondOfBeetles

3 Nov
On sex, balls and factories: a thread.
Let’s imagine a ball-making factory, the squishy, brightly-coloured kind of ball you kick around on the beach with a child (preferably one you own, not one stolen).
In that factory are two production lines. The first line paints balls red and the second line paints balls blue. Both machines are fed by boring beige balls.
Read 23 tweets
26 Oct
Jones et al., 2017 is repeatedly cited as evidence that transwomen do not have an advantage in female sports.

Here is my take.
They performed a literature search of transwomen in sport and concluded that:

“Currently, there is no direct or consistent research suggesting transgender female individuals (or male individuals) have an athletic advantage at any stage of their transition.”
This conclusion is not supported by the data they analyse.

First, the review intended to examine sports policies and participation, and consists largely of qualitative/survey data examining the experiences of trans people in sport.

This is valuable insight.
Read 12 tweets
24 Oct
The proposal that sports be divided into ‘performance pools’ undermines the very nature of competitive sport.
Let’s say I am matched in an boxing competition with a male of the same height, strength and speed. Our ‘output’ is considered equivalent, and thus the competition is deemed fair.

It is not fair.
Male physical output is a composite of two factors - male puberty and natural talent. Female physical output lacks the contribution of male puberty.
Read 9 tweets
23 Oct
@PeterTatchell Let’s go with the evidence.

Males who suppress T and do no exercise lose about 5% mass/strength in the first couple of years.

Males who suppress T and exercise mitigate loss and often make significant gains in mass/strength.

Small males are stronger than far larger females.
@PeterTatchell Among elite rugby players at all postions, the slowest males are only a little slower than the fastest females. The weakest males are stronger than the strongest females.
@PeterTatchell If rugby is a game for players of all sizes, strengths and speeds, do you think that the mixed England lineup would contain about 50% females?

No you don’t.
Nobody does.

Because while rugby might accommodate different physicalities, it appears to be limited *within sex*.
Read 12 tweets
20 Oct
People’s Republic of Liverchester? Manpool? I’m no longer fussy.
I’ve even got a Yorkshire husband willing to pledge allegiance to the dark side of it’s against ‘The South’.
Give us a couple of weeks and I reckon we’ll have Nottingham as well.
Read 4 tweets
15 Oct
‘There is no scientific evidence to support World Rugby’s position in exclusion of transwomen from contact rugby’.

Here is the evidence cited by the IOC in 2003, when they first proposed that inclusion of transwomen in female sport is fair.
Here is the evidence cited by the IOC in 2015 when they adjusted their criteria for fair inclusion.
Here is the evidence cited by England Rugby @EnglandRugby in support of fair inclusion of transwomen.
Read 8 tweets

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