Thread by @FondOfBeetles

I’ve just read the Irish Independent story about Noah Halpin and rugby.

Here: m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/as…

I agree with some of the arguments and not others.

Noah should not have been prevented from competing with females if he had not had any medical interventions.

That is discrimination based on gender identity.

I agree that there are considerable safety issues with females playing on male teams. This may be especially true in the absence of medical intervention, but I’d be cautious even with it.

The piece then segues into the issue of transwomen in female categories, as if the situations are symmetrical. They are not.

In principle, if transwomen *could* reach parity with females, the debate might take a different path.

But ‘reach parity’ is not the same as ‘reach standards’.

The bulk of what follows is basically railing against World Rugby for defying IOC ‘standards’.

What either/both Halpin and Lawless fail to note is that the scientists and medics of World Rugby, after expert consultation with others, deemed those standards entirely insufficient to create safety and fairness in the female game.

Demanding a governing body abide by rules that they themselves, after responsible, extensive and careful consideration, do not think is fair, is pointless.

Sports federations and governing bodies do not have to abide by IOC rules or ‘industry standards’.

I am entirely in agreement that the IOC guidelines are insufficient to regulate safe and fair inclusion of transwomen in female categories.

Stating that they must be sufficient ‘because IOC’ is simply an argument from authority.

The only study cited to refute the World Rugby decision is, I believe, a 17 year old study, heavily relied upon by the IOC to decide their criteria, that very clearly states even after three years, transwomen have significantly larger thigh muscle than females.

Yes, T and Hb are ‘female typical’, actually within a fairly short space of time. This has since been reliably and repeatedly confirmed.

As has the observation, over a dozen studies, that transwomen meeting IOC criteria retain large amounts of muscle and strength over females.

So, I have sympathy with Noah, who was initially excluded from his rugby team because of his gender identity.

But the remainder of the article is poorly reasoned.