To expand on this. I think saying there are no differences between trans women and cis women in sports is a losing argument. Transphobes will just point any of the obvious differences in existing studies and try to make you attempt to prove the negative of no differences existing.
A better argument might be that in most cases any difference are irrelevant.
Such as sports where the womens categories exist to promote them as a marginalized group not for differences between cis men and cis women. Womens chess and W Series racing being two examples. Trans women are a marginalized group in a marginalized group they obviously should be included.
Sports where the importance of any difference isn’t enough to support the argument of separating out trans women. I view this as any sport without any monetary or prestige standing on a national or international stage. Basically any sport that isn’t a collegiate or elite level. Any difference just doesn’t matter enough for middle or high school, recreation or any petry league. Just let them play.
The last group of high level competition is a bit harder to crack because this is where data just doesn’t exist. If in the short term we have to split women’s sports into a cis, trans and combined categories or put an astrix next to trans athletes so be it. Long term I think something akin to weight classes everyone will be categorized into should be created. These will probably be very sport specific and we need to gather data. The only way to do that is to let trans athletes compete.
To expand on this. I think saying there are no differences between trans women and cis women in sports is a losing argument. Transphobes will just point any of the obvious differences in existing studies and try to make you attempt to prove the negative of no differences existing.
A better argument might be that in most cases any difference are irrelevant.
Such as sports where the womens categories exist to promote them as a marginalized group not for differences between cis men and cis women. Womens chess and W Series racing being two examples. Trans women are a marginalized group in a marginalized group they obviously should be included.
Sports where the importance of any difference isn’t enough to support the argument of separating out trans women. I view this as any sport without any monetary or prestige standing on a national or international stage. Basically any sport that isn’t a collegiate or elite level. Any difference just doesn’t matter enough for middle or high school, recreation or any petry league. Just let them play.
The last group of high level competition is a bit harder to crack because this is where data just doesn’t exist. If in the short term we have to split women’s sports into a cis, trans and combined categories or put an astrix next to trans athletes so be it. Long term I think something akin to weight classes everyone will be categorized into should be created. These will probably be very sport specific and we need to gather data. The only way to do that is to let trans athletes compete.