Trans rights: the UK falls behind

The following represents the opinion of Joanna Harper and is not in any way a representation of the opinion of Loughborough University.

Joanna Harper is a researcher on trans sport performance (at Loughborough University), author of the book Sporting Gender, and a trans athlete herself.

Trans women have probably been more successful in cycling, on a global level, than in any other sport. The list of successful trans women cyclists includes a Dutch 15-year professional cyclist who just retired in the last year, and an alternate for the 2020 US Olympic team. Whatever advantages these trans women may have, and they certainly exist, they have not led to an over-representation of trans women, even in cycling.

I believe that, especially in endurance events, reducing testosterone to typical female values via hormone therapy mitigates the advantages of having gone through a testosterone-fueled puberty — mitigates, does not eliminate — to the point where we can have meaningful competition between trans women and cis women. I don’t see the need for banning trans women from the women’s category.

A lot of the people who are opposed to trans women in sports consider trans women to be men who think they are women. For these people each successful trans woman becomes an affront. For instance, the recent victory by Austin Killips [a US trans woman cyclist] is cited as justification for the British cycling decision to ban trans women from the women’s [competitive race] category. As another example, a trans woman finished the London Marathon no.6,159 in the women’s division, out of approximately 20,000. The result was a headline reading “trans woman beats 14,000 women in the London Marathon”. I would suggest everyone should push back against this demonisation of trans women. The rights of trans women do not threaten the rights of cis men and women.

As an alternative, I suggest that we think of trans women as a physiologically distinct sub-category of all women. Hence, trans women belong in women’s spaces, including sports. Trans people make up approximately 1% of humanity, thus proportional representation would lead to 1% of women’s cycling races won by trans women. The actual percentage is much smaller. And cycling is the sport in which trans women have had the most success. Banning trans women from the women’s category is not a necessary or proportionate means to deal with the physiological differences between trans and cis women.

I’m in a team at Loughborough University which has done a lot of research on the effects of medical gender transition on sporting performance. We’re now trying to get the most recent data published, and I’m not allowed to share our research yet. In general, however, I can tell you that there are substantial reductions in the athletic performance of trans women with hormone therapy.

In grassroots sports, I think we should just have self-identification. In fact, in grassroots sports, we don’t even necessarily need to divide men from women. There are many creative things we can do at grassroots level. British Cycling has stated that they won’t ban trans women from women’s recreational cycling. However, at higher levels of sport, we need a women’s category if we want women succeeding. And if we are to allow trans women into that category, then trans women should bring their testosterone to female-typical values. Some suggest that requiring medical transition is dehumanising for trans women, but I would counter that drug testing of elite athletes also involves invasive tests. At levels where all athletes require drug testing, then trans women should require testosterone suppression.

The trans debate extends beyond sports. In the United States now, there is a state-by-state cultural divide. The largest state in the nation, California, does not require hormone therapy for trans girls to compete in high school sports, but over 20 states have now completely banned trans girls as young as six or seven years old from the girls’ category. The bans are clearly political, as the same states are also outlawing gender-affirming hormone therapy, or even drag shows. These measures are aimed not just at trans people but also at all queer people.

Marriage

Until 2015 or so, opponents of equal rights for queer people focused on same-sex marriage, but since the marriage laws changed these same people have now focused on the rights of trans people. The obvious facts that trans women are bigger and stronger than cis women have made trans women in sports a successful wedge issue. This is true in the UK as well as the US.

Scandinavia and most of western Europe are more liberal on trans athletes than the UK currently is. That wasn’t the case six or seven years ago. The UK has become more restrictive and a less desirable place for trans people to live. There was a time, maybe 15 years ago, when the UK was ranked as the most queer-friendly country in all of Europe. The UK has now fallen to no.17.

I long for a world in which trans people are accepted for who we are. I also believe in meaningful sport for all women and thus think that some restrictions (but not bans or near-bans) on trans women in sport are acceptable.