I'm going to start a thread collating expert responses to the IOC's sex testing policy. Please feel free to reply with additions. I'm more interested in the views of scientists than lawyers or philosophers, but everything counts.
Even if the IOC won’t listen to the people affected by its decisions, we might at least expect it to listen to professional experts when they say that it’s got this very badly wrong.
if you want to know the history of this kind of policy, I made a podcast two years ago that explained why these tests make no sense, how they were already used and eventually abandoned by the IOC in the 80's and 90's, and the devastating impacts they have on real athletes: www.tested-podcast.com
… or cardiorespiratory fitness, and in many aspects have a disadvantage.
“This represents a return to practices that were abandoned decades ago for good reason.”
The endocrinology professor Ada Cheung says “The best available data … shows that transgender women receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy are not meaningfully different from cisgender women in key performance-related measures such as muscle mass, strength, body composition …
Human rights lawyer and former Olympian Nikki Dryden says “it creates a culture where someone like a coach, an official, or even another parent, feels entitled to question whether your daughter ‘looks female enough’ to belong. That is not protecting women’s sport. That is policing girls’ bodies.”
The Guardian (Australia) notes today that the new IOC rules fly in the face both of international law, including international human rights law, and the scientific evidence on sexed bodies.
either as professionals or as amateurs, with organising bodies putting in place barriers and exclusionary policies that particularly target trans women.
/ends
Tranathon is a tiny campaigning group of UK trans people fighting for equal participation in sport. We have observed with dismay the increasingly hostile environment facing trans people who wish to engage in sporting pursuits with their peers at any age and at any level,
Sex testing doesn't protect women - it targets and harasses women, replacing fairness with fear, science with stigma, and equity with exclusion. All women should feel safe and protected in women's sports. We stand together and will fight together.
At Tranathon we know that as trans people we are the targets of this policy. But we also know that this is a racialised form of gender violence and that Global Majority women in particular will be targeted first, worst and always.
It is deeply disappointing to see the IOC decide to sweep these well-documented problems aside in the pursuit of an ideological campaign to prevent a tiny group of women from ever participating in sport.
psychological harm. Sex testing policies particularly invite scrutiny of Black and Brown women who do not conform to White stereotypes of how a woman's body ‘should’ look.
scientific validity, the ethics of requiring medically unnecessary genetic testing, and discrimination against female athletes. Even supposedly ‘non-invasive’ approaches force women through coerced medical exams, possibly including physical examinations of their bodies, that can cause lasting
Sex verification is not a novel concept in sport, with the IOC and IAAF having required chromosome testing in women's events from the 1950s to the 1990s. This approach was contested by participants, scientists and human rights bodies. It was eventually discontinued on grounds of
I just want to run with my friends, and it is deeply silly to think I have an unfair advantage running in mass participation events alongside people dressed as pantomime horses.”
Tranathon member Bridie says:
“Running has been increasingly important to me over the last few years. It keeps me fit and well, and it helps my bone health, which can sometimes be an issue for trans women - especially if, like me, they were bullied in PE at school and did no sport until adulthood.
cis women. This will make women's sport - often underfunded, undersupported and underprovisioned in comparison to men's sports - even harder to access for all women and girls.
other participants. Given the very low proportion of trans women in the population in general, and the fact trans women are even more underrepresented in sport, any restrictions or evidentiary requirements put in place to attempt to screen out trans women from sporting events will primarily impact
The IOC has today announced mandatory genetic testing for female athletes, following an international media panic about trans women in sport. Trans women have been presented as a danger to the integrity of women's sport, despite a lack of evidence of performance advantages or of increased risks to
A statement on the IOC's decision to reintroduce mandatory sex testing for women. Please share widely. Alt text follows in the following posts.
Liz Truss wanted to abolish the Equality Act because she mistakenly thinks “it says whether you’re a woman or whether you’re Black or whether you’re gay is more important than what your talents are.” Is it any surprise then that she turned the EHRC into a vehicle for anti-trans politics?
TODAY’S THE DAY!
Four of our runners are going to be in the Brighton Marathon today!
Please wish them luck! 🏳️⚧️
Transphobes have tried to push trans people out of events like these, but we are here to show we belong and are welcome in these spaces, just as we should be welcome everywhere.
We look forward to showing our results and sharing our experiences with you.
TCS London Marathon logo
Brighton Marathon logo
April is going to be a BIG month for Tranathon as we have members participating in both the Brighton Marathon (April 7) and the London Marathon (April 21).
We are excited and proud to represent the trans community in these events.
Tranathon logo, five running stick figures in the trans flag colours within a black circle that reads “Tranathon, 2024, fuck uk athletics”
To celebrate Trans Day of Visibility, we’ll be returning to our social media and making some BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS.
We look forward to sharing the good news, starting with our snazzy new profile pic.
Quote tweet by Riley Gaines responding to Erin Reed stating that Riley has allowed her extreme views to dominate here. It reads: “Imagine thinking the fact that men can't become women and vice versa is extreme lol”
They just think trans people are fake. Simple as that.
The whole “advantage” idea is a distraction from that core belief which can be dropped in a heartbeat when they don’t think they need it anymore.
Quote tweet by Riley Gaines in response to Erin Reed pointing out her support for banning trans women from chess. It reads: “Of course I do. I worked alongside leadership within to make sure of it. Women's opportunities are meant for women, full stop. Men shouldn't be in women's category in chess, pool, or any sport. Why even have women's category in the first place if men can play wherever they want?”
Here we see one of the more prominent anti-trans campaigners in the US stating the reality of the trans people in sports “debate” openly.
It’s not about “advantage”, it’s about their belief that societal systems MUST treat trans people as their sex assigned at birth in all cases.
You can register with Parkrun here to take part and have your times recorded. parkrun.org.uk/register/
Map of parkruns in the UK and Ireland. England, Wales and Ireland are covered in dots, while Scotland has a concentrated band around Glasgow and Edinburgh with sparse dots over the rest of the country.
There are hundreds of Parkruns across the UK and Ireland alone, so find one local to you and consider getting involved.