Transgender Athletes Essay Sample

📌Category: Athletes, LGBTQ+, Social Issues, Sports
📌Words: 663
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 17 March 2022

There are many social justice issues in our society today, but the one that deserves the most attention is the new transgender athelete rule in sports. Transgender atheletes have a gender identity that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth, and are often much more comfortable living as their newly identified selves; in some cases, doctors consider this a disorder called gender identity disorder. According to  “These differences in athletic performance don't appear until after puberty and are thought to be most likely due to increased circulating testosterone levels in the “male” assigned sex at birth athletes when compared to the “female” assigned sex at birth athletes” (Frontiersin).  Allowing someone of the opposite gender to join a league in sports because they changed their lifestyle is much more than a person might think. Some believe that allowing transgender atheletes in new situations such as joining new locker rooms, competing with an unfair disadvantage or advantage, will cause chaos throughout athletic events. Although some United States citizens condradict and believe it is disrespectful for non-transgender atheletes and to athletics, others concur with transgender athletes joining the opposite genders sports. With this disagreement in athletic competition and the number of more and more citizens identifying as transgender, it is crucial to realize that there must be a new consists between transgender atheletes and porfessional sports leagues around the world.

Transgender atheletes are in some cases at an advantage, but also a disadvantage in sports. Being forced to play on girls’ teams when they start playing in school and having to fit in with girls’ coaching and team dynamics. According to The Hill Opinion Contributor, M. Gregg Bloche, “Myriad influences — environmental, genetic, and mixtures of both — produce differences in athletic capability and performance. Without these differences, sports would be insufferably dull. Every competition would yield a tie — or, worse, a winner decided by dumb luck” (TheHill) . Allowing new transgender athletes to join in new enviorments and compete against not as competitive competition, will just make the sport less entertaining and could possibly ruin sports as a whole. Furthermore, according to a table from Emma N Hilton, a Biologist from the University of Kentucky, the male performance data is anywhere from 10%-50% greater than female performance data in olympic sports. Sports are reliant on speed, durability, strength and many more physical traits. Allowing a trangender male athlete to join a female league will give a physical trait advantage to the transgender male athlete and disadvantage to female athletes. 

Although some people agree with the idea of transgender athletes competing in new leagues in unfair, others belive in choice and expression of the self. According to an article by Christine May, “discrimination that is based upon gender and/or sexual identity affects the fundamental integrity of sport and is often linked to other integrity issues such as violence, harassment or abuse” (Clearing House for Sport). Discriminating others for expressing themselves is cruel. It also affects how an athlete may perform, and how they view themselves in a harmful and disturbing way. Transgender people are still human beings, even if others do not agree with their personal life decisions. According to Clara Moskowitz, an Astronomist from Wesleyan University, “a staggering 41 percent of transgender people in the United States have attempted to commit suicide, according to a new survey. About 19 percent of transgender people report being refused medical care because of their gender-nonconforming status, and a shocking 2 percent have been violently assaulted in a doctor's office” (Live Science). This statistic is just eye-opening, it shows the disrespect that the transgender athletes get and how much it hurts them to express themselves in todays society.

The issue of transgender athelets joing new leagues based on their new identity is a major problem in today's society, but has a possible solution. The solution to this problem is creating a new professional league where transgender athletes compete against the same gender as themselves. Meaning, transgender men compete against transgender men, and visversa for transgender women. This would solve the physical advantage problem of the transgender men so they would not have ti compete in an all female league. Also, there would be no more debate amongst society on whether or not transgender atheletes should compete against others with a advantage or disadvantage.

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