Pom in Oz with Derek Goforth: My opinion on transgender athletes in sport is I have 100 opinions

Scott Morrison is not known for keeping his opinions to himself. Given that election season is in full swing I suppose he shouldn’t be expected to. One of his latest contentious opinions is on transgender athletes, in which he has stated it’s common sense that transgender women should not be competing in female sports, full stop. This again has raised the topic of transgender people in general and in particular transgender athletes. But has the issue ever gone away? I am pretty sure I myself have written a couple of pieces on the topic, but as time moves on so does knowledge and with it opinion. While I agree on one level with our PM — the use of common sense — I see it as a much more complex topic than the rights of people to participate in sports, which I do believe is a fundamental right for all. It’s not an issue that can have one blanket judgment, it’s common sense simply because we have hundreds if not thousands of sports and sport governing bodies. One rule for boxing, for example, would not suit track and field. It goes without saying this is a sensitive issue. Giving an opinion on either side can find you labelled transphobic or delusional. I like to think that I approach things in a sensitive manner, but if I do offend please note it is not my intent. Critics say that it’s fundamentally unfair that people born with and growing up with testosterone in their bodes have an advantage, physically, over people who don’t. Muscle development and bone density all go towards making a stronger, faster more adept athlete. Most people, including transgender activists, would agree with this. But — and this is the first big point — all sporting bodies have regulations and rules about reducing testosterone and levels in the body. A little “research” (as in Googling articles) will give some information on the effect this has on the body. Reduction in body mass, strength and speed, even compounding the ageing process. Some activists argue this pretty much levels the playing field as far as the advantages of testosterone levels are concerned. But can this really diminish growing up and going through puberty as a male? I am not so sure. What about the advantage of simply being bigger? In sports such as basketball it is an obvious advantage to be a taller player. Although they do exist, you don’t see many elite basketball players under six-foot tall. But how many other sports have a distinct advantage to simply be bigger? Yes with contact sports such as AFL, rugby or gridiron some payers on the field need to have bulk and height to perform their roles — but certainly not all. A winger needs speed rather than bulk, a larger frame would actually be a disadvantage. Take endurance sports as another example. Road cycling for instance. Yes, strength plays a large part but having a large frame would hinder you a great deal. Ask any cyclist how light they would like to be when they are starting an uphill endurance sprint? So, I do not think it’s as simple as strength being the defining quality of a great athlete. What about combat sports? Boxing, MMA and karate all have advantages associated with weight. You don’t see super heavyweights going toe-to-toe with bantamweights for a reason — it’s dangerous. But surely that’s why we have weight classes. You would never be expected to compete — other than in exhibition bouts — with someone who wasn’t a similar weight to you. How that weight is proportioned between lean muscle and fat would be down to each individual athlete. But I can say, speaking from experience, that boxing a female athlete can be just as challenging when taking into account raw speed and technique. While not regarded as a “sport” by all, but it is to me, what about CrossFit? CrossFit is a sport that demands speed, strength, agility and technique equally across the board. The elite CrossFitters have to be balanced, you can’t be too big or too fast as it will take away from something else. If you look at the CrossFit open results since the competition’s inception, you can see that even with scaling the men constantly outperform the women, there is no argument to this. It would be hugely unfair for an elite male CrossFitter to be competing in the women’s division, unless severe chemical adjustment had been made some years previously. I know that might not be a the best example, but it is one I can speak of from seeing it with my own eyes. Males simply are advantaged over females. But it is just one sport and CrossFit itself is fairly unique in its requirements of balance. So my opinion is that I have about 100 opinions. But this is not simply about sport, let’s face it. It’s about transgender rights and people’s attitude towards them — on both sides. And that debate will rage on long after I stop writing this piece. Derek Goforth is a teacher at Geraldton Christian College