The recently concluded Olympic and Paralympic Games in Italy were the most gender-balanced in history.

At the Olympics, women were 47 per cent of the competitors, 45 per cent of the senior leadership of the organizing committee and 55 per cent of the volunteers. Twelve of the 16 Olympic disciplines were completely gender-balanced. Similarly, at the Paralympics, a record number of women athletes competed. Canadian women brought home 21 of the country’s 36 Olympic and Paralympic medals.

Yet, a dark cloud looms over the future of women’s sport due to efforts taken to exclude transgender women and women with sex variations by certain international sport federations, the U.S. and Alberta governments, and most recently, the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Proponents of such exclusions argue that transgender women and women with sex variations are “biologically male” and therefore have certain physiological characteristics that could provide an unfair edge or pose injury risks to “biologically female” athletes, potentially jeopardizing the integrity of women’s sports categories.

These concerns are unsupported by scientific evidence and unpersuasive.

In the case of women with sex variations, there is an absence of high-quality, independent evidence showing sport performance advantage.

Alberta’s new sport legislation built on fear and discrimination

Alberta’s new sport legislation built on fear and discrimination

The fight for trans rights is a women’s rights issue

The fight for trans rights is a women’s rights issue

Further, as geneticists, ethicists and human-rights experts have repeatedly argued, focusing on a single biological characteristic of women with sex variations (such as the presence of a Y chromosome or their natural testosterone levels) ignores the many other factors that contribute to athletic success and remain unregulated, such as height, reach, concentration of fast-twitch muscle fibres, other genetic variations and socioeconomic status.

In the case of transgender women, the........

© IRPP - Policy Options