As times are changing, more and more people are coming to terms and becoming more comfortable with their gender identity. As the world is becoming more accepting towards transgenders, the world of sport is having a difficult time with having sex integrating sports. Professional as wells as recreational sports are trying to alter their policies in order to have fair and equal playing in the Olympics and in the high school setting. Recent changes to Olympic regulations seem more fair dealing with transgender athletes, whereas high schools are more lenient towards the possibility of unfair play in sports.  In the Olympics they are requiring transgender athletes to undergo hormonal therapy so that the transgender athlete is physically equal to their opponents. Whereas in the high school setting they are permitted to play on the team of their choosing with no requirements being authorized. Though we are looking at adults versus children, we are looking at the possibilities of unfair advantages. 

The unfair advantage of sex integrating sports is not in the act of allowing a person to play on the team that is opposite of their sex born gender. The unfair advantage comes into play when this action is allowed without the proper measures being taken to keep a fair playing atmosphere. A fair playing atmosphere is one where all athletes can perform at their best against opponents who have physical similarities, but differing in athletic abilities. Many scholars believe that the best way to create a uniform sporting environment is to allow transgender athletes to play on the team of their choice if the proper measures are taken into effect. A scholar by the name of Katharina Linder wrote an article, “ Do Transgender Athletes Have an Unfair Advantage?” which discusses why sex integrated sports, where men and women play on the same team, can be seen as unfair. In Katharina’s article she mentions how the IOC (The International Olympic Committee) has made changes in the transgender policies in the Olympics. Through this policy, transgender athletes will be allowed to compete in the Olympics without having to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Even though these changes have been made male to female transgender athletes are still required to go through hormonal therapy for at least one year before the competition. Katharina utilizes research done by columnist Janice Turner about South African distance runner named Caster Semenya to strengthen the reasoning behind wanting athletes to undergo hormonal therapy. Caster Semenya is a male-to-female transgender who ran in the Olympics in record-breaking time in the 800-meter race. Caster Semenya ran the 800 meter in 1 minute and 55 seconds, a personal best as well as the fifth best timing for both men’s and women’s in the Olympic race. As incredible as Caster Semenya’s record was, the record was not broken under the correct category for this particular race, due to Caster Semenya not taking any hormonal therapeutic remedies. Such remedies would assist in decreasing the high testosterone levels in her body, thus reducing the chance of Caster having any advantages in the race. This advantage allowed her to surpass the records of the other Olympic female runners. As seen in the Olympic setting, there are now cases of similar events beginning to happen in the high school setting.

A recognized speaker and professor in the Social Justice Education named Pat Griffin sheds light on the issues of transgender athletes in high schools being limited to the sports they play based off of their sexual orientation. In his article, “Developing Polices for Transgender students on High School Teams,” many high schools have seen an issue with having transgender athletes playing on the team of their choice. Some of these issues include, but are not limited to, having special locker rooms or bathroom changes for the athlete.  Even though this may seem as an extra task for school leaders it’s now a requirement issued by some states in America to allow transgender athletes to play on the team of their choice. Having these requirements sports leaders and parents have expressed concerns of transgender boys taking advantage of sex-integrating sports. Whether taking advantage by gaining the opportunity for more playing time, or whether its to dominate a particular sport. Another major concern for some people about transgender athletes particularly transgender girls, is that allowing transgender girls (male- to-female) to play at a young age will pose a safety risk of injury for non-transgender girls. Having transgender girls play with non transgender girls would be equivalent to having a boy play with a girl, the only difference would be is the boy may look as if he’s a female. According to Pat, “Most well-developed policies require that students who identify as transgender demonstrate a consistent female gender identity in everyday life verified by parents and/or health-care professionals.” Having children be verified by health-care professionals effectively eliminates the situation of boys pretending to be girls, and also allows for athletes to compete without any advantages. The high schools in America that have not allowed sex-integrating sports have implemented a plan in their policies to ensure that everyone will be provided with fair and equal play.

In “The Case for Allowing Transgender Athletes in Youth Sports” by column writer Katy Steinmetz some states in America aren’t as lenient as others to allow sex integrated sports. In these states requirements must be met in order to compete. Most schools now have advised meetings where the student must provide documentation and statement from parents and doctors stating there is evidence of hormone therapy in place (Katy Steinmetz). As expected there are complaints about these policies and constant pressure to change them so that athletes will not have to undergo any medical procedures. A previous republican candidate Mike Huckabee ridiculed and mocked these complaints stating, “ I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, “Coach, I think Id rather shower with the girls today”.” By Mike Huckabee making this statement, he’s not necessarily speaking for all males, but he is providing an example of a possible reason for boys to abuse the policy of allowing sex-integrated sports. Which is why some high schools feel they need and have strict policies on this issue. 

As high schools figure out the best way to provide an equal playing environment the Olympics have created policies, which may not seem like to some, but they are the most suitable to create fair competition. Michael Messener, an American sociologist whose research is mainly gender and sociology of sports wrote a book, Child’s Play: Sport in Kids’ Worlds, and a scholarly article“ Sports and Male Domination; The Female Athlete as Contested Ideological Terrain” to discuss the success in the Olympic transgender policies. In Child’s Play: Sport in Kids’ Worlds, Michael Messner presents a question to sporting institutions and programs. The question is: should sports be sex segregated into male and female teams or not? The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) answer to Messner’s question is yes, but the athlete must go through hormonal treatment. These hormonal treatments decrease the testosterone levels in a male to female transgender and vice versa to transform the athlete internally to the gender they want to be identified with. Some sporting institutions disagree with the IOC’s approach; they feel as if female and male athletes don’t have a distinct amount of difference between their abilities to perform in sports. 

Michael Messner refutes this argument in his scholarly article “Sports and Male Domination; The Female Athlete as Contested Ideological Terrain”. Masculinity and feminity have had an enormous impact on the view of male and female athletes. Through history women have been seen as being inferior to men in the work force, education, and even in sports. The male dominance involved in sports has been supported by the media and society values and beliefs and is still being supported to this day. Even though women have proved they are not as weak as they are perceived to be in the sports setting, there are still differences among the men and women body structure that make males naturally stronger and faster than females. In his article, Messner expresses the possible disadvantages among male and female sex integrated sports through the facts about the body structure differences among men and women. Males average 40% muscle and 15% body fat, while the females average 23% muscle and 25% body fat (Messner). These body structure differences among the male and female athletes are what have placed a level of successfulness in certain sports for males and females. So if a female-to-male transgender athlete participates in a male sport, there will be a slim chance of them being able to win. And as for the opposite side, for a male-to-female transgender there will be a higher chance for them to win, causing a disadvantage for the other competitors. 

All of the scholars previously mentioned are different in what they do, and have different opinions on certain matters involving sports. However there is one topic in which they all agree on. All of these scholars agree that sex integrating is a step in the right direction in building on equality in the sports world, but in order to ensure that sports remain fair, transgender athletes must be required to take hormonal treatment. Even though these scholars provide examples and explanations as to why hormonal treatment is a necessity for transgender athletes to compete, there are scholars who still continue to disagree with their approach with this situation. Some of these scholars include but are not limited to Steven Petrow, Alice Sanders, Woojun Lee and George B. Cunningham, and Gayle Salamon. These scholars feel as though by having strict rules on transgender athletes, institutions can covertly discriminate against them.

Transgender athletes are faced with the possibility of discrimination each day they walk on the court or field.  This discrimination can commence from anywhere, whether it’s the coaching staff, or teammates. As result of accepting sex-integrated sports, sexual stigmas are arising. One specific sexual stigma that is displayed is known as Heterosexism, whereby institutions serve to privilege heterosexuals while devaluing LGBT communities and individuals. As heterosexism is being displayed inside the vicinities of the locker rooms and on the field, fans are now beginning to internalize these stigmas, affecting their beliefs on LGBT’s participating in sports. The authors Woojun Lee and George B Cunningham of a scholarly article, “Gender Sexism, Sexual Prejudice, and Identification with U.S. Football and Men’s Figure Skating”, used trials and research that speaks about the outcomes of heterosexism. Robinson Trials did one of the studies mentioned, where he sought to understand how fans identified with US football and Men’s Figure Skating. The reason for this study was to give reasoning as to why some sports have more fan base than others. The conclusion for this study was that male fans that express sexual prejudice are often drawn to sports that are based of masculinity, or their beliefs. Having sports sex-integrate may have a negative impact on the teams or overall sport. By sex-integrating, fans that have opposing beliefs may display these beliefs in uncivil manners, which could affect the athlete and or team. Most of these actions are not directed towards the athlete because of their performance, rather these actions are brought about because of the athletes physical appearance being different compared to their competitors. 

What if a person told you that you were not able to have a job, or play a certain sport based off of your external appearance? For transgender athletes they struggle with this problem in every activity they are involved in especially in major sports. According to Gayle Salamon in a journal Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality the ideology of transsexual behavior is not abnormal due to the genetic makeup of each individual. Gayle Salamon uses Freud’s studies on the science of anatomy to support his opinion on why the idea of a person being strictly female and strictly male is invalid. Freud states that “Sometimes the intersexual body refuses to conform to the binary of sexual differences between male and female”. This confusion that occurs within the body is where the questioning of whether a person is born the sex they were supposed to be. Through Freud’s studies it can be easily seen that transgender individuals have no control over their feelings. That being stated, transgender athletes feel that the only way they can completely feel like person they were meant to be they must be accepted by the society and treated as that specific gender. Sex-integrating sports authorizes the opportunity of transgender athletes to finally exhibit and feel a sense of placement in not only sports but also in society. 

People who disagree with Gayle Salamon and Woojun Lee and George B. Cunningham believe the easy way to make transgender athletes feel a sense of placement in sports while at the same time keeping the game fair, is to have them undergo procedures that assist with their transformation. According to some people, this may not be the best option to make the game equal for everyone. Steven Petrow (a journalist for The New York Times) tries to reach out to people who think transgender athletes should not be allowed to play on the team of their choice in the Olympics. Steven Petrow addresses that there are pros and cons with having transgender athletes playing on the team of their choice in an article “ Do Transgender Athletes Have an Unfair Advantage at the Olympics.” In this article Steven Petrow starts off with the topic of allowing transgender athletes to compete in the Olympics. For transgender women to compete with women who were born as female in the Olympics, the solution of hormone therapy is brought to attention. Steven Petrow wrote that according, to some studies hormone therapy could actually become an issue for transgender male and females, actually decreasing or increasing muscle mass too much. The decrease in muscle mass can actually affect the athleticism the athlete had before the hormonal therapy, which could either be a disadvantage towards the transgender athletes, or a major advantage for them which would then create unfair play. Undergoing hormonal therapy could possibly cause a decrease or increase in the athlete’s athletic abilities. These increases and decreases may seem as a con to this issue but on the contrary it can be viewed as a pro. Increasing a female-to-male’s testorone level, and decreasing a male-to-females testerone level, creates a fair playing atmosphere.

Like any issue there are pros and cons to sex integrated sports. One of the pros are transgender athletes can finally begin to feel a placement in sports. This feeling will allow them to finally get the chance to be identified as the sex they feel they should have been born. According to Steven Petrow, Alice Sanders, Woojun Lee and George B. Cunningham, and Gayle Salamon, the only way for transgender athletes to get the full experience of feeling like the sex they want to be identified as, is to decrease the limits of restriction that they have. Rather than making them change there sex or undergo procedures, they want them to play just as they are, and allow them to make decision to change their body structure rather than being told to do so. But like a seesaw as one side goes up the other goes down. By allowing transgender athletes to play on the team of their choice without stipulations, the game now begins to be unfair. Scholars like Michael Messner, Katy Steinmetz, Pat Griffin, and Katharina Linder all provide reasoning as to way sex integrated sports without hormonal treatment can a have negative impact on the game that is played. As it can be seen there is no simple solution to this problem one side will be affected more than the other. The best way to try and make the situation as fair as possible is to allow sex integrated sports in the recreational and elite programs, but require hormonal treatment to make the level of performance as equal as possible
