In the new progressive era, the United States has faced many new challenges, especially in the sports aspect. There has been a long debate among people, with some believing that transgender people should stay in the division they identify with, some believing they should stick to their “biological sex,” and others believing they should not play at all. This is unfair to all transgender athletes. That is why the United States should create transgender men and transgender women divisions in sports.

First, transgender women such as Lia Thomas and Anne Andres have been gaining a lot of unfair attention in the media, while transgender men are rarely talked about. What happens to the transgender men? Biologically, men have an advantage over transgender men with different bone structures, hormones, and muscle mass. Even with testosterone hormone therapy, it can take up to 5 years for the changes to finalize.​ On top of that, if a transgender man were to remove his ovaries, he would have to take an even lower dosage of the hormones. This still gives men a biological advantage. So what can the United States do to support them? That’s a good question to keep in mind as you read.

On another note transgender women who are receiving hate also have a hard time finding their place in sports. They do not identify with men so they rightfully go into the women's division. However, that is sadly when biological issues come into play. They are outcompeting their competitors because of the difference in body chemistry. You may ask, “But what about hormone therapy? Doesn’t that make them fair competitors?” To answer the question, yes, they definitely can be fair competitors with hormone therapy! However, only under the right conditions can competition be fair. Just like testosterone hormone therapy for transgender men, it takes around 5 years for the final results of estrogen/testosterone blockers/progesterones to show in transgender women. Keep in mind, a lot of transgender women athletes have been taking it for less than 5 years which still gives them a biological advantage against women. Even after two years of hormone therapy transgender women still have a 12% edge over women. Furthermore, if hormone therapy is taken after puberty the changes in the therapy will be less effective and noticeable. With more statistics, researchers found that “[B]efore starting their hormone treatment trans women performed 31% more push-ups and 15% more sit-ups in one minute on average than a biological women younger than 30 in the air force” and “[R]an 1.5 miles 21% faster.” They also found that “trans women also retained a 10% advantage in push-ups and a 6% advantage in sit-ups for the first two years after taking hormones, before their advantage disappeared.” However, further research is being conducted to see if more power is exerted while performing such exercises. 

As of April 2023, “The House action comes as at least 20 other states have imposed similar limits on trans athletes at the K-12 or collegiate level.” This number continues to grow and it could be possible that transgender people will not be able to compete in the division they identify with. Even though there is a biological difference between transgender people and biological men/women, is it ethically right to force a transgender person to compete in the division they don’t identify with? 

Is this segregation of transgender people and cis people? Not at all! Sports have already separated men and women because of their biological differences. There are also age and weight divisions as well. This is not segregation to disclude transgender people but rather give them an equal chance to shine in sports with fair competition.

Works Cited

Freking, Kevin. “House approves trans athlete ban for girls and women's teams.” AP News, 20 April 2023, https://apnews.com/article/congress-transgender-women-sports-ban-athletes-1c58c20cac2b191e323e4376d7949a2d Accessed 8 December 2023.

“Information on Testosterone Hormone Therapy | Gender Affirming Health Program.” UCSF Transgender Care, https://transcare.ucsf.edu/article/information-testosterone-hormone-therapy Accessed 8 December 2023.

Ingle, Sean. “Trans women retain 12% edge in tests two years after transitioning, study finds.” The Guardian, 7 December 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/07/study-suggests-ioc-adjustment-period-for-trans-women-may-be-too-short Accessed 8 December 2023.