Sunday, 20 February 2022

Trans-sports

Just listening to Rachel Johnson on LBC about Trans sports. I agree and disagree with her on this.

First of all, she is wrong to discuss the case of Lia Thomas and to ignore the success of Iszac Henig.  She is not alone in this but this does not make it excusable.  For the record, Iszac Henig, born female and now a trans-man beat XY men in a swimming competition and had refused to take testosterone before he competed.  Lia Thomas, born a man and now a trans-woman beat her competition as well.

Second, she discussed testosterone as the issue.  While it is partly, the concerns I have with trans-athletes is more muscle mass.  Those who have an XY chromosomal make up, on average have more of a muscle mass that those who are XX.  We see this with the Cockcroft Gault equation which looks at creatinine clearance, this being affected by muscle mass.

Third, she has called for a Tran-Olympics.  Personally, I feel that this should not happen, but there should be an open category where those who are male women or transgender can compete.

I know some will consider me transphobic for my view that Trans-athletes should not complete with women.  But I am willing to listen to view on this.  I do consider any discussion invalid if it does not consider Iszac Henig however.