Let's look at some facts here. There are claims that trans athletes have a physical advantage over cis women, and that women are upset at being beaten by trans women, who are dominating. There has never been a trans woman holding any world class record, winning any world class event, or even making the finals of a world class event! This does not indicate any advantage, and certainly no dominance.
Within a year of starting on effective transition doses of HRT, trans women lose muscle mass and strength to put them within the performance parameters of cis women. Their haemoglobin level drop to the same level of cis women, meaning they only have the same capacity to deliver oxygen to muscles as women. Professional cycling looked at this years ago and found it to be a disadvantage for trans performance as it made their muscles less efficient. Over two years, bone density drops to cis female parameters, meaning they face the same risk of injury on impact. Hands and feet are larger on post male puberty transitioning trans women, but they need efficient muscles to make that a real advantage, and as shown, this is not the case.
In every group, there will be exeptions. Michael Phelps was such an exeption, he had unusually large feet and hands, but also he didn't produce lactic acid like others, which meant he could push his body harder. His exception was celebrated. In Australia, the laws governing discrimination include an out for sports where a trans person exhibits exceptional abilities, and this has been in place for more than a decade, and could also work for world sporting bodies.
FINA's actions have been driven by people upset over a College trans swimmer, Lia Thomas, who won this years NCAA 500 yard freestyle title. Anti trans groups have pushed that Lia has advantages from being trans, and is dominating her sport, making cis women feel that they can't compete. This is all a beat up! Yes, Lia did win the 500 title this year, but the top swimmers in that event did not compete this year due to Covid affected preparations, and Lia's winning time was 10 seconds slower that the NCAA record for that event, held by Katie Ledeke. Lia, and Katie are almost identical in their physical dimensions, but Lia can not compete with Katie, or a lot of other swimmers in this class. Lia competed in 4 other events at that meet, and was unplaced in all of them. Contrary to the misinformation being spread, Lia does not have significant advantages, is certainly not dominating, and there are a bunch of cis women who have advantages over Lia!!!
So it is obvious that FINA has introduced a solution to a problem that simply does not exist! There are so few elite level trans athletes, that any problem would be miniscule, and certainly not the threat to women's sport that the anti trans movement portrays. Even FINA's suggestion of an Open class is not feasible as trans female athletes simply could not compete against men, and so would effectively be excluded. A trans only class would never have enough competitors to actually run.
What can we do? It's pretty obvious, this will now spread through other sports, and the World Rugby authority has already followed FINA's move. But it's also obvious that this determination that trans women are not women, and should be excluded from women's only spaces will flow into the public domain. if you don't wish to be prevented from using female restrooms, change rooms, schools, social groups and clubs, now is the time to get active and start refuting the lies that are being spread about you! Let your community and politicians know the truth, and push hard for our basic Human Rights!
Hugs,
Allie
