Prominent LGBTQ+ Athletes Push Back on the IOC's Ban on Trans Womenhttps://www.them.us/story/prominent-lgbtq-athletes-push-back-on-the-iocs-ban-on-trans-women 🔗Abby Monteil (27 March 2026)
Queer and trans athletes are speaking out against the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to ban transgender women and some intersex athletes from female sporting events.
The updated IOC policy mandates that athletes get tested for the SRY gene — which is usually attached to Y chromosomes but may also indicate hormone variations — in order to qualify for women's competitions and Olympic qualifiers. Last month, a coalition of 90 human rights and sports organizations urged the IOC to not use SRY "sex testing," which they said would "set women's sports back 30 years."
Despite evidence suggesting that trans women's athletic performance tends to match or be at a disadvantage to that of cis women, the new policy aligns with Donald Trump's targeting of trans athletes ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Olympic runner Caster Semenya denounced the IOC's decision in a statement to BBC, saying, "If the IOC had truly listened — if [IOC] President [Kirsty] Coventry had done what evidence-based policy demands — this policy would not exist."
In 2023, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the international governing body for track and field had discriminated against Semenya, a cis woman, by telling her that she must lower her naturally occurring hormone levels in order to compete.
"[This policy] does not smell of science. It smells of stigma," Semenya's statement continued. "It was not born from care for athletes. It was born from political pressure..."
