It pains me to say this, but there is something unfair about Lia Thomas, the University of Pennsylvania star swimmer, winning the 100- and 200-yard women’s freestyle against Harvard in January, setting five records at the Ivy League championship in February or winning the NCAA 500 last week. She’s the first transgender athlete to win an American college swimming championship. And there is something rational in calls by some of her competitors–and by some transgender athletes themselves–for a rule change.
By saying this I may be breaking with liberal orthodoxy, but I don’t think so. Fairness is never illiberal. Unfairness is. I might be breaking with a form of orthodoxy on the left that takes certain things to extremes in the name of invented equalities of fabricated offenses, the sort of orthodoxy that’s giving us absurd speech codes on campus, fueling the pyres of “cancel culture” or letting human resource departments turn workplaces into reeducation camps. The intent might be laudable. It’s to foster respect and encourage us to be accepting of all differences. It’s to counter “the depluralizing of America,” to quote the words of a recent New York Times editorial. But like the old ways of bloodletting patients to save them, the cure is worsening the disease. Sometimes certain equalities, certain forms of inclusion, are not possible. At least not the way things are today.
Thomas is a woman. She was born male. She is transgender. Those facts are beyond dispute or debate. Identity lived or adopted authentically is nobody’s business to question, only to accept. It isn’t appropriation. It’s choice. If we believe the last six words of the Pledge, sexual identity is no more the place for lawmakers to trespass than religious or cultural identity.
Identity is beyond question. Rules taking account of identity are not, especially when the rules are new, the data they’re based on is inconclusive, and the rules’ consequences are clearly unsettling–not for discriminatory reasons (the rules are obviously intended to counter discrimination) but as a matter of fairness.
Current NCAA rules clear Thomas for competition as a woman. No matter her testosterone suppressants, Thomas likely has biological capacities her competitors do not. The science isn’t rich in this regard. That’s another problem, though it’s a matter of time before data better clarifies the issue. For now, what data there is strongly suggests, as in a 2020 peer-reviewed study, that while physical advantages decline for females after gender affirming hormone therapy, the advantages are not eliminated. The differences are significantly larger than 1 percent. Even if they were just 1 percent, in sports like swimming, running and weight-lifting, where medals are minted of fractional glitter, those differences remain decisive.
So results have been justifiably dismaying to some of Thomas’s competitors. Based on current rules, it’s a matter of time before other transgender women break various athletic records.
Put it this way. The late Florence Griffith Joyner set the world record for the 100 and 200 meter sprint in 1988. The records have stood for 34 years. Four of the eight boys in a 2016 high school competition in the United States beat her record. Of course the comparison makes no sense, because they’re boys, and because any boy or man beating her record wouldn’t make it anywhere near Olympic qualifiers for men. But based on current rules, it’s a matter of time before a transgender woman breaks Joyner’s record. And that would make no sense.
Inclusion is essential. But current rules don’t seem to address the matter of fairness any better than previous rules that excluded anyone based on gender or race or anything else. I don’t know what the rules should look like. I do know that in a country that once had a tradition of pragmatism second to none they can be made to work for everyone. We just haven’t figured out how yet. “Americans have a breathtaking confidence either in the simplicity of the world or in their own capacities,” the French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir wrote as she traveled the country in 1947. We still have that confidence if we take it, too, as a premise. Instead we’re doing an excellent job of mucking things up to ensure that there is no dignified resolution, because it’s almost impossible to discuss this subject without being branded either a bigot or a nut job.
That’s the bigger problem: the fact that there is an ideological divide rather than differences of opinions on a challenge that isn’t quite resolved, but that we should be grateful to face. That transgender people are finally out of the closet is not a problem. It’s a triumph, like interracial or gay marriage and other defeats of age-old discriminations. Lia Thomas winning competitions is also a triumph, but it’s also a wake-up call that rules, for all their good intentions, aren’t yet where they should be. We must say this with the certainty that they will soon be.
So the way to respond is not like Gov. Ron DeSantis, who couldn’t wait to further poison the ideological divide with his camera-mugging decree that the second-place finisher in the 500, a swimmer from Sarasota, was really the only legitimate winner last week. Nor is it legislatures’ place to define identity today, whether through molesting ID checks or bathroom bans, anymore than it was Congress’ and Bill Clinton’s place to define marriage in 1996. And it’s not right-wing talking heads using words like “grotesque” and “freak” to describe Thomas’s achievement or worse: Thomas herself. That’s just vileness from people whose ethics are a closer match to those words.
There’s room for apprehension. There’s plenty of room for discussion and exploration of means to resolve the dilemma, taking both inclusion and fairness as starting points. But let’s not demonize transgender athletes along the way or build them new closets carpentered on the recycling of separate but equal repugnance. That would be grotesque.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here.
Mark says
Can you define a woman Pierre?
MikeM says
Thomas is no woman. Maybe in his mind but he still has the man parts. Suppress all you want he is still biologically male.
Frankly I don’t care what his sexual orientation is. But as far as I’m concerned
He should not be able to compete with women unless he physically becomes a woman. Otherwise (now here is an idea)
Have male sports, women sports, and transgender sports. Problem solved.
Ritchie says
Brilliant!
Richard Smith says
Mike, Hit nail right on the head sir. Total joke dealing with this MAN competing against women…
HayRide says
Nope, this absolutely WRONG! There is no question, perversion is perversion! You can think in your head your the other sex, however, DNA well prove the truth. Seek phyasatric help and stay out of sports.
Mary Fusco says
This person is a male. When was the last time you saw shoulders and arms like that on a woman? Whether or not he is taking hormone suppressing drugs, he/she is still the size of a large male. What a person does with their personal life is of no interest to me. I would never use words like grotesque or freak. However, I would use the term “unfair advantage” and maybe BS. If this were logical, why have we had male and female sports teams forever? Sports may need to add a coed category where anyone who is up for the challenge can go for it. Thought this was an excellent article and can see both sides. However, “unfair advantage” keeps coming to mind. It is all wrong and if someone’s toes are stepped on, so be it.
Mark says
I guess Pierre can’t define what a woman is. Typical.
Mark says
As long as it’s infuriates the GOP and Evangelicals I’m all for it. Doesn’t affect me one iota.
Mark says
I guess you are for denying real women their rights?
Bill says
I doubt you have a daughter competing in female sports.
Steve Robinson says
Oddly enough, this is one instance of the hapless NCAA actually trying to do the right thing, while the science has not yet caught up with good intentions. As a letter to the NCAA from swimmers at the University of Arizona notes, Thomas herself is also a victim of the organization’s rush to a decision.
https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/university-of-arizona-swimmers-write-letter-to-ncaa-on-lia-thomas/
By permitting Thomas to compete with women, the NCAA has forever made her the poster child for the bigotry and ignorance that politicians like DeSantis (and at least one commenter here) will brandish for their own ends. What interests me in particular is the compassionate way in which current and former women swimmers, including Nancy Hogshead-Makar, who has been very vocal on this issue, are balancing their support for Thomas’ decision to transition while contending (correctly, I believe) that she has a distinctly unfair advantage in the pool. As right-wing politicians (and school board members) compete to see who can be the most intolerant and hurtful toward young people struggling with gender issues, it’s reassuring to see that some people who actually have a stake in the issue are committed to finding sensible and compassionate solutions.
Mark says
The “right thing”? Science catching up? Huh? How about we follow the science or really do the right thing?
LetsBeReal says
The XX and XY chromosomes cannot be changed. Hence Lia Thomas is a man NOT a woman.
Michelle says
Yes, bans are the answer for now. At least until a solution is devised, they should be banned from organized gender based sports for the choice they have made. Truth and consequence. We have bans for all kinds of choices we make in life. Why should this be any different? A permanent solution will eventually come along, but right now, yes, a ban.
A privileged white male at privileged elite schools wasn’t quite enough of a life advantage apparently.
Lynn Stote says
Have to agree with Mikem’s comment–men- women- transgender and that takes care of all this controversy!! Mikem used a little simple common sense which seems to be so lacking in this day and age!to in q
Jimbo99 says
To openly admit a fix & unfair advantage without creating asterisked records a sub division and special heats/events, where Trans competes vs Trans, it’s an open admission that Trans competing against Women is not a legitimate win or record for any event. I’m against a ban to compete or have a “division” to have a competition, I think everyone should participate & compete in athletic events & sports. But like any fighting of MMA or UFC, that’s really not much different than organized domestic abuse really because of the physical nature of the contestants. We aren’t talking golf, tennis or ping pong here. We’re always going to see injuries man vs man, women vs women, because there is no such ting as an even prize fight unless the talent is that closely matched. But this is like putting Mike Tyson in the ring vs a Trans or Female opponent. And for anyone to allow a Trans to pummel a woman like that and have gambling/gaming on top of it. That’s pushing criminality for that. I don’t see anyone protesting & boycotting those events. As a legitimate sanctioning body, there has to be some accountability & responsibility for when a woman’s skull & face is bruised & fractured in a prize fight by a Trans athlete. Only because that level of a beat down has happened.
Chris says
The year Is 2022 and we can’t identify a man or a woman, I think 50000 years ago the caveman was able to tell.
Tommy Tucker says
Finally a real woman that has the balls to stand up to these Republicans and Evangelicals.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
OMG our world has gone completely MAD if a born male can ever become a 100% female or vice versa. I pity those souls who are not happy with the way GOD made them ; it is very sad really. Nonetheless just stay the hell away from screwing with the lives of those who are happy with the way GOD made them! Bravo Mike M calling a trans a trans.
Yeeeesh says
He has the right to pretend he is a woman. I just don’t want to be required to pretend with him.
Mark1 says
Integrate all sports , Men and woman play together. Problem solved. They used to separate sports by race also in the dark ages
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
No, Pierre, I’d say that your take is entirely consistent with the white liberal consensus. Not the leftist one, though, so there’s still hope.
Alonzo says
From his mother’s womb as a boy, he is still male. Excuse what I’m about to say, no periods, can’t get pregnant sound like a male to me. He didn’t come with girl parts he came with boy parts like all human males.