As of March 13, the 2021 state legislative session has already broken records for the greatest number of anti-transgender bills ever filed in a single session. These bills vary from restricting medical access for transgender individuals, to banning them from public facilities such as restrooms, and most notably during recent months, banning them from participating in sports. There are two primary rationales that inform discrimination against transgender women in sports. The first is the conception of transgender women as predators seeking to endanger cisgender women, a rationale which has previously informed “bathroom bills” and other measures intended to keep transgender women out of spaces that align with their gender identity. There is no widespread evidence of transgender women posing a danger to cisgender women, and the concept of the transgender women as a disguise for a predatory man has been widely debunked and condemned as baseless transphobia. The second rationale is the argument that transgender women have notable physical advantages over cisgender women that cannot be sufficiently mediated by the individual medically transitioning, thus giving transgender women an unfair advantage over cisgender women in athletic competitions. Scientific studies have shown high levels of effectiveness in medical transition measures such as testosterone suppressing treatments, which largely neutralize any physical advantages one might expect a cisgender male to have over a cisgender female. Combining this with the natural physical advantages certain cisgender athletes have over their competitors, the participation of transgender women in women’s sports does not pose a risk to competitiveness. The only clear and present risks to competitiveness in athletic competitions are either preventing athletes from participating in competitions aligning with their gender identities or allowing them to compete without access to resources necessary to medically transition. As such, rather than attempt to ban transgender athletes from participating in sports aligning with their gender identities, state legislatures should pass measures guaranteeing access to medical transitions to transgender individuals.
2 thoughts on “A New Era of Competition (working title)”
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This is a great set up for your essay! You have a strong thesis and great diction! It’s so sad that even from March 13th there has been even more anti-trans bills with the most recent being the anti-trans medical treatment bill in Arkansas. I can’t wait to read the rest of it! The feasibility part of the assignment might be tricky to have the government provide medical transitions to transgender individuals but policy protecting their right to should be well within feasibility!
Great catch! You are clearly guided in the right direction. I really like the way you use your writing into making the reading interesting. You have a very strong thesis. I like how in your writing, you add your own input on the idea, without completely stating quotes of “I think” or “I believe.” This is a topic extremely important to our society today, and I am glad you are bringing awareness to it!