The Only Fair Solution is Competing According to Biological Sex

Creating a third “trans” category actually provides males with two categories in which to compete while females only have one.

This year there are many legislative efforts to require males to compete in sports against other males, and females against other females. As people grapple with the image of males taking away championships, scholarships, and other opportunities away from females, I am increasingly hearing for a call for a third category, a “trans” category to accommodate those who identify as transgender.

Though on first blush this might seem like an ideal solution, it is not. This solution would give biological males two competitions in which to excel while biological females only have one. Fair Play for Women reports, “in all the major physical sports we see at least a 10% performance difference between the sexes; in some sports it is as much as 30%.”

This is due to biological differences. Male bones are bigger and stronger. Men have longer arms and legs. Men have more blood, bigger hearts, and lungs. To illustrate the differences, consider that the running times of two boys who won 1st and 2nd place while competing against biological girls. Though they won the state championship in Connecticut, their running times were not good enough for them to have even qualified for the boys track team.

In another example, Allyson Felix is the fastest female sprinter in the world, yet nearly three hundred high school boys have recorded times that beat her record.

The enactment of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 opened up sports to girls and women by requiring that girls and women not be “denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

For the first time, girls and women were provided opportunities to participate in competitive

sports against other biological females with the same prizes and scholarships as biological