Transgender People in Sports: Debates on Fairness & Legitimacy - Essay Sample

Introduction

Transgender people are people with a different gender identity compared to one they were assigned at birth. Due to this nature, they have attracted a lot of controversy surrounding their legitimacy in society. Specifically, in sports, their people have been engaging in debates on whether it would be fair for transgender people to compete with other people, given that they have come with biological advantages of the other gender. Mostly, this has been applying to women's competition. For this reason, the Supreme Court is reviewing the law that allows transgender athletes to compete in women's games, given their biological advantages.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

For one to qualify to be a transgender female, he is required to reduce his testosterone level in there body (Love, 2014). While pieces of evidence show that low level of testosterone weakens the masculinity, bones and induces growth of breast in a man, other studies reveal that medicine alone cannot suppress testosterone to level up with a woman (Mostaghel, Pag, Lin, Fazli, Coleman, True, & Bremner, 2007). For this reason, transgender female athletes will always have more advantages compared to their female counterparts. Because of the field of a normal female in the competition is not level. The government should introduce sports specific to transgender female and transgender males.

Others have argued that in sports, it is all about education and that a transgender girl athlete would not have a higher possibility than a girl athlete (Teetzel, 2006). While this is true, but what if their level of education is the same and they have to compete on physicality dependent competition. Then in such a scenario, a transgender girl will always have more advantage because their borne are still dense; the masculine still beats a normal girl. For this reason, there will never be on the same level grounds as two equal female.

Many transgender athletes, mostly female transgender, chose this position because of mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. When this is the case, many people develop a condition known as gender dysphoria. It is a condition brought about by stress due to the difference in gender and sexual identity (Blanchard, Clemmensen, & Steiner, 1987). And because these differences are biological, when a parent notes such a condition of their kid at an early age, a correct physician can be used to cure their disease. In case the condition is incurable via biological doctor, and then a psychological physician may be used to help the kid accept themselves as they are. By doing this, one would help them from running away from their birth identity. Also, it would cure them of dysphoria so, if the conditions can be cured, why let them get involved in a female competition if there is a possibility of them embracing their biological identity and compete where the field is level. By allowing transgender women to compete in female competition, the competition will lose its status because many of the females will not stand a chance against transgender females.

Many sports administrators would have no problem with transgender athletes, given their chances of winning, mostly in cases of transgender women. And because the primary role of a sports manager is to handle the administrative task (Malloy & Zakus, 1995), they would have no problem having an additional athlete in their organization that would make it more successful. Even though the transgender women will increase the chances of winning and make more money. The fact remains they cannot have the same level playing field with normal women.

Parents of transgender athletes go through a lot in society that has not accepted transgender people. Most parents will have a hard time accepting that their children have this kind of defect (Menvielle, & Rodnan, 2011). More so, when they grow up and decide to change their gender identity from which their sex identified them, it becomes hard for their parents. But regardless of this, the parents of transgender athletes will always be the first one to support their kids. Hence they would want the court to not hinder their kids from participating in any competition.

The fan is someone who admires another person, because of a particular attribute that they admire from the person or competition. A transgender person is no exception and will have equally because of different characteristics a fan would love from a transgender person. Also, the game they participate in would similarly have fans (Wann, Peterson, Cothran, & Dykes, 1999). Fan's perception of transgender is likely to be biased depending on the outcome of the competition, and the influence of the transgender athlete in the game. For example, a fan of the game will feel somehow the transgender athlete has more advantages than their counterpart cisgender when their favorite side loses. And I such a case, they would discriminate it based on the transgender having more power. But once they win, they would probably feel the ground was level. But for a personal fan, they would support their transgender athlete regardless of whether they win or not.

The Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling on whether a transgender athlete should be allowed to compete with a cisgender athlete. The next few months will be accompanied by a heated debate on the court should allow or not. People will draw all sorts of ideas in their pursuit for the athlete to be banned or allowed. All in all, the court is expected to enable bringing an assumption from the fact that the same court lifted Donald Trump's ban against the military participation of any transgender.

Conclusion

In conclusion, society should not be deceived to change the meaning of sex. The transgender female athlete deserves compassion, but they should not be allowed to transform the female sport. In this regards the government should create a separate competition for them. In the end, a transgender female will never attain feminism wholly; hence it will take time for them to incorporate our society as female.

Refferences

Blanchard, R., Clemmensen, L. H., & Steiner, B. W. (1987). Heterosexual and homosexual gender dysphoria. Archives of sexual behavior, 16(2), 139-152.

Love, A. (2014). Transgender exclusion and inclusion in sport. Routledge handbook of sport, gender, and sexuality, 376-383.

Malloy, D. C., & Zakus, D. H. (1995). Ethical decision making in sports administration: A theoretical inquiry into substance and form. Journal of Sport Management, 9(1), 36-58.

Menvielle, E. J., & Rodnan, L. A. (2011). A therapeutic group for parents of transgender adolescents. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, 20(4), 733-743.

Mostaghel, E. A., Page, S. T., Lin, D. W., Fazli, L., Coleman, I. M., True, L. D., ... & Bremner, W. J. (2007). Intraprostatic androgens and androgen-regulated gene expression persist after testosterone suppression: therapeutic implications for castration-resistant prostate cancer. Cancer Research, 67(10), 5033-5041.

Teetzel, S. (2006). On transgender athletes, fairness and doping: An international challenge. Sport in Society, 9(2), 227-251.

Wann, D. L., Peterson, R. R., Cothran, C., & Dykes, M. (1999). Sports fan aggression and anonymity: The importance of team identification. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 27(6), 597-602.