Beyond fairness: the ethics of inclusion for transgender and intersex athletes

Abstract

Sporting communities remain entangled in debate over whether and how to include transgender and intersex athletes in competition with cisgender athletes. Of particular concern is that transgender and intersex athletes may have unfair physiological advantages over their cisgender opponents. Arguments for inclusion of transgender and intersex athletes in sport attempt to demonstrate that such inclusion does not threaten the presumed physiological equivalence among competitors and is therefore fair to all. This article argues that the physiological equivalency rationale has significant limitations, including an inordinate emphasis on sport as a comparative test. Instead, this article contends that arguments for narrativity rather than physiological equivalency show that exclusion is not only misguided but also undesirable: it is detrimental not only to the excluded athletes but to sport itself. The article yields several important consequences including calls for revisions to policies on transgender and intersex athletes.

Keywords:

• Transgender
• intersex
• gender
• narratives

Notes

1. Cisgender describes individuals whose gender identity or expression matches their assigned sex.

2. It may be observed that most of the attention to these issues is focused on sports where athletes compete individually. We should not assume, however, that team sports are any less susceptible to concerns over the inclusion or exclusion of transgender and intersex athletes. IOC policies, for example, apply across individual and team competitions.

3. Other rationales for elite sport exist that do not hinge on the comparative test premise. For example, Fraleigh (1984) contends that, by slowly funneling the best athletes together, the athletes and the spectators are provided with exciting games between closely matched opponents who demonstrate exceptional skill.

4. Women can also, of course, display characteristics traditionally associated with masculinity, such as courage or leadership, and men can display characteristics associated with femininity, such as grace or empathy. Gendered stories can include a wide range of gendered attributes, including those most often associated with opposite genders. This is another reason why gendered narratives are so enriching.

5. Addressing all concerns over the practical issues of self-selection is beyond the scope of this paper. These are considerations best left to sporting communities and are not, at any rate, reasons to reject self-selection altogether. Intersex individuals may wish to carve out sporting spaces limited only to intersex athletes. There is no more reason to preclude an intersex category, however small its self-selecting group may be, than there is reason to preclude Olympic boxing from having a 49 kg and below weight category simply because a smaller number of men qualify. Openness to various ways to organize sport should not hinge on fears about practical dividing lines.

6. Certain sports are mixed-gender but do factor in gender for participation. For example, mixed doubles in tennis has men and women play together, but the sport requires that the pair have one member from each gender. In such sports, athletes’ gender identity determines their participation in a manner similar to gender-segregated sport.