How do trans-exclusionary policies and laws hurt all women and girls?

How do trans-exclusionary policies and laws hurt all women and girls?

At their core, transgender-exclusionary policies and laws police and call into question what it means to be a woman, ultimately creating a system of surveillance that inevitably turns on the very women it claims to protect. Furthermore, this system only aims to protect a selective group of women who fulfill a Western, White, middle-upper class notion of womanhood and femininity. Women who fall outside of those categories are left to fend for themselves against this supposed system of protection. 

When authorities, whether it be sports teams, sports governing bodies, or the government, design these systems of determining who can or cannot play in women’s sports, they have the ultimate power to decide who is, or isn’t, a woman through physical and political invasions of privacy. These methods of determining eligibility pose risks beyond the violation of a woman’s right to privacy and autonomy. Despite what anti-transgender groups say, there is no fool-proof test to determine sex as one of two distinctive binaries. 

The International Olympic Committee (and consequently a majority of International Federations and National Governing Bodies) now use what is called the SRY Gene Test to establish eligibility. They claim that the presence of the SRY gene is the “most accurate and least intrusive way” to screen biological sex as it “almost always” signals the presence of testes. However, the researcher who discovered the SRY gene back in 1990, Andrew Sinclaire, has stated that this stance is an “overly simplistic assertion” that science does not support. He continues that while the SRY gene test does determine if the gene is present,  “it does not tell you how SRY is functioning, whether a testis has formed, whether testosterone is produced and, if so, whether it can be used by the body”. It is possible for the SRY gene to be present, or for internal testes to be present, but the person still does not “physically respond” to the testosterone. Additionally, Professor Andrew Sinclaire discusses that genetic testing creates undue financial burden and barriers to less wealthy countries who may not have access to appropriate labs. Furthermore, these tests can be contaminated by male lab technicians and create a false positive. For the full article from Professor Sinclaire, read here.

Additionally, sex testing at the professional level creates the opportunity for similar testing at the amateur and youth level. Initiative IL26-638 in Washington proposes that eligibility for girl’s sports can be determined by a medical provider through verifying anatomy, genetics, or naturally produced testosterone levels.Although this creates the illusion of choice, testing for genetics or naturally produced testosterone levels 1) creates the same risks for improper results with the SRY gene testing and 2) creates unnecessary financial burden for families. The only alternative, at a lower cost to families, would be for young girls to verify their sex through a physical exam of their genitals. 

Other states, including Louisiana, determine eligibility for interscholastic sports through the official birth certificate displaying the sex entered at time of birth. This policy excludes those who may not have access to an official birth certificate, including citizen children born to undocumented immigrants. Additionally, this policy threatens children who are undocumented as the school collects official information regarding place of birth and United States citizenship status. 

Transgender-exclusionary policies inherently create a fear of transgender women and girls in sports. With this, any woman or girl who looks like they could be transgender, would be at risk for harassment, discrimination, and violence. Ultimately, the entire concept of what it means to be a woman, to look like a woman, becomes debated and policed. This puts every woman and girl in danger. Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has faced extraordinary scrutiny since competing in the 2024 Olympics and winning gold, to the point where she filed a criminal cyberbullying complaint in France. Despite having passed all eligibility tests from the IOC, her ability to compete was and still is heavily debated. World Boxing, the sport’s International Federation, has gone so far as to explicitly name Khelif in their sex-testing policy. In Khelif’s own words, “[she is] a woman like any other woman. [She] was born a woman, [she] lived as a woman and [she] competed as a woman”. Khelif is a prime example of the negative impact sex-testing and transgender-exclusionary policies can have on any woman’s life. 

When authorities try to define what it means to be a woman, they do so either through medical testing that has been proven to be unable to fully capture someone’s ‘biological sex’ or through demanding someone’s personal identifying legal documents. Furthermore, these systems create a witch hunt for women who ‘look’ like they could be transgender. When a woman is considered too strong, too muscular, too athletic, they are at risk for being assumed as ‘not’ a woman and secretly transgender. This puts all women and girls in danger of being targeted by transphobic rhetoric, discrimination, and bullying. 

Written by JD Dumbrowsky.