The controversy over trans women competing in women's sports shows no signs of dying down. To fully understand it, we have to go back 50 years.
Title IX was passed in 1972. It prohibits sex discrimination under any federally funded education activity. It reads, in part, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
A university could not comply with this law by simply opening men's sports to participation by women. Women cannot compete with men due to biological differences, specifically around testosterone. Participation alone is not enough. Fair competition is an inherent part of participation. So universities created separate but equal leagues for men and women. Problem solved. Until recently.
The meaning of "man" and "woman" is changing rapidly. We now refer to biological males who identify as female as "women". A problem arises when we try to assign a trans woman to a sports league. If we insist that a trans woman is a woman in every respect, then we should assign her to the women's league. But biological women cannot compete with the testosterone advantage of trans women. Excluding 50% of the population for fair competition is obviously wrong. Furthermore, to continue with this logic, non-binary people would not be able to compete in either league. This is again clearly wrong. But if we assign a trans women to the "men's" league, we are in a sense invalidating her identification as a woman.
If the division of sports into leagues for "men" and "women" no longer meets the non-discrimination requirements of Title IX due to the evolving definitions of those terms, then we need to reexamine that division. If the biological reality that forced the division is the testosterone advantage, we should base the division on testosterone advantage and not on gender. I propose we should have an "open" league and a "fairness" league. The open league is open to everyone. The fairness league is open to anyone who does not have a testosterone advantage. No one is excluded, and no one is forced to invalidate their gender choice.
