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Editor,

HB112, the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” requires interscholastic trans-athletes to participate within their sex assigned at birth. This legislation illustrates a remarkable lack of awareness of the current thinking in medical and athletic communities regarding transgender athletes. Moreover, athletic governing bodies have already decided what is fair in athletic competition.  

In 2004, the International Olympic Committee created guidelines for transgender athletes to compete: gender reassignment surgery, legal recognition of their assigned gender and two years of hormone therapy, and in 2016, those guidelines were updated based upon the best advice of medical and scientific communities: surgery is no longer required and transwomen must have a testosterone level below a certain cutoff point for a year. 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association doesn’t require surgery for transgender athletes and requires one year of testosterone blockers for transwomen. Their medical experts state the following: “… any strength and endurance advantages a transgender woman … may have as a result of her prior testosterone levels dissipate after about one year of estrogen or testosterone-suppression therapy.” The assumption that a transgender woman, competing on a women’s team, would have a competitive advantage outside the range of performance and competitive advantage or disadvantage that already exists among female athletes is not supported by evidence.

Caryl and Tom Cox

Polson

 

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