USA Boxing has updated its rulebook with a policy for transgender athletes with strict requirements mandating genital reassignment surgery and regular testosterone testing for transgender people wishing to compete.
While allowing trans women to participate, unlike many sports bodies that have excluded them, USA Boxing’s approach is highly offensive.
Under the new rules, minors must compete in their birth gender categories.
Transgender women over 18 can only compete in female categories after genital reassignment surgery and must provide quarterly hormone tests for four years post-surgery.
Their testosterone levels must have been below 5 nanomoles per litre for at least four years before competing.
Transgender men face similar rules, requiring surgery and testosterone levels above 10 nanomoles per litre for the same period.
This policy, which is dated August 2022 but does not seem to have an ‘effective from’ date, marks a shift from typical guidelines for transgender athletes which have tended towards exclusion in sports where gender critical cultists have focussed their attention.
Criticism has emerged from groups like Athlete Ally, which advocates for trans athletes. They argue that requirements like those from USA Boxing infringe on athletes’ dignity and autonomy and could be harmful to their health.
They also highlight the limited research into transgender athletes and the complexity of factors influencing competitive advantage.
Recent years have seen sports bodies struggling with the mere idea of inclusivity of transgender athletes while an active campaign to exclude trans people gains ground.
In 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), advised sports governing bodies to create sport-specific guidelines without mandating surgery or testosterone limits, deeming them “medically unnecessary.”
However, following public pressure, particularly after trans swimmer Lia Thomas’s vastly overinflated success (can you name a single other college swimmer that isn’t Riley Gaines?), numerous bodies have implemented restrictive policies that drive trans people out of sports.
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