Can I participate in the competition after gender reassignment surgery?

On Jan. 20, the new president, Joe Biden, signed a series of executive decrees as soon as he took office. One of them is the theme of "anti-discrimination" of the decree has attracted a lot of attention and controversy, some domestic media said it "not only unisex toilet, but also allows 'men' to participate in women's sports games Some national media said it "not only allows men and women to use the same bathroom, but also allows 'men' to participate in women's sports.

The White House's official website can be found in the "Executive Order to Prevent and Combat Discrimination based on Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation". The first paragraph of it begins with something to the effect of

Every person should be treated with the respect they deserve and should live without fear, no matter who they are or who they love. Children should go to school without fear of whether they will be denied access to restrooms, locker rooms, or participation in school sports ......

Indeed, some interpretations are slightly over the top as far as this passage is concerned. But the related news does happen for a reason - there was a debate about transgender athletes in the United States during the Trump administration.

Last March, Idaho was the first state to sign a bill explicitly banning transgender women from participating in women's sports. The term "transgender women" refers to transgender people who were born biologically male and have since transitioned to female.

Proponents of the law argue that it protects the rights of cisgender women, who are physically unable to compete with men or transgender people, while opponents argue that it severely discriminates against transgender women and even violates the equality rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Cisgender is a person whose gender identity is the same as the sex assigned at birth

Before the bill was officially passed, Lindsay Hecox, a transgender athlete from Idaho, challenged it in court

In a sense, transgender women identify as women, and many have been able to physically change their gender through modern medical technology, so wouldn't it be okay for them to compete directly in women's sports?

The problem is that modern medical technology has not yet been able to completely change a person's gender identity. For this aspect of sports, the biggest advantage transgender women have is that they still retain higher levels of testosterone.

This hormone, known as testosterone, is produced in both men and women. Only adult males produce about 20 times the amount of testosterone as adult females, and about 7-8 times the normal body level.

In addition to the well-known influence on the desire for a particular type of sport, the amount of testosterone secretion not only affects the rate of muscle strength and mass gain in humans during puberty but also determines the difference in individual athletic ability such as muscle strength, bone density, physical and mental fitness in adulthood.

In the past, some of the more extreme athletes would even inject testosterone into their scrotum hours before a game to strengthen themselves. So now this hormone has been designated as a banned substance by most sports.

"You're fortified, send it!"

The high levels of hormones that male athletes and transgender women carry in their bodies, as opposed to cisgender female athletes, are inherent as "unfair" as the doping they bring with them.

That's why we've always had to group men and women in most sports, which is a fairer solution based on biological differences.

The emergence of transgender female athletes has once again pitted this quest for fairness in sports against social inclusiveness for transgender people. It seems that we can only choose between the rights of transgender and cisgender women in sports.

Terry Miller, a transgender sprinter from Connecticut

This contradictory issue is not a recent phenomenon.

Back in the 1970s, there was Renée Richards, a transgender tennis player who started as a men's player, but after undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 1975, began signing up for women's tournaments the following year.

After a large number of protests and withdrawals from the women's tournament, the organizers introduced a testing procedure that could test for sex chromosomes, but Richards naturally refused. She was thus rejected by the U.S. Open, but after an appeal in 1977, the New York Supreme Court ruled that she was female and allowed her to play in the U.S. Open.

However, because her tournament results were often round robins, she had a little social impact after competing that year.

Renée Richards

In 2004, the IOC officially allowed transgender athletes to compete in the Olympics, considering that new transgender athletes might emerge. Under the rules drafted in 2003, however, athletes needed to have had surgery to alter their external genitalia and gonadectomy, to have their gender legally recognized, and to be treated with appropriate hormones.

In 2015, the Olympic Committee reworked the rules to more rigorously require "transgender athletes to prove that their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per liter at least one year before competition. And the requirement for surgery was removed, considering that it "may be in conflict with the human rights concepts being established.

Of course, transgender athletes who are transitioning from female to male can compete without restriction.

June Eastwood (center), a transgender woman competing in a women's cross-country race

While there are still no openly transgender athletes who have competed in the Olympics, it is undeniable that transgender athletes are on the rise worldwide.

Last February in Connecticut, USA, two transgender sprinters were challenged and appealed to by other athletes - both of whom have taken 15 state women's sprint titles. The reality is that inequity in the athletic process can be a deadly blow to the motivation of cisgender female athletes.

And Biden's new "anti-discrimination executive bill," while an extremely politically correct move that won him a lot of support, is likely to further exacerbate the reality that some transgender and cisgender people are at odds with each other.

In many cases, the extreme "political correctness" will give rise to a lot of other "incorrectness" that is contrary to common sense.