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Earlier this month, a “Play the Game” conference was held in Finland, which included a panel titled “Who Has the Right to Compete? Exploring the Inclusion of Transgender Athletes in Sports.”
The panel had five speakers representing both sides of the controversial case, including Joanna Marie Harper, a transgender professor at Western University in Canada.
Jon Pike, a philosophy professor at The Open University in England, argued that an open category should be created for transgender athletes to avoid any potential unfairness from biological males competing against girls and women.
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Opponents of a bill to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports react to the passage of the bill after a vote by members of the Nassau County Legislature on June 24, 2024. (Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty Images)
However, Harper wasn’t a fan of the idea because “99%” of the open category “will be…cisgender male.”
“And what you’re asking is trans women competing in a category that’s pretty much all cis men and just calling it an open category. Most trans women, myself included, would rather quit their sport than compete in a category like that,” Harper said.
In a 2015 op-ed to The Washington Post, Harper wrote, “The science provides a clear explanation for why trans women in many sports do not maintain any athletic advantage,” citing hormone therapy and personal experience.
Supporters of transgender athletes hold up signs as an overflow crowd gathers outside the Riverside Unified School District meeting Thursday night to debate the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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“In 2005, when I raced in the women’s category, the difference was astounding. I finished a 10K in 42:01—almost a full five minutes slower than I had run the same course two years earlier as a man,” Harper wrote.
Harper added that trans women could have advantages in sprinting and basketball because of muscle mass and already achieved height, but may actually be at a disadvantage in distance running and gymnastics for the same reasons.
“For those who suggest that trans women have advantages: We allow advantages in sports, but what we don’t allow are overwhelming advantages,” Harper told Outsports in 2021. “Trans women also have disadvantages in sports. Our larger bodies are fueled by reduced muscle mass and reduced aerobic capacity, and can lead to disadvantages in terms of other speed, recovery factors and a number of other factors.
“The bottom line is that we can have meaningful competition between trans women and cis women. From my point of view, the data looks favorable toward allowing trans women to compete in women’s sports.”
Transgender athlete supporter Kyle Harp, left, of Riverside, holds the Progress Pride flag as “Save Girls Sports” supporters Lori Lopez and her father Pete Pickering, both of Riverside, listen to the debate as they join the overflow crowd gathered outside the Riverside Unified School District meeting Thursday night to debate rights of transgender athletes in high school, Thursday, 19, 19. 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Twenty-nine states currently have restrictions on transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February banning biological males from competing against biological females.
