Professor Susan Shaw of Oregon State specializes in women’s and gender studies. She recently wrote an opinion piece for Forbes titled “Transgender Swimmer Lia Thomas’ Body Is Not the Problem.”
However, that headline is based on a fallacy that the public is beginning to see through: Lia Thomas’ body is the exact issue.
After defrauding a woman of her NCAA Division I 500-meter freestyle title in 2022, Thomas is now suing World Aquatics in the international Court of Arbitration for Sport for preventing her from competing in the women’s division in elite swimming competitions like the USA Olympic team swimming trials. Thomas was born a man but “identifies” as transgender.
Its burdensome rule?
World Aquatics permits transgender women to compete in women’s events only if they transitioned before age 12 or before one of the early stages of puberty.
Shaw believes that the deep divisions over transgender athletic participation are based not on research evidence on trans athletic advantages, but rather on “our deeply-held and rather largely unexamined assumptions about biology and gender.”
But those purported assumptions are backed by hard scientific research referenced in the joint statement of the International Federation of Sports Medicine and the European Federation of Sports Medicine Associations, which indicated that the International Olympic Committee—with its trans-inclusive sport regulations—had failed to take proper account of “scientific, biological or medical aspects.” NOTE: This is borrowed
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