How to welcome trans people – those who want to live under a gender different from the sex assigned at birth – in the sports sector? On January 27, 2022, questioning is at the heart of the round table organized by the “Equality in and through physical and sports activities” master’s degree at the University of Lyon 1. Opened in 2016, this “unique in France” degree aims to train students on issues of discrimination in sport. Among the guests that day, Félix Pavlenko, doctoral student in gender studies currently in thesis on the conditions of sports practice by trans people, or Luhan Steinmann, sports coach specializing in issues related to trans identity. “Initially, this subject did not appear in the content of our courses. But the integration of a trans person in the master’s has helped to strengthen our vigilance, and to make it evolve”, develops Cecile Ottogalli, head of training.
In France, although it is impossible to quantify the number of trans athletes, the question of their inclusion is gaining momentum. “We see people appear, sometimes minors, who wish to play in the categories of the opposite sex”, relates Jean-Bernard Moles, president of the anti-discrimination and equal treatment commission at the French Rugby Federation (FFR). To the point that it is currently working on a reform of its regulations, to allow transgender people, once they are 13 years old, to be able to integrate the category of the chosen gender.
For its part, the Ministry of Sports has set up a working group to update the 2016 “sport and trans” charter, intended to promote their reception. A law of March 2, it plans to promote “equal access to physical and sports activities, without discrimination based on gender identity”. “This is the first time that such an important place has been given to the fight against all forms of discrimination, at the forefront of which is transphobia. This is real progress”, welcomes Raphaël Gérard, LREM deputy for the 4th constituency of Charente-Maritime, bearer of this sub-amendment.
But the avenues for the inclusion of these people are debated. The “sport and trans” charter, for example, invites us to “start from the principle that everyone chooses the toilets/showers/changing rooms that suit them best, and accept that we cannot determine a person’s gender on the basis of its appearance alone. “This represents a real problem for intimacy, says Olivia Sarton, lawyer and member of Juristes pour l’Enfance, an association close to the Manif pour tous. A trans woman is not necessarily operated, and to end up with someone one who has a penis can get in the way of other women”. More fundamental, the authorization of trans people to play in the category of their choice, as the charter also recommends, raises “the question of fairness, in particular with regard to physical abilities”, continues the lawyer.
On March 17, Lia Thomas made headlines by becoming the first transgender woman to win the 500-yard freestyle final of the Ivy League university championship in the United States. “Even though she took testosterone-suppressing hormone therapy for a year as required by the rules, she is still taller than her competitors, and has very long arms,” observes Linda Blade, former Canadian athlete, author of ‘Unsportsmanlike: Transactivism and obscurantism attacking women’s sport (2021). “Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over the competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her ranking, which went from 462 as a man to pole position as a woman,” Nancy Hogshead-Makar also commented. , Olympic swimming gold medalist in 1984 and director of Champion Women, an advocacy organization for women’s sport.
“In sport, the body is not everything”, opposes Arnaud Alessandrin, gender sociologist, author of Sociology of transidentities (2018). “Trans people, beyond the rejection they suffer, have difficulty finding structures to train in. So much so that the number of sports dropouts is much higher among them than for the rest of the population”, he specifies. In a study conducted from May 2021 to May 2022, the LGBTI+ center in Lyon collected the testimonies of 58 transgender athletes. Among them, 33 said they had experienced discrimination in the clubs they attended. “To this is added the fact that we dwell on the victories of trans athletes. But there are probably as many, or even more, who lose”, continues Arnaud Alessandrin. One day after winning her title, Lia Thomas indeed came fifth in the 200 yards. In France, no media took over the information.
“Equality in sport does not exist”
If the subject is so divisive, it is also because there are few scientific studies. In 2015, after seven years of research, medical physicist Joanna Harper, also transgender, published a first study in which she demonstrates that eight trans women run slower than when they were men, with one exception. With one major limitation: the times submitted by the eight runners were self-declared. In an interview with TV5 Monde, the researcher also recalls that “transgender women are on average taller and stronger than cisgender women. [NDLR : dont le genre est en accord avec leur sexe]”, although this is not an advantage in all sports.
As of 2020, in support of other studies, the International Rugby Federation advises against transgender women competing in women’s categories. “Research consistently concludes that total mass, muscle mass and/or strength are decreased at most by 5-10% when testosterone is reduced for twelve months to levels usually seen in women,” says the press release. “These arguments are excuses not to include trans people”, thunders Béatrice Barbusse, deputy vice-president of the French Handball Federation, where a medical commission is currently examining the issue. “Equity in sport does not exist. In women’s teams, some sportswomen are 1.80 meters, others 1.60 meters, and yet we do not separate them”, she illustrates. “The problem with the studies on which World Rugby is based is that none are made on trans athletes”, adds sociologist Félix Pavlenko. Worse: in the case of that carried out by Emma Hilton, a possible conflict of interest appears. The developmental biologist at the University of Manchester is indeed one of the founders of Sex Matters, a British NGO which aims “to help people be clear about the meaning and importance of sex in their own institutions”.
In the absence of consensus, the International Olympic Committee invites since November 16, 2021 to establish, by federation, “eligibility criteria based on what an unfair advantage means”. In France, the FFR became on May 17, 2021 the first to authorize transgender athletes to participate in all official competitions, subject to women receiving hormone treatment for at least twelve months and a testosterone threshold below 5 nanomoles / liter . “We asked for a national study with the Ministry of Sports to assess the possible advantage they would have. In the meantime, we favor the safety of sportswomen”, justifies Jean-Bernard Moles.
Ultimately, however, some advocate other forms of organization of sports practices. “We advocate the maximum diversity of teams, as in ultimate [NDLR : sport collectif qui se joue avec un frisbee], precisely to avoid gendering”, testifies Manuel Picaud, president of the FIER foundation, a structure which will issue a label next June for sports organizations committed to the inclusion of LGBTI + people. Anissia Docaigne-Makhroff, she thinks on the contrary that this opening would represent “a real setback” for the situation of women. “You have to be honest: when you look at men’s and women’s football, it’s not the same sport. So if we mixed women and men, it would be impossible to play against them, and a lot of sportswomen would leave”, explains the lawyer and member of the radical feminist association L’Amazone. “For years, the IOC said that it was necessary to wait for studies to include cisgender women in the same disciplines as men. So why can’t transgender women wait until we’re sure they don’t have any advantages?”, agrees Linda Blade, who defends a “closed” category for women, and a category “open” for men, where trans athletes would be accepted. “The only thing that matters is whether you were born male or female. Because we compete with our bodies,” she concludes.