When it comes to transgender women in sports, inclusion is our best bet

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

The Chicago Marathon is this upcoming weekend, and for many runners that means the culmination of 3-hour runs on the lakefront, rising before dawn to get in the miles, and reaching for a challenging goal. While anyone who strives for a marathon is facing fears and obstacles, some runners have additional barriers just because of their identity.

People who are transgender, especially trans women, are often excluded and targeted in sports and face threats ranging from bans by officials to violence. Chicago’s running community strives to be inclusive, and this year, we should take a stand to support trans women, and all trans people, in women’s sports.

I am a cisgender woman (cisgender refers to a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex assigned to them at birth), a competitive runner and triathlete, a former NCAA Division I athlete and team captain. I run with the Chicago Fleet Feet Racing Team. In this conversation about trans women in sports, people often speak for me. They claim I am the victim. They say including trans women is unfair to me.

But they are wrong. Including trans women in women’s sports is a good thing! It’s good for me, for women’s sports generally, and for trans women. When more women have more opportunities to participate in the running community, it improves the community for all of us.

People often say they are torn between their desire to be competitive and their desire to be inclusive. But the evidence we have suggests the two are not at odds. Trans women’s hemoglobin and testosterone levels — two key biological factors in athletic performance —are comparable to cisgender women after just four months of hormone therapy. The fact is trans women who have made hormonal transitions are not competitive with men. They are competitive with women.

Consult trans athletes

Trans activists like Schuyler Bailar have shared important resources on the inclusion of transgender athletes that anyone would benefit from reading. One key is that trans athletes need to be consulted in the decisions that affect them.

More races are including an option for runners to register in a nonbinary category and compete in a separate division, like Chicago 13.1 and the Lifetime race series, among others. The Chicago Marathon began including a nonbinary category last year. Those are great first steps and should continue. But it is not enough. When trans people are supported and affirmed in their gender, their mental health outcomes significantly improve, especially for trans youth. It is unfair to trans women to force them to compete in either a men’s or a nonbinary category.

To those who say we need more research on the subject: Of course! While the research we do have points to the fairest solution being to include trans women in sports, that research is incomplete. As we wait for the research to catch up, we should err on the side of inclusion. People deserve to compete in the category that best fits their identity and ability. It is the most fair, and most kind, thing to do.

As an individual, I don’t have all the answers. I don’t have a solution or a rule for every circumstance. What should the Olympics do? What about prize money? What if other cis women feel differently? It’s true: there are complex issues of careers, material livelihoods and personal experiences. All the same, when faced with uncertainty, we should lead with an open mind and with kindness. Trans women are telling us what they need, and we should listen.

For the Chicago running community — and all of Chicago’s vibrant sports leagues and communities — there’s an opportunity to lead by creating policies that protect trans women and by bringing trans women into decision-making. Take steps to prevent bigotry from hijacking our community. Be proactively clear in your support for people of all genders. Hold people accountable when they say and do things that harm people who are trans. Don’t use polls to determine if we should include someone in our community. Do reassure people they won’t be disqualified for participating in a way that affirms their identity.

We can do more than include a nonbinary category, even when many national sports organizations don’t. All athletes should be able to compete in the category that matches their identity — women, nonbinary people, men. And all of us, cis women especially, can speak up when people falsely speak for us, and we can all listen to trans athletes and activists.

So now, if you still disagree with me, if you think the evidence points in a different direction, I ask you which is better: for one person to win by excluding? Or for all of us to compete, to include more women in sports, and to be kind while we’re at it?

Jamie Lynn Waters is a sponsored athlete with the Fleet Feet Racing Team in Chicago and a former Division I athlete who competed for Harvard in cross country and track and field. She works on the communications team at the MacArthur Foundation, which provides funding for the Chicago Sun-Times.

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