Athlete Chris Mosier made history this week as the first transgender man to qualify and compete at an Olympic trial. Good for him. You might have expected, given the woke Left’s insistence that conservatives are “transphobic,” ample attacks on Mosier or backlash to his success.
Nope. Almost no one minded it at all.
When stories break of transgender women, biologically male athletes, setting new records and crushing the competition in women’s athletics, conservative media frequently point out the perceived unfairness. But little attention was paid to Mosier’s accomplishment in Olympic men’s speed-walking, and this is revealing.
It shows us that, in large part, conservative criticisms of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports are based on earnest concerns about fairness, not hatred or bigotry toward transgender people. If it were about hating transgender people, conservative commentators would have much more of an issue about transgender men, biological females with X-chromosomes who identify as male, competing among men. In reality, no one really cares.
Writer Julian Vigo has detailed for Quillette the various ways in which biological males have an advantage in sports, even after they receive hormone therapy as part of transitioning:
It might not be politically correct to say it out loud, but anyone who has competed in athletics, even at the high school level, knows that basic biological differences in sport between males and females exist. This is why a team of 15-year-old boys can beat the Women’s World Cup champions in soccer.
But as far as transgender men such as Mosier are concerned, most conservatives have no real objection to allowing them to compete in men’s sports. After all, the only person transgender men are putting at a disadvantage by competing in men’s leagues, biologically speaking, is themselves. No harm, no foul.
Yet when it comes to transgender women, the situation is more complicated, as it can often disadvantage women to have to compete against people who were born biologically male. It’s simply not true that concerns about the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sports are rooted in anti-transgender bigotry. The near-complete lack of backlash to Mosier’s success makes that completely clear.
