British triathlon NAILS IT - Two categories of competition: Open (For men, trans, intersex and nonbinary) and female

it's the only fair way to do it really, if you assume the men who want to compete as women will not be happy competing in the male category (usually because they know they cannot win). it's only a surprise it took so long to happen. not triathlon, but i feel for people like
Emma Weyant who came second behind a biological man at the national swimming championships, will she get a retroactive first place now FINA have banned men competing in the female category?

oh I misread. they are forcing the transgenders to join the male category. they won't like that 😄

I think they should rename the female category. I don’t know what they should call it, but something entirely new and neutral to avoid backlash over the implication that transgender females and not female. Just create a new protected category based entirely on biology that entirely sidesteps the culture wars.

They should call it "XX" and take the whole gender identity issue out of it. Say it's based on genetics, not identity.

So men will compete against men and women against women. What a novel idea, Why did we not think of this earlier. Oh wait...we did.

It’s not the male category. It’s the open category.

GB Tri has done the perfect, simple solution. Other sports should do the same.

They don't want to be in the open category because they claim to be female. They don't like males so they don't want to compete against them.

No. The only fair thing is to eliminate all categories. The best competitors win regardless of sex or age or gender or weight or height. That is true sport.

Fk’n A.

This is what I have been advocating since the day this “issue” came to light.

Now the goal is to get other associations to adopt this system, using some set of workable standards to apply to individual cases.

A problem is what characteristics legitimately arouse suspicion sufficient to warrant testing.

Is the Open category truly open? If so, they should make clear that XX females who choose to challenge themselves against all competitors are welcome, even encouraged to enter in the Open category. I would hope to see this happen in all sports.

This is exclusionary, not inclusive. There should be a male category and a female category, the open category should be for anyone else. Depending on the number of entrants, the open category doesn't have to have the same prizes.

This...

I feel distance running is already like that. Mixed gender mass starts, females using male pacers ... we're really talking about terminology instead. The categories really should just be "Open" and "XX", and we'll be right back to where we started. The more things change, the more they stay the same, right?

It's much fairer and far kinder to individual athletes with anomalies - and will be a lot cheaper for the sports governing bodies and sports federations - simply to do genetic testing across the board for all athletes starting out. That's what FINA is doing under its new policy. All athletes in aquatics events subject to FINA rules will now have to get DNA testing to determine and verify their sex. If this means some kids find out they have rare conditions affecting sex development, so be it - finding this out sooner in life rather than later is to their benefit.

In sports where there are two categories - female and open - the female category would be exclusively for those found to have no Y chromosome and/or no SRY gene - the male-determining gene usually on the Y. The open category would be for everyone found to have a Y chromosome and/or SRY gene - and for all and any female athletes who prefer the open category, including transmen who take or have a history of taking exogenous T (or other androgens) and females into the new fad for micro-dosing with exogenous T so popular amongst females who "identify as" non-binary, demi-boy, semi-masc and so on.

An exception probably would need to be made to allow XY athletes with CAIS into the female category - though it might be high time to take a second look at whether XY CAIS athletes really don't have any unfair advantage over XX female athletes born with ovaries as has long been claimed. After all, knowledge about and understanding of CAIS has expanded significantly since the late 1980s when Maria Jose Martinez Patino succeeding in getting sports governing bodies to open up elite international women's sports to XY athletes with AIS and other XY DSDs by contesting the sex testing rules, methods and criteria that the IAAF and IOC used back then.

Another possible exception might be for those rare cases of XY individuals with other disorders of male sex development whose testes were unfortunately surgically removed in infancy. Nowadays, removing the gonads of babies and older minors with DSDs is thankfully no longer the done thing in much of the world as it was in many countries for a time in the 20th century. But gonadectomies of XY babies with some DSDs probably will still happen - and thus any fair rules would need to account for this possibility.

In before someone suggests even more divisions:
Divisions:
M
F
X
MtF
FtM
MtFtM
FtMtM
.
.

Why do posts like this get so many downvotes? It’s the only answer. Why are we afraid of this?

Think reaaallly hard and answer that questions yourself. Try it, try to play your own Devil's Advocate. Try to understand the other side yourself. It's a really good exercise, it will increase your debating, critical thinking and empathy skills all at the same time.

Eliminating categories ignores the issue. The headline also evades the issue by pretending that transgender athletes don't deserve a separate category. The only way to solve this issue is to listen to trans athletes and find a way for them to participate in a way that is fair to everyone.