World Boxing Council has announced its plan to introduce a new category for transgender boxers couple of months ago. While this move is being hailed as a significant step towards inclusivity and diversity.
The LGBTQ+ community has been trying to break through for a long time, and the world of sports has not been an exception. Several sports have already allowed trans-women to compete in the women’s category, but boxing has taken a different approach. WBC went so far to say that even trans men competing against men would be unfair and to fine tune their approach.
MMA still allows for the possibility that a woman can compete against a trans woman though Alana McLaughlin has found some push back looking for her next female opponent.
MMA stars like Ronda Rousey and Joe Rogan have previously spoken up against transgender women competing in the women’s category, citing the hormonal differences that give them an advantage over cisgender women.
Jake Shields, a UFC legend, appreciated the WBC’s gesture but also called out the trans-women, suggesting that they might not be happy with the new category. Furthermore he posted a unique challenge overnight.
And while Shields often promotes a range of ‘interesting’ attitudes when it comes to biological advantages, they’re fairly undeniable.
When it comes to protecting women’s sports it’s always interesting to examine the case of Fallon Fox. Fox competed in MMA from 2011 until 2014.
Sometime in 2013 Fox came out and told the truth about her biological status. At that point MMA community had a conniption and condemned her pretty much universally. Joe Rogan was one her biggest critics at the time.
But to this date Miss Fox tries to insist that biological males have no biological advantage over biological females once they undergo HRT.
She continues the hormone treatments to this day.
Fox frequently shares medical misinformation on twitter in order to push her agenda. But over the past weekend she shared something very different – this time Fox shared her anecdotal experience competing against biological women in jiu jitsu.
Fox went on to share evidence of her having been a mediocre grappler in around 2010 – as evidence that biological males have no biological advantage over biological females once they undergo HRT.
As per the photographs she shared. She was able to medal at several competitions without anyone raising questions about her biological status.
“That’s also 5 years of competing in stealth and NOBODY said I had an unfair advantage. I wasn’t on anyones radar. Nobody was saying I was going to win everything. That’s telling. ” – Fox wrote on twitter a while back.
BJJ is riddled with PED abuse. This effectively means that the women competing in high level bjj are often supraphysiologic – their physiology isn’t necessarily the best way to decide if an athlete in a regulated sport has an advantage.
On top of that – there are some biological inevitabilities. Being a female involves the loss of blood – on a regular basis. It also involves issues related to bone density. As a PED expert aptly explained:
“And then once you deprive yourself of those hormones, you don’t suddenly go down to ‘Oh, you never had any of that’ f–ing skill accrual, none of that s–t happened. Like it’s still there, it’s still there. Sure your performance will suffer a bit. As your hematology decreases a lot of your red blood cell production, oxygen carrying capacity is androgen driven.”
“EPO, a lot of this s–t is very intertwined with being male in terms of elevating your hematology profile. But again, just because your testosterone is depressed and suppressed significantly with these, you know, hormones that you’re intervening with.”
“It doesn’t mean that all of a sudden, because your red blood cell count on paper transiently might be equated to that of a female, that is the all of a sudden, like, your lungs are no different. Nothing’s different. Everything’s the f–ing same. It’s absolutely mind boggling.”