Transgender athletes: the IOC vs. Minnesota, aka MSHSL

After a long quiet spot, transgender rights in sports just reappeared. This is the official IOC statement. First, the IOC statement is mostly a scientific statement, starting with "Eligibility for the female category is to be determined in the first instance by SRY gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY gene. Based on scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the presence of the SRY gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development."

It continues, saying "Furthermore, the IOC considers that SRY gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is unintrusive compared to other possible methods. Athletes who screen negative for the SRY gene permanently satisfy this policy’s eligibility criteria for competition in the female category. Unless there is reason to believe that a negative reading is in error, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime test."

The NPR article reports:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will ban transgender athletes from competing in women's events, based on the results of mandatory genetic screening.

The IOC announced the policy on Thursday after a yearslong review. It will take effect starting at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. "At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat," said IOC President Kirsty Coventry in a video statement. "So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category."

This report announces the IOC decision:

This section of the NPR article is dripping with woke politics:

The topic of transgender participation in sports, from school teams to the world stage, has been a cultural flashpoint in recent years, though it's unclear how many transgender women currently compete at the Olympic level.

Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard made history as the first openly transgender woman to do so in Tokyo in 2021, though no woman who transitioned after being assigned male at birth is known to have participated in an Olympics since.

Nevertheless, controversy ballooned in Paris 2024 when right-wing politicians and commentators called into question the sexes of two female boxers who had been previously disqualified from boxing world championships after failing eligibility tests. One of them was cleared for competition after approval last week, while the other, who has repeatedly identified herself as a cisgender woman, is challenging the World Boxing testing requirement in court.

What a flimsy argument. It's essentially saying 'We've only caught 1 guy who competed as a woman and we don't know if other men have competed as women. Therefore, we don't know if other athletes competed with an undisclosed physical.' They're arguing against being proactive. That's the ultimate flimsy argument.

Minnesota is fighting a losing fight:

High school girls’ softball season opened in Minnesota under a state policy that still allows biological males to compete on girls’ teams, while a federal appeals court considers whether to block it.

The case, Female Athletes United v. Ellison, challenges the Minnesota State High School League’s (MSHSL) decade-old rule permitting students to play on teams matching their “gender identity or expression” rather than their biological sex. Plaintiffs argue the policy violates Title IX by denying biological female athletes equal opportunity, fair competition, and safety.

If this case was being tried in Minnesota's state judicial system, I'd be more worried because Minnesota's judges and justices are little more than DFL operativess in black robes. I'm thankful that oral arguments for Female Athletes United v. Ellison will be heard before the federal judges in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Eighth Circuit is one of the more sensible courts, with little commotion coming out of it. It's the opposite of the Ninth Circuit. I expect this case to be appealed to the Supreme Court, though it's anybody's guess whether they'll accept it.