(LifeSiteNews) – USA Boxing, the national governing body for American amateur boxing, is under fire for a new policy that will allow “transgender women” – i.e., confused men – to fight against actual women despite the biological disparities between the sexes leading to severe ramifications for both competitive advantage and basic safety.
Newsweek reported that USA Boxing’s rulebook for the new year states that men who have undergone complete “gender reassignment” surgery can compete against female boxers if they are confirmed by regular hormone testing to have a testosterone level in serum below 5 nmol/L for 48 months before their first competition, and total testosterone level in serum below 5 nmol/L throughout the period of eligibility.
“The purpose of this policy is to provide fairness and safety for all boxers,” USA Boxing claimed, which numerous critics both within and outside of women’s athletics strenuously disputed.
“USA Boxing wants to get women killed,” Republican attorney Jenna Ellis said.
“Hormone therapy is banned,” professional boxer Mikaela Mayer said. “By default, this should make trans athletes ineligible for competition. Period. Doesn’t matter how you feel about the situation, fact is, it’s illegal and completely disrupts the even level playing field that sport works so hard to create.”
“I don’t care about ‘political correctness,'” bantamweight world titleholder Ebanie Bridges said. “It’s politically incorrect to have a man fighting a woman … and [I don’t care] that’s exactly what it is … this society is too soft … this is our health and safety. The girls need to stick together or women’s sport in 50 years will be filled with male born champions.”
Mandatory inclusion of gender-confused individuals in opposite-sex sports is promoted as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities.
There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winning women’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be fully negated by hormone suppression.
In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men [do] not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone therapy;” therefore, “the advantage to transwomen [biological men] afforded by the [International Olympic Committee] guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”
In the United States, the various aspects of the issue have been highlighted by University of Pennsylvania swimmer William “Lia” Thomas, who reportedly retains male genitalia and is still attracted to women yet “identifies” as female and lesbian. Thomas quickly started dominating women’s swimming after switching from the men’s team, and has caused his female teammates unrest due to sharing lockers with them. Yet the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has reportedly pressured swimmers and their parents against speaking out.
The issue also carries an added dimension of physical danger in the case of full-contact combat sports such as boxing and martial arts. In November, the North American Grappling Association (NAGA) was forced to back down and limit “trans female” martial artists to competing against fellow men after a number of actual female martial artists withdrew from competition due to fears for their safety.
One female grappler, Ansleigh Wilk described feeling in “panic mode” upon being pitted against a male opponent without advance warning. Jimmy Witt, the coach for 135-pound Taelor Moore, said she could have been “severely injured” when she faced a 200-pound “transgender” opponent.