Commentary
Many conservatives have hailed the decision by the world swimming governing body, FINA, to restrict the participation of transgender women in female sports. Under the new rule, a swimmer cannot simply switch from male to female over the course of a year, as occurred recently with college trans swimmer Lia Thomas. But FINA did not replace the old rules with common sense ones. In fact, the new rules create a scenario for something far worse.
The new eligibility policy for FINA competitions states that “male-to-female” swimmers are eligible to compete in women’s competitions as long as “they can establish to FINA’s comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 (of puberty) or before age 12, whichever is later.” The only way for a boy to not experience puberty is through medical intervention at a young age. This entails taking puberty blocking drugs and/or surgery to remove his testicles….