The first ‘trans woman” (a biological male who claims he is really a woman) has been accepted to compete in the Olympic women’s weightlifting competition. New Zealand transgender weightlifter, Laurel Hubbard, was born Gavin Hubbard, and for many years competed as a male weightlifter for New Zealand, winning many competitions. But in 2013, at the age of 35, he declared himself to be a woman and began competing as Laurel. In the 2018 Commonwealth Games he was winning the women’s competition until he injured his elbow and had to withdraw. In 2019, he won gold at the Pacific Games, easily defeating the silver and bronze female medalists by lifting significantly higher weights. He is now set to compete as a woman in the upcoming Olympics.
My problem with Gavin is that he may have had hormone therapy to reduce his testosterone levels, but the fact remains that every cell of his body is XY chromosome – male. Not only that, but he retains the lung capacity of a male, the bone density of a male and the muscular composition of a male. He has had 35 years of male testosterone levels which have shaped his body into a stronger, more powerful body than the women he will be competing against. Not surprisingly, in the few years that he has been competing as a woman in New Zealand national competitions, he has smashed the previous weight-lifting records for women.
Gavin is not the only example of biological males who are starting to infiltrate and dominate women’s sport. Max Blynth is an English cricketer who decided he was really a woman. He changed his name to Maxine and has been dominating the women’s cricket competition ever since. At 183 cm tall and with an athletic male build, he is literally smashing the balls out of the park and was awarded the 2019 Woman Cricket Player of the Year in the county of Kent.
And these two men are just the tip of the iceberg. Surely, even those who agree with transgenderism must see the obvious unfairness of allowing biological males to compete against women in sport! It is one thing to allow a man to think he is a woman, to dress as a woman and to act as if he is a woman, but it is quite another to allow him to run onto the sports field to compete against women.
Some brave women, defying the pressures of political correctness, are starting to speak up, and several organisations for the protection of women’s sport have sprung into existence voicing grave concerns regarding the unfair advantage that biological males have over women. One female social commentator, on the website, “Fair Play for Women”, writes:
“People laugh when we say that one day women’s sports teams will only consist of just male ‘women’. No female women will get a look in when the teams get selected. Women will be on the bench watching their own sport played by second-rate males.”
Society’s current push to be non-judgmental and non-discriminatory is leading us down a path towards complete absurdity. The commentator on the “Fair Play for Women” website is correct in voicing her concern. If we continue to allow this ludicrous state of affairs to persist, the day will come when women’s Olympic events will be competed solely by men who have taken a course of hormones. We may even need to split women’s events into two categories: real women, and men who think they’re women.
Beth Stelzer is the founder of “Save Women’s Sports”, an organisation which actively campaigns against allowing men to compete as women. In a recent magazine article, she wrote:
“What the Olympics is doing by allowing males to compete in the women’s category is not only shameful but a mockery of the sport. We cannot change our sex. A male cannot become a female by lowering their testosterone. Women are not a hormone level. Identities do not play sports; bodies play sports. The rights of females should not end where the feelings of a few males begin.”
Stelzer said it is a “tragedy” that there could be “males on the women’s podium at this year’s Olympics.”
“We need to stop complying with these lies and start supporting females,” she continued. “It is like the tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Only the Emperor is not naked. He is trying to force everyone to say he is a woman.”
Don’t get me wrong: I want to be respectful towards men who think they are women. If they want to think they are women, that’s their perogative, however misguided I think it to be. But, surely, we must also respect the rights of women. They have the right to play sport safely and fairly on an even playing field, without being unfairly dominated by stronger, faster biological males.
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Kevin Simington (B.Th. Dip. Min.) is a theologian, apologist and social commentator. He is the author of 14 books, and his latest, “Reconnecting with God”, is now available. Connect with Kevin on Facebook or his website, SmartFaith.net.
