The debate over biological males competing in women’s sports has expanded from schools and colleges to professional leagues and international competition. It affects scholarships, roster positions, records, championships, prize money and, in some sports, the physical safety of competitors.
The latest example involves former NBA first-round draft picks Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, who have publicly announced their intentions to enter the 2027 WNBA Draft. Their announcements appear to be political protests intended to expose the uncertainty surrounding how some sports organizations define eligibility for women’s competition.
The WNBA is only one example of a much larger issue.
The central question is simple: Should eligibility for women’s sports be based primarily on biological sex, or should a person’s gender identity be sufficient to enter the female category?
My position is that women’s sports must remain a protected category for female athletes. That conclusion is not based on hatred or fear. It is based on the biological differences that caused women’s sports to be established separately in the first place.
## Why Separate Categories Exist
Men’s and women’s sports were not separated because men and women have different interests, personalities or social identities. They were separated because biological sex influences physical development and athletic performance.
In many sports, the men’s category is functionally an open category. Women are not necessarily prohibited from attempting to qualify, but very few could meet the performance standards required at the highest levels.
The female category is different. It was created as a protected classification so that women could compete, succeed and be recognized without having to overcome the physical advantages generally produced by male development.
If biological sex does not matter in athletics, there is little justification for separating sports into male and female categories at all.
We could simply allow everyone to compete for the same teams, scholarships, records and championships.
We do not do that because the predictable result would be the disappearance of women from the highest levels of many sports.
## Recognizing General Differences Is Not an Insult
Saying that males generally possess athletic advantages over females does not mean every man is stronger, faster or more athletic than every woman.
That is plainly untrue.
Elite female athletes can outperform the overwhelming majority of men. Many women are stronger, faster and better conditioned than many individual men. Training, genetics, coaching, nutrition, age and personal ability all matter.
But sports categories are not based on whether individual exceptions exist. They are based on measurable differences between populations.
A highly skilled lightweight boxer may be capable of defeating a poorly trained heavyweight. That does not make weight classes unnecessary. An exceptional high-school athlete may outperform many adults. That does not make age divisions meaningless.
Those categories recognize that certain characteristics create a predictable advantage even though they do not determine the outcome of every individual contest.
Biological sex works the same way.
The relevant question is not whether one particular woman could defeat one particular man. The question is whether male physical development provides a general competitive advantage significant enough to justify a protected female category.
The scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that it does.
## The Effects of Male Puberty
Before puberty, the average physical differences between boys and girls are comparatively limited. Male puberty changes that relationship significantly.
The rise in testosterone produces changes that commonly include:
* Greater muscle mass and physical strength* Larger hearts and lungs* Higher hemoglobin levels and oxygen-carrying capacity* Greater bone size and density* Broader shoulders and different skeletal proportions* Higher average speed and explosive power* Greater height, reach and jumping ability* Lower average body-fat percentage* Greater capacity to generate force
A scientific review published in *Endocrine Reviews* found that differences in testosterone, muscle mass, strength and hemoglobin contribute to a male athletic advantage of at least 8% to 12%, depending on the activity being measured. In elite competition, an advantage of that size is enormous. Races and championships are frequently decided by fractions of a second or differences of only a few percentage points. [PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30010735/)
The size of the male advantage is not identical in every sport. It may be smaller in activities relying heavily on precision, flexibility or specialized technique and substantially larger in events involving strength, speed, power, contact or endurance.
But it is large enough across a wide range of sports to explain why separate female competition became necessary.
## What Hormone Treatment Changes—and What It May Not
One of the strongest arguments for transgender inclusion is that testosterone suppression reduces the advantages developed during male puberty.
That is partly true and should be acknowledged honestly.
Research indicates that gender-affirming hormone treatment can reduce muscle mass, strength, hemoglobin and some measures of athletic performance in transgender women. However, reducing an advantage is not necessarily the same as eliminating it.
Some characteristics developed during male puberty are not fully reversed by lowering testosterone. Height, limb length, skeletal dimensions and certain structural characteristics remain. The amount of retained advantage can also differ substantially depending on the sport, the athlete and the length of treatment.
A systematic review published in the *British Journal of Sports Medicine* found that hormone treatment reduced lean body mass, muscle size and strength, but noted that values often remained above those observed in females after three years of treatment. The available evidence remains limited and does not establish that every advantage produced by male puberty is removed. [British Journal of Sports Medicine](https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/15/865)
A study involving transgender members of the United States Air Force also found that performance declined following hormone treatment, but transgender women retained an advantage in running speed after the treatment period studied. [PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33288617/)
This is why testosterone levels alone may not provide a complete solution. Testosterone suppression can change current hormone levels without erasing the entire physical development produced by earlier exposure to testosterone.
## Different Sports Present Different Consequences
The effects of male physical development are not confined to one league or one type of competition.
In track and swimming, the issue affects qualifying times, records, medals and championships.
In weightlifting, wrestling and field events, it affects strength, power and leverage.
In basketball and volleyball, height, reach, jumping ability, speed and explosive movement can influence nearly every aspect of competition.
In cycling and distance events, cardiovascular capacity, muscle development and body structure can affect sustained performance.
In combat sports such as boxing, martial arts and mixed martial arts, the issue can go beyond competitive fairness and become a matter of physical safety.
Rules therefore do not have to be identical in every sport. A responsible governing organization should evaluate the actual physical demands and risks of its competition.
But every organization must begin with an honest recognition that biological sex can materially affect athletic performance.
Without that recognition, no meaningful fairness standard can be created.
## What Female Athletes Can Lose
This debate is often discussed as though participation carries no cost to anyone else.
In competitive sports, every opportunity is limited.
A place awarded to one athlete may mean another athlete:
* Does not make the team* Loses a starting position* Misses a championship event* Falls outside a qualifying standard* Loses a scholarship* Loses prize money or sponsorship opportunities* Has a record surpassed* Receives less playing time or exposure
The issue is therefore not simply whether a transgender athlete should be permitted to participate. It is also whether female athletes should be required to accept disadvantages created by male physical development within the category specifically established to protect their opportunities.
Compassion cannot operate in only one direction.
The feelings and dignity of transgender athletes matter. So do the opportunities, privacy, safety and achievements of female athletes.
Women should be permitted to raise these concerns without being called hateful, ignorant or bigoted. Asking whether a competition is fair is not an act of violence. It is a legitimate question at the heart of organized sports.
## The Purpose of Title IX
Title IX transformed American athletics by requiring schools receiving federal funding to provide equal educational opportunities regardless of sex.
Its impact extended far beyond allowing girls to play games. It created teams, scholarships, coaching positions, facilities and pathways into college and professional athletics.
Those opportunities were necessary because a completely open athletic system would not have produced equal participation for women. Female categories were protected because equality of opportunity sometimes requires recognizing biological differences rather than pretending those differences do not exist.
If eligibility for female sports is detached entirely from biological sex, the original protection becomes increasingly difficult to maintain.
A protected category cannot survive if the defining characteristic behind its creation is no longer permitted to define its boundaries.
## Respect Does Not Require Agreement
It is possible to disagree with transgender participation in female sports while treating transgender people with dignity.
No athlete should be threatened, humiliated or subjected to slurs. No one should be harassed because of appearance, identity or medical history. Eligibility decisions should be handled through clear rules—not rumors, social-media campaigns or invasive public speculation.
At the same time, respectful treatment does not require agreement with every claim about sex and gender.
Gender identity may be deeply important to an individual, but athletic categories exist to regulate physical competition. In that setting, biology cannot simply be replaced with identity without affecting other participants.
The statement “transgender women are women” may express a social or personal principle, but it does not answer the competitive question. Sports organizations must decide whether gender identity eliminates the physical relevance of male puberty.
The evidence indicates that it does not.
## Inclusion Has Limits in Every Competition
Every organized sport excludes some people from particular categories.
Athletes can be excluded because of age, weight, disability classification, residency, professional status, performance level or the use of prohibited substances. These classifications are not necessarily judgments about anyone’s human worth. They are rules intended to create fair and meaningful competition.
A 200-pound boxer cannot enter a lightweight division by explaining that he identifies more closely with lightweight competitors. An adult cannot enter a children’s tournament because that is the category in which the person feels most comfortable.
Those restrictions are accepted because the excluded characteristic directly affects competition.
The same reasoning applies to biological sex.
If additional opportunities are needed, organizations could consider open categories, mixed divisions or other formats where participation numbers make them practical. Recreational leagues may also adopt more flexible standards than elite competitions because their purposes and stakes are different.
But inclusion should not be achieved by eliminating the protections of an existing category.
## My Position
Competitive women’s sports should be reserved for female athletes.
That position does not deny the humanity or civil rights of transgender people. It does not justify harassment, cruelty or discrimination outside the legitimate requirements of athletic competition.
It simply recognizes that biological sex affects athletic development and that women’s sports exist because of those differences.
There will always be exceptional women who outperform many men. There will always be men who possess little athletic ability. Those individual realities do not erase the population-level differences that shape elite competition.
The female category must be defined by the physical characteristic it was created to protect.
Sports organizations should establish clear and objective eligibility standards. They should distinguish recreational participation from elite competition, consider the demands and risks of each sport and provide respectful alternatives wherever practical.
What they should not do is silence female athletes, leave crucial terms undefined or pretend that fairness and inclusion can never conflict.
Women fought for generations to establish their place in athletics. They fought for teams, scholarships, facilities, professional leagues, records and recognition.
Protecting those achievements is not hatred.
It is fairness—and it is the reason women’s sports exist.