People who believe it puts children’s sports at risk have reacted angrily and conservatively when USA Boxing updated its plan to allow transgender people to compete in their chosen gender.
The new rule, which stipulates that female boxers who transition into women will be able to compete in the female category, was included by the American fighting firm in its 2024 rulebook.
USA Boxing stated in a statement that the goal of this policy is to ensure fairness and safety for all athletes.
Adults may choose their gender as long as they meet certain requirements, but those under the age of 18 must compete according to the sex of their birth.
According to the plan, applicants must fully complete gender reassignment surgery and declare their new gender identity. Transgender athletes are also required to take part in routine hormone testing.
For 48 weeks prior to their first competition, athletes who transitioned into women were required to have blood cortisol levels under 5 nmol/L, a unit of measurement. Furthermore, during the eligibility period, the serum’s total testosterone level must be below 5 nmol/L.
However, athletes who compete as men are required to have hormone levels of at least 10 nmol/L.
The International Olympic Committee stated that it is the duty of all sport-governing bodies to determine how athletes will be classified in 2021. This led to the policy selection.
The International Boxing Federation has not yet decided on registration for transgender athletes.
Controversy of New Rule
Many conservatives and some athletes have criticized the rule on social media, indicating that not everyone is in favor of it.
Constitutional law expert Jenna Ellis, who served as Donald Trump’s senior legal advisor, spoke out against the new policy on the platform previously known as Twitter.
Ellis wrote on the platform, “USA Boxing wants to get people killed.”
Others expressed worry that the new legislation may harm female athletes who were born women because trans women might have biological advantages when competing against other women.
Collin Rugg, a conservative political commentator and co-owner of Trending Politics, wrote on the platform, “South Park was right again. Lunatic world.”
The new legislation allows people to “beat women up in a sporting ring,” according to Colorado Republican representative Lauren Boebert.
Boebert tweeted on Sunday, “Let’s call this what it is. They will allow men to assault women in a boxing ring. This is pitiful and repulsive.”
Female fighting rivals have also expressed their worries about the policy change.
Claressa Shields, an MMA fighter, said in response on the platform to the new policy, “This is idk……. Not the right decision.”
Others asserted that this rule disregards the traditional rules that testosterone therapy would not be allowed at all during competitions.
Professional athlete Mikaela Mayer wrote on the platform, “Hormone therapy is banned. By definition, this should render trans athletes ineligible for competition. Period. Regardless of how you feel about the situation, it is illegal and totally disrupts the level playing field that sports have worked so hard to create.”
The bantamweight world titleholder Ebanie Bridges added that the rule has no place in boxing.
Bridges said on the platform, “I don’t care about ‘political correctness.’ This world is too soft; this is our health and safety. Idc that’s exactly what it is. It is politically incorrect for a man to be fighting a woman. The girls must keep up if they want women’s sports to be filled with female champions in 50 years.”
After competing against a transgender swimmer in 2023, another athlete, Jayden Alexander, claimed she was overcome with emotion.
Alexander stated on social media, “The plain fact of the matter is that men entering a combat sport to fight women is absolutely unacceptable. I was definitely in fight or flight mode. The encounter was hideous and scary.”
“We don’t deserve to self-exclude from competitions in order to stay away from fighting men. We deserve that laws and rules be established that keep us safe and shield us from these situations occurring in the first place.”
The conflict between trans athletes and children’s sports has evolved into a discussion of what feminism entails in the twenty-first century, and it has vocal detractors even within the LGBTQ+ community.
According to Sky Gilbert, an educator at the University of Guelph in Canada who also performs drag, “allowing transgender women to compete may seem like a little thing, but it is enormously significant, and ultimately it is anti-women and anti-feminist.” “Women fought for centuries in order to make a place in sports and in society at large.”
Men who went through adolescence were previously prohibited from competing in the adult category by the World Athletics Council, which oversees Olympic track events.
According to Gilbert, trans women were born biologically male, which means that not only were their bodies prepared for activities in ways that women have not been, but also their early experiences in life.
“Allowing transgender women in sports eliminates all the years of fighting for the rights of women. It would be tragic for women and young girls everywhere if transgender girls could compete with women in sports.”
USA Boxing was contacted by Newsweek for comment via internet.
