This is an encouraging development. Maybe, just maybe, cumulative arguments like those that appear at Ethics Alarms eventually create positive change by shining light on unethical situations capable of remedy, and forcing lazy, cowardly or inattentive authorities to change course.
It’s nice to think so, anyway.
Spurred by the escalating controversy over the unfair triumphs of transgender Penn swimmer Lia Thomas in NCAA women’s meets, the NCAA announced a crucial change in its policy regarding transgender athletes. The eligibility of transgender athletes to compete with women will now follow the sport-by-sport model adopted by the U.S. and international Olympic committees. The new policy goes into effect immediately.
It would seem to mean that Lia, formerly James, will be out of the pool. USA Swimming policies follow the International Olympic Committee, and IOC’s rules state:
“Trans female athletes must demonstrate a total testosterone level in serum below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 consecutive months prior to competition and must remain below this threshold throughout the period of desired eligibility to compete in the female category in any event.”
What will happen to all those records Thomas set while hovering somewhere between male and female has not been determined.
I’m sure the NCAA would have been happy to remain blindly woke if it could have gotten away with it. If Ethics Alarms contributed in some tiny way to making sure they didn’t, that’s encouraging.
What would be even more encouraging is if feminists would stand up for the female athletes they fought so hard for, rather than meekly parroting LGTBQ propaganda.
Ethics Alarms 
“below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 consecutive months prior to competition”
This is an interesting metric. If someone had some bloodwork done, and the name and details on the file were lost, someone who displays that level of testosterone concentration would probably still be presumed male, although perhaps a very old one. The range for testosterone in men ranges from 10-35 nmol, with the average rate lowering with age and the range for women ranges from 0.5 to 2.4 with the average rate increasing with age.
Don’t get me wrong, the IOC metrics are head and shoulders above a whole lot of standards out there, particularly leagues where the conditions are “check the box and strap on the bikini”, and this will keep some of the more egregious reality-deniers, but boiling the problem down to a testosterone-level issue doesn’t really address the problem either. There are differences between men and women that will never mitigate and there are differences that can mitigate, but will not mitigate purely as a benefit of a sex-conforming hormone level.
My position is and has always been to either let all trans competitors, regardless of transitioned gender, compete in the men’s division, or to accept the reality that trans competitors are basically PED case studies and probably shouldn’t compete at all.
Those, or an all-trans division.
I just don’t think the pool of athletes would be large enough to sustain a division, but if there were, yes, this would also be acceptable.
The unfair advantage that trans males have is about much more than testosterone.
This controversy isn’t going away until a clear common sense biological delineation is made. Meantime, female athletes will continue to be steamrolled by selfish misogynist trans athletes suffering from gender dysphoria.
Oh, I agree. But it’s a start.
Can we stop with the “Lia, formerly James” canard? James is a physical male, a biological intact male, and has changed sexed or genders. James thinks he is Lia. He is not Lia. You don’t change genders or sexes simply because it’s how you feel. If that’s the case, I am an aardvark.
jvb
You can, however, change your name.
As Paul Harvey would say, “and now the rest of the story.”
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/penn-lia-thomas-colluded-transgender-swimmer-race
jvb
We called it! Other Bill was first…https://ethicsalarms.com/2022/01/09/a-two-wrongs-dont-make-a-right-episode-for-the-ages-trans-female-swimmer-lia-thomas-is-finally-beaten-by-a-trans-male-swimmer-competing-as-a-female/#comments
I don’t think that proves anything. An anonymous swimmer alleged some collusion happened between the two swimmers. The accuser didn’t hear anything, didn’t obtain any documents. It’s all based on speculation. Not the most absurd speculation, but nothing substantial enough to make a definitive conclusion.