This Thursday, we’re dropping a new episode of The Disagreement. It’s about gender diverse athletes competing at the highest level in sports. And it’s one of our favorite episodes so far.
Perhaps more so than any other, this next disagreement fulfills our mission to forge a different kind of conversation on a topic that has been largely maligned by both sides of extreme voices in the culture.
Subscribe to a different kind of conversation.
This is our first ever episode preview: a look at the state of the discourse.
Image courtesy of Olympics.com
State of the Discourse
There are two different conversations currently taking place on the topic of gender and elite sports.
One conversation is focused on the regulatory policies of the national and international governing bodies, the nature of biological advantage, and the ethics surrounding the inclusion or exclusion of trans athletes.
The other conversation is part of a broader cultural war being waged. It’s not about sports. It’s about values, identities, our relationship to nature and the human body––the purest distillation of our collective fears, anxieties, and national longings.
Lightning rod issues likes this one are an opportunity to create something truly different – a longform, respectful disagreement between two experts at the top of their fields, a conversation that is hard hitting, evidence-based, and rooted in compassion. The bar is low. We hope to clear it by a record-setting margin.
Here’s our summation of the discourse on the two extreme sides of the culture war.
Identity is the coin of the realm. In all social, legal, and political contexts, one’s expressed gender identity overrides the biological status quo. When it comes to sports, anyone who identifies as a woman should be free to participate in women’s sports without any hormonal thresholds or regulatory impediments.
In order to make this case, there are some who deny male athletic advantage outright. In 2023, a Scientific American article authored by a biologist and a biological anthropologist said this: “Inequity between male and female athletes is a result not of inherent biological differences between the sexes but of biases in how they are treated in sports.” NPR published a similar sentiment and then issued a correction.
Moving inward towards mainstream progressivism, there’s a vocal contingent that places male biological advantage within the spectrum of hereditary advantage that already exists within same-sex sports (see John Oliver). As an example of this logic, LeBron James has a demonstrable hereditary advantage over every other male basketball player of his generation. Michael Phelps is often cited as well. Sex is slotted onto this spectrum as another source of advantage that an athlete of any gender may have.
The gender performance gap is often an order of magnitude greater than the difference between a generationally elite athlete (LeBron and Phelps) and the broader same-sex competitive field.
On the Right…
Biology is the coin of the realm. You are your gamete(s). Any social, legal, or political manifestation of a gender identity that is incongruous with one’s biological sex should be disregarded, stigmatized, and derided. As an example, the Trump administration’s executive order on gender and sex instantiated this approach at the federal level.
When it comes to sports, there is no room for taking gender identity into account, even in recreational or children’s activities. Biology is destiny. Furthermore, trans women are often accused of transitioning in order to gain athletic advantage, which ignores the profound, often irreversible, physical and hormonal changes trans athletes undertake.
On the right, it’s not just a degree of cruelty leveled at trans athletes. There is glee, a twinkle in the eye, a delicious smirk when describing them as freaks and pedophiles. The seemingly ubiquitous “they/them”Trump 2024 campaign ad was another perfect example of this dehumanization.
On The Disagreement: A Different Kind of Conversation
The good news is that those extremes are minority viewpoints. The widely-recognized bummer is that they play a dramatically outsized role in the current discourse, encouraging and motivating one another in a toxic and depraved arms race of memes and mots.
But there is another way.
There is a majority perspective – an exhausted majority. A critical mass of people who recognize that both biology and identity are important variables when navigating the human condition––a majority who want to ethically and compassionately work through this problem, embrace its complexities, and attempt to converge on solutions.
On Thursday’s episode, we brought together two people who truly embody this project.
The Guests
“The women's category is an umbrella for all women and the marginalization of all women is a significant factor. Trans women are among the most marginalized of women.” - Dr. Joanna Harper
Dr. Joanna Harper is a medical physicist and internationally recognized researcher on gender variance and sports. Joanna has advised the International Olympic Committee and the World Athletics Championships. Joanna has been an elite runner for more than four decades, first in the men's category and for the last twelve years in the women's category.
Joanna recognizes the critical role that biology plays in sports and advocates for including trans women in elite competition after a period of hormonal suppression.
“Since time immemorial, we've been discriminated against not because we were women, but because we were female. We've been discriminated against because we have female bodies.” - Doriane Coleman, J.D.
Doriane Coleman is a Professor at Duke Law School and co-director of the Duke Law Center for Sports Law and Policy. Doriane competed on the U.S. and Swiss National track and field teams and was U.S. National Collegiate Indoor Champion in the 800 meter.
Doriane recognizes and embraces the important role that gender identity plays in society, but has developed strong conviction that elite competition should be restricted to biological females.
Together, our guests model a highly productive disagreement on an emotional issue that is central to both of their personal and professional lives.
Get ready for Thursday. It’s a banger. Subscribe to get the episode as soon as it drops.
Thursday! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-disagreement/id1735027795