You may have seen the recent story about Caster Semenya and the debate about gender identity that surrounded it. Here is the BBC link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/48131074
I’m just a simple guy really, so isn’t the answer to remove gender barriers in sport?
Why?
Well, in some sports women and men have equal abilities.
In some sports women are very close to the same standard as men.
In others, there may be a gulf between the two, but remove segregation and that gulf will gradually vanish. Gender identity is important of course, but why not see the best athletes compete? Why deny top earnings to women?
Now, there is a physical difference between men and women in the way our internal organs are arranged in the pelvic floor area. So there may be a few sports where women have to remain separated because of the damage to that area that over-use can cause. Similarly there may be a case to keep separation due to potential heavy and repetitive contact to breast tissue, because that could cause internal damage that may develop into serious illness.
But that’s the only separation of male and female that would make sense. Otherwise, just open up sport to PEOPLE. It is ridiculous that Caster Semenya has to take medication to affect her testosterone levels so that she can be ‘more female’.
And beach volleyball is NOT a sport!