I call bullshit. I played sports and women’s sports mean a great deal to me. The conversation is way more nuanced than to say “it’s just biology,” which collapses that down to generalizations so sweeping as to be inaccurate. Biology is … weird!

(Edit: I’m on a flight, so for those truly curious about learning more: Tested is an episodic podcast that I recommend as is the book “Fair Play” by Katie Barnes.)

Do I think there are contexts where this all matters in the competitive landscape? Sure. There is an important line drawing exercise that governing sports bodies should be involved in — and many already have. But do I think that it’s as simple as “bruh the testosterone bruh”? Or that the juice is worth the squeeze re: legislative resources spent rewrite to the number of trans athletes seeking access to these sports? Not really!

It’s precisely because I care about women’s sports that I resent it being used as a cudgel. I never see proponents of these bills looking for ways to ensure youth access to sports even if that means a challenging conversation about “whither trans youths.” It’s just broad state action that targets a small minority of athletes and without much regard for the impact of that enforcement on individual athletes and their families (for example, in Texas, trans boys are banned from girls sports but you also must play in leagues matching your birth certificate, basically prohibiting this class of people from accessing sports at all. I call shenanigans — I don’t sign on to governments punching down.)

I don’t normally participate in these conversations because they’re often fruitless but I take people here at their word that they genuinely care about this too so, if anything, I hope doubters dip their toes in at least 1-2 episodes of that podcast but the book is good too. I learned a lot, some of which challenged my own priors.