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Rachel McKinnon.PNG"Trans inclusion is fairness" says Rachel McKinnon ahead of Masters Track Cycling World Championships defence
Dr Rachel McKinnon has defended her right to race ahead of the UCI Masters Track World Championships in Manchester this weekend. McKinnon became the first transgender athlete to win a world title in any sport when she took the 200 metres world title in the 35-44 women’s sprint category last October.
McKinnon took silver in the 500m time trial earlier this week and set a new world best time in qualifying in the sprint earlier today.
However, she has frequently faced arguments that she should not compete in female competitions.
Earlier this year, she responded to comments made by Sharron Davies by tweeting a photo of the former swimmer, suggesting that if it were posted alongside the question "Do you think it's fair for this trans women to compete in women's sport?" a lot of people would be calling Davies a man.
"There's a stereotype that men are always stronger than women, so people think there is an unfair advantage,” McKinnon told Sky News. “By preventing trans women from competing or requiring them to take medication, you're denying their human rights."
A recent study by Sweden's Karolinska Institute suggests the impact of hormone treatment on the leg strength of women who have transitioned from being male is almost negligible.
Asked if she accepted it was possible that transgender women retained a physical advantage, McKinnon replied: "Is it possible? Yes it is possible. But there are elite track cyclists who are bigger than me.
"There is a range of body sizes and strength. You can be successful with massively different body shapes. To take a British example, look at Victoria Pendleton, an Olympic champion with teeny tiny legs.
"In many Olympic disciplines the gap in performance is bigger between first and eighth in a single sex event than it is between the first man and the first woman."
McKinnon says that sport is central to society, “so if you want to say, ‘Well, I believe you’re a woman for all of society except this massive central part that is sport,’ then that’s not fair. So fairness is the inclusion of trans women.”
Asked whether trans inclusion was more important than retaining a category for women in sport, McKinnon replied: "I think what you’re asking me is, 'Is it more important that trans people are included, than it is to retain fairness in sport?'
"My point is that trans inclusion is fairness: it is unfair to exclude trans women. This is much bigger than sport in that it's the proxy for all of trans inclusion in society. Talk of bathrooms has shifted into sport by people who don't care about sport, so I think it’s clear that this issue is bigger than sport."
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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44 comments
Person who benefits thinks it is fair... what a shock
There are lots of examples in nature of species where the females are significantly larger and stronger than the male. Humans aren't one of these species.
But, hypothetically, if women WERE naturally much stronger than men:
after transitioning from male to female, would Dr McKinnon with the smaller and weaker male body happily race against women, knowing that she would come last against the naturally stronger women?
At some level this becomes like the urban myth about Mike Tyson wanting to fight a gorilla. I don't care how good a boxer Tyson was, he'd get beaten to death.
Look at the Williams sisters in the 90s, bragging that they could beat any man outside the top 200. Karsten Braasch, ranked 203, took them up on it. He was 31 at the time against their 16 and 17, and had a reputation as a smoker and drinker. He turned up to play them having played a round of golf and had a couple of beers. He played a set against each sister and beat them 6-2 and 6-1, and said he hadn't even been trying that hard anyway. Go figure.
^
Nope, it was the same day and same distance. I was merely making the point that Chloe Dygert performed at a level equivalent or better than some guys going WT.
You seem upset about something so I'll leave you to it.
Even if you lump everyone together in one race, you would still have results tables by sex, age, etc, much like in some endurance events. And as these categories splinter off into myriad groupings, life will get complicated, as contestants jockey to identify with the grouping most advantageous to their placing.
So in the end you have to say everyone competes in a category of one, against themself; some kind of handicap system? So the first person across the line is no longer the winner. And where's the fun in that?
Ludicrous.
The issue has been made with in relation to boxing, a professional male boxer identifying as female would pulverise any female boxer.
Likewise, any of the top 400 male tennis players would beat Serena Williams, considered the best female tennis player ever to have lived. So anyone of those males could become female, win all the competitions for a couple of years, creating records that only another male would beat, pocket millions in prize money, before retiring and going back to being a male.
You cannot get over the fact that males are physically stronger than women (participating professionally in sports), hence the segregation to begin with.
What he is forgetting is that society doesn't accept this. Some people do.
Many of us feel strongly that messing about with nature is wrong. Very very etc wrong. Personal feelings don't count. Tough luck. You are what you come out of the womb as. End. Dress how you like but to expect others to bow to your selfish thoughts is wrong.
Human rights. Yeah right. He means human selfishness and greed.
do you refuse medical treatment for yourself and any children you may be responsible for?
She was on the Strava podcast a couple of months ago and from the bit I listened to she really didn't come across that well. Honestly I got about 7 minutes in and found her too arrogant and annoying to listen to any more. That arrogance potentially doesn't attract people to her cause.
She says in the Sky interview "there's a stereotype that men are stronger than women", well of course there is, because its true! Sure she might not have stronger legs, or greater lung capacity, or stronger heart, or lower body fat than some of her competitors but she still has a big leg up over the average woman.
Saying "By preventing trans women from competing or requiring them to take medication, you're denying their human rights." is also ridiculous. Their human right to do whatever they feel is right and ignore everyone who thinks it's wrong? Interesting question, I wonder what would happen if she entered as a male. Would the UCI allow it? Or would they fear being labelled as transphobic.
I get it, it's hard for her, she wants to compete in sport but she also wants to be a woman. I don't think that trumps the rights of the other women however to have a level playing field.
landsurfer74, just wondering what this rather complex story has to do with voting rights being expanded almost all men and some women? I don't see why this issue should lead to anyone being disfranchised.
Ricky Gervais made a good point about this:
this argument works ok until the first transgender boxer comes along. Then what. Are we going to be comfortable watching that fight? (For example) mike Tyson could decide to transition and take on any woman in the appropriate weight category. Would people still consider this fair?
The simple solution is to base it on DNA. Have an XX category for those with the XX chromosome and an open category for the rest.
If a man want to pretend he's a woman, good luck to him. But he shouldn't get to use his natural advantages to cheat real women out of their just deserts.
It's a simple solution but unfortuantely like most simple solutions it doesn't work.
This thread has gone a bit Alan Partridge flashback-y. Some of you seem a bit obsessed for some reason.
That article is a travesty that conflates sex with gender and elective non-binary choices with intersex abnormalities. And since it builds on the idea that the science has "moved on", maybe read the confessions of one instrumental in that early movement:
https://quillette.com/2019/09/17/i-basically-just-made-it-up-confessions...
OK, I read that and got as far as "Some researchers now say that as many as 1 person in 100 has some form of DSD." Which sounds a bit weaselly: "some reseaerchers", "as many as". But even taking some researchers' upper estimate, that leaves fewer than 1% who don't fit into the traditional man/woman classifications. That doesn't justify allowing a man, i.e a person with the XY chromosome, to compete as a woman.
As for "Alan Partridgey", some of us care about fairness.
If only it were that simple. There are women with a Y chromosome and men without one.
Sport has a long and uncomfortable history of sex/gender testing. Genitalia, chromosomes, hormones... Unfortunately there is no single, simple way of determining a person's sex; it is a mix of chromosomes, genetics, internal and external genitalia, secondary sexual characteristics and hormones. For many people those all conflict. Then we throw in the difference between sex and gender and we're left with an unholy mess.
I don't have a simple solution. But I know that those who do are wrong.
https://app.getpocket.com/read/1334254159
“If you want to say, ‘Well, I believe you’re a woman for all of society except this massive central part that is sport,’ then that’s not fair”
Truth is, I don't believe you're a woman. You might believe that (I'm far from convinced that you do), you might crave the validation of others supporting you in that belief, but facts don't change so easily. I can sympathise with your plight without having to affirm the lie.
McKinnon is a cheat.
McKinnon is a man.
McKinnonn has a penis.
Women have worked so hard for years to improve their rights and access to the world.
100 years of sufferage ... down the drain because any man can say " Im female' ... and expect the whole world to support him. Women get pushed out of sporting success to allow men who feel the need to cheat to push their agenda and political programme forward.
McKinnon is a cheat, a man and a disgrace to sport everyehere..
Chill out mate.
It's Masters 35-44 track worlds.
Next time it could be the Olympics.
Although IMHO that's not reason for us all to get hot under the collar. As a male, I don't feel qualified to offer a strong opinion. I think it would be better if the discussion was led by women, as it is they who are affected.
Agreed.
I'd also submit that allowing trans folk (male>female) to participate in female competition kinda makes a mockery of why we make the athletic distinction the first place.
I would also suggest that maybe we need to open up mens' competition to anyone who can hold their own. I'm sure there are more than a handful of female riders who could hold their own in the mens' peloton.
What do you mean by holding their own, is that soft pedalling in the middle of the pack or on the nose as a domestique putting pressure on a team/individual, keeping a high tempo or even chasing down a break or even making a break themselves?
IMHO and with all respect to your opinion I cannot see how that could possibly be true at elite level, the average speeds simply say no, the race distances both length and number of days of individual events and days racing over a season say no, the elevation gained says no.
Compare the lantern rouge of this years TdF Lawson Craddock to Annemiek van Vleut, he would absolutely slaughter AvV, on the first day of a world tour race as soon as the pace went up, she would get swamped, she'd lose places sprinting out of corners, small ramps etc and spat out the back.
That's no disrespect to the ladies, it's just a simple fact of outright ability due to sex, elite men will beat elite women EVERY SINGLE TIME, and this is wthe problem with allowing participants who were men before, to compete with women as a women, physiologically they are not in any way like other women, even intersex women.
Well then, quite a strong response there. Based on presumptions too, since it hasn't been tried (to my knowledge). What is a fact is athletes will rise to the level of competition they compete in. Maybe not all the way, or maybe they will. But I guess in your world they don't even get the chance to try.
I would also point to a glaring error in your theory about race design. The races are shorter and the climbs less difficult because men decided it should be so, based on similar presumptions.
Anyway, I just said I'm open to it. It's up to women to decide if it's worth a try (and then to convince the men to allow it).
No, no and no. You can't just 'raise your mental game' and somehow transcend physical limitations. If what you are saying is true then women have forever sold themselves short by having segregated sport.
Put it to the test, remove any 'women's' sports and then see if they get into any teams or rise to top of any individual competitions. No more women's tennis, just tennis. Wonder where the females will end up. I'd say nowhere in the top 100.
Let's get something straight: men segregated women from mens' sports, ok? If you think otherwise you're deluded. That kind of thinking undermines whatever else you have to say. There's a word for it and it's "mansplaining".
And by the way, what I'm suggesting is NOT throwing everyone into the same game or race, it's providing an opportunity for ANYONE to compete at the male level if they can. I fully acknowledge there appear to be innate differences between males and females athletically.
Not sure that makes sense. The 100m sprint is the same whether you're male or female, and everyone is just trying to do it as fast as they can. Are you saying that the reason the men are nearly a second faster is that the women are somehow complacent about the competitors they're facing?
You're presuming I'm saying women are athletically equal to men. I'm not. I'm attempting some foresight to more of these sexually ambiguous situations and how it can be handled. And my suggestion is rethinking how we segregate "men" and "women". And if the responses here are any indication, there's little hope of affording women equal opportunity in cycling.
You said women could compete with men on equivalent courses. I offered the most equivalent of courses and now you say that's not what you actually said?
Men and women are not physically equivalent. Sorry, I guess?
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