From being pushed out of their own sport by athletes with biological advantages of being born male. I wish that wasn’t the case, but there’s already been documented cases of male to female trans athletes taking already scarce opportunities away from cis female athletes. Lia Thomas went from being ranked #462 competing in men’s swimming to #1 in women’s when she switched. Now it’s obviously been bastardized by shit stain human beings, anti-trans rights voices, and homophobes but if you look at it in a vacuum there’s legitimate concerns to be addressed. College scholarships being awarded to the best athletes. Endorsement deals. Records. Championships. I think Michael Phelps addresses it the best.

“I believe that we all should feel comfortable with who we are in our own skin, but I think sports should all be played on an even playing field…I don’t know what that looks like in the future.”

And also Nancy Hogshead-Makar supporting trans participation

“so long as they can demonstrate that they have lost their sex-linked, male-puberty advantage prior to competition in the women’s category.”

However, I’m not sure that there is an easy way to define what their sex-linked advantage is nor a way to measure it’s recession throughout the transitioning process and it would be unwise to encourage emotionally and mentally immature children that have not yet entered puberty to make a permanent decision on transitioning. Not to mention the gradient of transgender processes and the extent to which a person even wants to go. Not every trans female takes hormones.

Not being able to name female athletes is a you and (to a lesser degree) media problem. They don’t get as much press, but there’s plenty of household female athlete names. Venus and Serena Williams, Brittany Grinder, Katie Ledecky, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Yani Tseng, Mia Hamm, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Simone Biles, Lindsey Vonn, Marta, Nancy Kerrigan…probably some other huge names I’m totally missing.

Since you’re not really a sports person maybe you don’t see it how other highschool and beyond athletes see it. School sports is just as much about competition and championships as it is character building. It isn’t only about winning and losing. I want to make that clear. Sports are used to build character sure, but it’s usually being taught on the back of the competitive aspect. Being a good teammate, working together as a team, etc in order to beat the opponents or improve yourself. And I’m not saying that this girl should be denied her right to play, just that she should unfortunately be required to participate in the men’s bracket of competition. She may not perform well, but that’s the reality of competition. It’s no different than the chubby boy sitting on the bench until the last 3 minutes of a blowout game.

Until we can come up with a more scientific and proven methodology for these individuals to compete in a fair and inclusive environment, I think that’s the reality of the situation. Not all societal problems can or should be dealt with by flipping a switch and adjusting after the culture shock. I wish that were the case, but it’s going to do a lot more harm than good. The first step in my opinion is to develop a coed class of sports in some fashion that allows anyone to participate while still keeping competitive sex-based sports.