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The Olympics Anti-Trans Policy Is Really about Policing Women

Here’s one more barrier men won’t have to face

The new International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy targeting trans women at the Olympics will force high-level trans athletes out of competition. That is its simple, stated intention.

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It also marks a massive rollback for fairness, equality, and access in women’s sports overall. Thousands of female athletes around the world are going to have their access to high-level sport limited because of a witch hunt to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

On March 26, the IOC announced its long-awaited policy on trans women in Olympic sport. Not only are trans women now banned entirely from competing in women’s categories at the Olympics and other IOC events, but all female athletes are required to undergo genetic testing in order to be cleared to compete. The sweeping policy change comes after IOC president Kirsty Coventry promised a review to “protect the female category” when she took office last year. The policy will come into effect for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

Coventry claims the new policy is about “fairness” for women athletes. “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” Coventry said in a statement on March 26. “So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.”

But make no mistake: the people who will be hurt most by this are the thousands of high-level athletes with dreams of competing professionally. At its core, anti-trans sports policy and legislation like this isn’t about protecting women’s rights; it’s about rolling them back.

Five years ago, the IOC introduced a sweeping trans inclusion framework that was largely........

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