Athletics is one area where legally enforced gender binaries *may* be a necessary evil, if women’s athletics is to survive. But even if this is true, the evil needs to be minimized as much as possible. Requiring people to submit to gender tests because they are fast or strong or not adequately feminine looking, as apparently is the case here (see also, see also) (based on the linked accounts only), is just reprehensible.
(I say *may* be a necessary evil because I’m still trying to understand all the complexities involved. Maybe gender binaries could be eliminated without reducing the athletic scholarship or career opportunities that are available to women. It would be nice if that was possible. I don’t know if it is.)
–Ann Bartow
