James Kirkup James Kirkup

Is it fair for Laurel Hubbard to compete against women?

Laurel Hubbard (Getty images)

Today, the conversation about transgender rights and the interests of women turns to sport. At the Olympic Games, Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand, will compete in the +87kg women’s weightlifting.

Hubbard, as you surely know, was born male and grew up to become a competitive weightlifter. At the age of 33, the athlete then transitioned and became a trans woman. And because the International Olympic Committee effectively signs up to the mantra of trans rights – ‘Trans women are women’ – Hubbard can duly compete in the women’s contest in Tokyo.

To a lot of people, the prospect of a male-born weightlifter competing with biological women calls to mind a line from George Orwell: 

‘One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.’*

Sport might well be the aspect of the trans debate that sparks the greatest public engagement with the issue.

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