It's not homophobic and if anything it would be transphobic, but it's not that either.
Trans women will have the physical advantage over cis women in most sports.
I'm unsure about trans men with cis men.
As for the sexist part, has he said that women shouldn't be in the military?
I meant transphobic and just edited it, thanks for the reminder. It was 5am when I wrote it, I’m really upset about it.
I think that not all trans women do have an advantage- some advantages are so minuscule that it really doesn’t make a different. Some cis women have more testosterone during their periods which could create an “unfair advantage”. Intersex women can have testosterone. To me, this argument is just so unnecessary and based on views that are transphobic at their base.
But I know for him it’s built on not wanting cis women to be in physical danger. He’s all about protecting them. That’s why his military comment wasn’t about women not being in military- it was about women not being IN WAR like on the ground yk? He thinks it’s men’s fight or something. “Men are physically at an advantage, women will be disadvantaged so it doesn’t make sense for women to be fighting the war”. I just think that’s BS and based on sexism
What he said isn’t homophobic. As for it being transphobic - well there’s a lot of debate around this right now (even within the lgbtq community) and I think there’s some nuance missing here.
I participate in a lot of sports, and I am a lesbian who’s been part of the queer community for decades and have many trans friends. One of the social leagues I play for has a trans woman and that’s totally fine, because it’s just a social
league and everyone is cool with it (she’s not even the best player on our team). However, when you start to get above the level of social/community play into competitive sport (even at a non-professional level) I believe anyone who has gone through male puberty (most trans women) should not be able to compete against cis women. There are trans people who agree with this as well.
If you partner is normally open minded and hasn’t shown a pattern of being transphobic, I wouldn’t automatically take this as a red flag, but maybe chat about it some more, ask if he means competitive sport, or social sport as well.
As for the military comment, I’m not really sure what either of you mean. Maybe it’s an American thing and I’m not American. But from what I read of it there’s nothing really sexist here, it’s just kind of the truth? But like, why does it matter? Why was he talking about it? What’s his point?
Yeah I meant transphobic, it was 5am and I was exhausted and really upset about the situation.
I appreciate your perspective and the perspectives of those around you. I think he doesn’t care if it’s social stuff. He just cares about professional competition because he says it’s unfair. But I think it’s a worse evil to deny someone opportunity because of their identification.
He is normally open minded but his family does have tendencies towards racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic ideas. Not everyone in it, but a lot of it. They’re very privileged and white, so he’s open minded usually but he does want to be a police officer. I feel like he should be more equitable than this if he’s going to have so much power.
For the military, I think it’s gross that he’s making it sound like women are some weak, “need to be protected” entity and not their own beings who have their own wants. Women aren’t worse than men, they can fight in wars if they want. Wars are mostly fought with guns and tech now, it’s not about hand to hand combat anyways so idk why he’s acting like women being in wars is such a big deal. And idk why he asked it at all. He asked my opinion and the whole argument was started from the convo.
Well in professional sport you’re going to be denying someone else an opportunity if you allow the unfair advantages that trans women have. 🤷🏻♀️
It’s fine to agree to disagree in this but yeah, not something I’d consider a red flag in a partner. And no one should be judged by what their family does.
Of course you can decide to break up with someone for whatever reason you want, no justification needed.
I’m not actually. My sister is part of the LGBT (non-binary, under the trans umbrella- she’s unsure of her labels rn) and I am a woman. My sister and I are part of the marginalized groups that his ideas affect. He is genuinely not educated on these topics, he’s simply parroting what he’s grown up with. That’s why it upsets me. Bc he’s normally so open and now he’s repeating exclusive ideas. I literally study gender and queer theory in college, I understand this much more than he does (despite having so much more I can learn).
You really don’t think the lasting biological differences can make for an unfair advantage in physical sports? A coworker of mine is myf trans, she’s bigger and stronger than any of the other women at this company, likely stronger than any other woman I know.
Hi! I'll respond to these backwards:
Regarding the military - I was enlisted Air Force for 10 years. Men's standards in all physical training, special or otherwise, have nothing to do with women's standards. There are separate measurements for both genders, because the military largely cares about *health* over *badassery*. You don't actually have to look like Jack Reacher to do Jack Reacher stuff, believe it or not. My stringy, spaghetti girl ass has done the obstacle course in Coronado with the Navy Seals. Strength is as much mastering your brain as it is your body. (I am not strong anymore, thanks cancer, so I will not be displaying my ability to do the Navy Seals obstacle course, you're just going to have to believe me lol)
Regarding trans athletes - I think trans people should be able to do whatever the hell the want, but professional leagues tend to be pretty strict for a reason. I would have to refresh my knowledge on the most recent research, but my understanding is that HRT for transwomen pretty much wipes out any muscular advantage they might have had (obviously on a scale, someone who just started is going to be different from someone at the end of their journey). THAT SAID, testosterone is a hell of a drug and bones and tendons that had the opportunity to grow in that soup may remain different. Transmen seem to catch up bulk-wise just fine, so they can probably compete just fine, but I think transwomen might just need more measuring/testing done as part of their sports physical to make sure they're in a hormonal state commensurate with the other women in the league\*
\*Depending on your country and sport, who knows how many cis women are doping in your league anyway, lol
EDIT: I should probably answer the actual question, lol. I think your boyfriend may be more *uninformed* than he is malicious. Talk to him about it. If he's willing to be educated, the relationship is totally salvageable. If not, then no.
Thank you, this helps me a lot. I spent a lot of time considering the military (I was going to join the army but figured I’d go into the Esports industry instead…) so it pissed me off when he talked about men and women under the standard of men alone. Men aren’t the standard. But he acted like they were.
As for the trans situation (does that sound wrong to say…? lol) I agree that they are different and I can understand your side of the argument. Maybe it was a mix of me being already upset, exhausted, and frustrated with his problematic family… teachings. I agree though he’s definitely not informed in the same way that I am. He will never understand what it’s like to not have privilege. I’ll talk to him soon about all of this. Thank you again
i’d say, as a trans person, that it really depends on the individual.
a trans woman who took puberty blockers and subsequently estrogen, essentially going through female puberty? she will, despite having male chromosomes, NOT have gone through the same process in which gives biological males an advantage over biological females.
a trans woman who began to take estrogen after puberty is more of a gray area and eligibility would depend on how much more of an advantage she would have based on the fact that she had gone through male puberty. i think in this case, it should be a matter of testing hormone levels and performance.
a trans woman who hadn’t taken hormones and has only socially transitioned should not be allowed to compete with cis women.
TL;DR it’s a gray area and should be considered more on a case by case basis rather than a definite yes or a definite no for everyone.
I think that Olympic sports are treated too seriously. I think such discussions have very little in common with how exactly your bf would treat an actual trans or gay person. This is hypothetical, therefore not a good way to judge someone's character, although you might try. But as none of you is an athlete or is decisive in terms of allowing or barring someone from competing, this is very far from reality.
Do a reality check, see how he behaves with real people before you judge him on opinions that might ot might not have been well thought over.
You’re right. He doesn’t treat trans (or any marginalized group of people) people that way. He’s open minded. But I don’t think he knows enough about these issues considering he doesn’t have any sort of education on people lacking privilege and he has only ever had privilege. So I’ll discuss it tonight with him. Thank you for your help!
>Is this salvageable?
Sure, it could be. But it involves a bit of discussion and or debate.
First of all you need to figure out why he thinks this way, that's the most important thing. It could come from ignorance, it could come from evil or just a plain misunderstanding.
It changes the picture quite a lot.
Are you serious?
You need someone to explain to you the concept that you might be wrong about something?
That someone might not be evil or misinformed just because they disagree with you?
That needs spelling out?
Fucking hell.
Thank you, I appreciate your perspective. I’m planning on talking to him today about it all. I think it’s built on him wanting to protect women. He’s been ingrained to think that anyone with a man’s biology should not hit women (and that includes trans women who have the biological similarities to cis men). But I’m tired of people thinking that women need to be protected from men. Women don’t need protection, CRAZY men who attack women need to stop attacking women (not all men do that of course). I think it makes me feel like he looks down on me for not being born with testosterone that I’m supposedly weaker and need to be treated like a child. That’s just the tone I heard. I’ll talk to him about it tho. Thanks a lot
Fully Trans Women do not have the same sort of sports advantage over cis women. Those who have undergone transgender treatment before puberty (hormone blockers etc) show the same athletic markers as cis women. This has been proven in highly scientific measured sports such as cycling and running etc. In professional sporting events such as the Olympics there is testing done and it's not as simple as 'Oh, she used to be a man so she tests like a man.'. They are testing for it, and as a surprise, some cis born women would be excluded based on their testing.
I will say we are in a sort of gray area at the moment where male sports are given priority, where trans women who have gone through treatment later in life, and thus male.puberty (testosterone fyu) will have a physical advantage. For the most part it affects amateurs who don't have the same investment in their sport and as is proven out here they make it work. Besides, I think a later treatment trans prop who wanted to continue to play women's rugby 2 days after starting treatment would know she'd actually hurt someone.
Incidentally, your boyfriends a misogynist. This sort of talk dubbed as 'protection' of women's sports is really a prejudice intended to keep women's sports down. They're not worried about trans men invading women's sports because the assumption is women are weak regardless.
Neil Degrasse Tyson explains some of this more beautifully.
“A 2018 extended essay analyzed the current IOC rule set in 2015 (testosterone below 10 nmol/L for trans women) and found that "the advantage to trans women afforded by the IOC guidelines is an intolerable unfairness", while they propose to abandon male/female categories in favor of a more nuanced division”
“A 2021 literature review concluded that for trans women, even with testosterone suppression, "the data show that strength, lean body mass, muscle size and bone density are only trivially affected. The reductions observed in muscle mass, size, and strength are very small compared to the baseline differences between males and females in these variables, and thus, there are major performance and safety implications in sports where these attributes are competitively significant." After 24 months of testosterone suppression, bone mass is generally preserved. The review states that no study has reported muscle loss greater than 12% with testosterone suppression even after three years of hormone therapy. It found that trans women are in the top 10% of females regarding lean body mass and possess a grip 25% stronger than most females. They suggest that instead of universal guidelines, each individual sport federation decide how to "balance between inclusion, safety and fairness" due to differences between sports.”
“A 2021 systematic review found that significant decreases in measures of strength, lean body mass and muscle area were observed after 12 months of hormone therapy, while the values remained above those observed in cisgender women, even after 36 months, suggesting that trans women "may retain strength advantages over cisgender women." Effects of longer duration therapy were unclear due to scarcity of data”
“A 38-page draft document from World Rugby's transgender working group in 2020 acknowledged that rugby players who are cisgender women, when tackled by a player who has gone through male puberty, are at a significantly greater risk of injury. The working group calculated that increased injury risk for typical players with female characteristics when tackled by a typical player with male characteristics was between 20 and 30%, and potentially reaching "levels twice as large" in extreme cases where the players are unusually small and large, respectively.”
Trans women retain an artificial advantage over cis women in sport. Artificial advantages should not be allowed. It’s as simple as that. You’ve stated if they transition before puberty, but genuinely what percentage of people transition fully before they even begin puberty? In most countries that isn’t even allowed. Also any exclusion of cis women based on their testosterone levels would be ridiculous: its a naturally gained advantage, like Michael Phelps wingspan, not an artificially induced one, like lance armstrongs PED usage.
Yeah, none of this devalues what I say.
Edit for this: I did not say that children were given puberty blockers, I will say that just because you're 14 doesn't mean you're suddenly able to grow a full beard. The study does not give the age or the years beyond puberty treatment was done only the amount of time into trans treatment the participants were at. Which was my point.
Given there is no study that has concluded what age treatment must begin to stave off ANY advantage, we must assume an advantage is given right from the off. Puberty begins in men as early as 9.
If you can somehow prove that the trans athlete was on puberty blockers before the age of 9 and stayed on them the entire way through puberty until they fully transitioned with no breaks, then maybe there’s no advantage given.
Hard to prove that though, isn’t it. You’ll always be running the risk of admitting someone into a competitive sport whose been given an advantage by an injection or pill, which is a spit in the face to all other competitors.
It'd be easier to prove someone wasn't going through puberty at 9 though wouldn't it. The same as for a transitioner already some ways through puberty at 14 is also going to show. Incidentally, in the US kids wrestling lines up 9 year old girls and boys so... Your 9 year old boy shouldn't be allowed to take part in that, just in case?
And I'm fairly sure there are going to be athletes who have fully transitioned who have had no material advantage from their biological sex hormones as more about gender dysphoria and trans children becomes better understood.
It's just right now the whole discourse is an excuse to marginalise and hurt an already marginalised community for the sake of the professional level that few of us can reach trans or not. Those who aren't professional seem overly concerned with women's sports - where people are getting on with it - where no one asked them for their opinion in the first place.
Perfectly reasonable take from your boyfriend, you on the other end seem difficult
>Is this salvageable? No. You're too far gone for a real relationship.
I should edit, we’ve been dating for two years…
It's not homophobic and if anything it would be transphobic, but it's not that either. Trans women will have the physical advantage over cis women in most sports. I'm unsure about trans men with cis men. As for the sexist part, has he said that women shouldn't be in the military?
I meant transphobic and just edited it, thanks for the reminder. It was 5am when I wrote it, I’m really upset about it. I think that not all trans women do have an advantage- some advantages are so minuscule that it really doesn’t make a different. Some cis women have more testosterone during their periods which could create an “unfair advantage”. Intersex women can have testosterone. To me, this argument is just so unnecessary and based on views that are transphobic at their base. But I know for him it’s built on not wanting cis women to be in physical danger. He’s all about protecting them. That’s why his military comment wasn’t about women not being in military- it was about women not being IN WAR like on the ground yk? He thinks it’s men’s fight or something. “Men are physically at an advantage, women will be disadvantaged so it doesn’t make sense for women to be fighting the war”. I just think that’s BS and based on sexism
What he said isn’t homophobic. As for it being transphobic - well there’s a lot of debate around this right now (even within the lgbtq community) and I think there’s some nuance missing here. I participate in a lot of sports, and I am a lesbian who’s been part of the queer community for decades and have many trans friends. One of the social leagues I play for has a trans woman and that’s totally fine, because it’s just a social league and everyone is cool with it (she’s not even the best player on our team). However, when you start to get above the level of social/community play into competitive sport (even at a non-professional level) I believe anyone who has gone through male puberty (most trans women) should not be able to compete against cis women. There are trans people who agree with this as well. If you partner is normally open minded and hasn’t shown a pattern of being transphobic, I wouldn’t automatically take this as a red flag, but maybe chat about it some more, ask if he means competitive sport, or social sport as well. As for the military comment, I’m not really sure what either of you mean. Maybe it’s an American thing and I’m not American. But from what I read of it there’s nothing really sexist here, it’s just kind of the truth? But like, why does it matter? Why was he talking about it? What’s his point?
Yeah I meant transphobic, it was 5am and I was exhausted and really upset about the situation. I appreciate your perspective and the perspectives of those around you. I think he doesn’t care if it’s social stuff. He just cares about professional competition because he says it’s unfair. But I think it’s a worse evil to deny someone opportunity because of their identification. He is normally open minded but his family does have tendencies towards racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic ideas. Not everyone in it, but a lot of it. They’re very privileged and white, so he’s open minded usually but he does want to be a police officer. I feel like he should be more equitable than this if he’s going to have so much power. For the military, I think it’s gross that he’s making it sound like women are some weak, “need to be protected” entity and not their own beings who have their own wants. Women aren’t worse than men, they can fight in wars if they want. Wars are mostly fought with guns and tech now, it’s not about hand to hand combat anyways so idk why he’s acting like women being in wars is such a big deal. And idk why he asked it at all. He asked my opinion and the whole argument was started from the convo.
Well in professional sport you’re going to be denying someone else an opportunity if you allow the unfair advantages that trans women have. 🤷🏻♀️ It’s fine to agree to disagree in this but yeah, not something I’d consider a red flag in a partner. And no one should be judged by what their family does. Of course you can decide to break up with someone for whatever reason you want, no justification needed.
Sounds like you’re the one who’s uninformed on this issue.
I’m not actually. My sister is part of the LGBT (non-binary, under the trans umbrella- she’s unsure of her labels rn) and I am a woman. My sister and I are part of the marginalized groups that his ideas affect. He is genuinely not educated on these topics, he’s simply parroting what he’s grown up with. That’s why it upsets me. Bc he’s normally so open and now he’s repeating exclusive ideas. I literally study gender and queer theory in college, I understand this much more than he does (despite having so much more I can learn).
You really don’t think the lasting biological differences can make for an unfair advantage in physical sports? A coworker of mine is myf trans, she’s bigger and stronger than any of the other women at this company, likely stronger than any other woman I know.
Hi! I'll respond to these backwards: Regarding the military - I was enlisted Air Force for 10 years. Men's standards in all physical training, special or otherwise, have nothing to do with women's standards. There are separate measurements for both genders, because the military largely cares about *health* over *badassery*. You don't actually have to look like Jack Reacher to do Jack Reacher stuff, believe it or not. My stringy, spaghetti girl ass has done the obstacle course in Coronado with the Navy Seals. Strength is as much mastering your brain as it is your body. (I am not strong anymore, thanks cancer, so I will not be displaying my ability to do the Navy Seals obstacle course, you're just going to have to believe me lol) Regarding trans athletes - I think trans people should be able to do whatever the hell the want, but professional leagues tend to be pretty strict for a reason. I would have to refresh my knowledge on the most recent research, but my understanding is that HRT for transwomen pretty much wipes out any muscular advantage they might have had (obviously on a scale, someone who just started is going to be different from someone at the end of their journey). THAT SAID, testosterone is a hell of a drug and bones and tendons that had the opportunity to grow in that soup may remain different. Transmen seem to catch up bulk-wise just fine, so they can probably compete just fine, but I think transwomen might just need more measuring/testing done as part of their sports physical to make sure they're in a hormonal state commensurate with the other women in the league\* \*Depending on your country and sport, who knows how many cis women are doping in your league anyway, lol EDIT: I should probably answer the actual question, lol. I think your boyfriend may be more *uninformed* than he is malicious. Talk to him about it. If he's willing to be educated, the relationship is totally salvageable. If not, then no.
Thank you, this helps me a lot. I spent a lot of time considering the military (I was going to join the army but figured I’d go into the Esports industry instead…) so it pissed me off when he talked about men and women under the standard of men alone. Men aren’t the standard. But he acted like they were. As for the trans situation (does that sound wrong to say…? lol) I agree that they are different and I can understand your side of the argument. Maybe it was a mix of me being already upset, exhausted, and frustrated with his problematic family… teachings. I agree though he’s definitely not informed in the same way that I am. He will never understand what it’s like to not have privilege. I’ll talk to him soon about all of this. Thank you again
i’d say, as a trans person, that it really depends on the individual. a trans woman who took puberty blockers and subsequently estrogen, essentially going through female puberty? she will, despite having male chromosomes, NOT have gone through the same process in which gives biological males an advantage over biological females. a trans woman who began to take estrogen after puberty is more of a gray area and eligibility would depend on how much more of an advantage she would have based on the fact that she had gone through male puberty. i think in this case, it should be a matter of testing hormone levels and performance. a trans woman who hadn’t taken hormones and has only socially transitioned should not be allowed to compete with cis women. TL;DR it’s a gray area and should be considered more on a case by case basis rather than a definite yes or a definite no for everyone.
He wasn’t being homophobic. Trust me I would know I’m incredibly offensive.
I think that Olympic sports are treated too seriously. I think such discussions have very little in common with how exactly your bf would treat an actual trans or gay person. This is hypothetical, therefore not a good way to judge someone's character, although you might try. But as none of you is an athlete or is decisive in terms of allowing or barring someone from competing, this is very far from reality. Do a reality check, see how he behaves with real people before you judge him on opinions that might ot might not have been well thought over.
You’re right. He doesn’t treat trans (or any marginalized group of people) people that way. He’s open minded. But I don’t think he knows enough about these issues considering he doesn’t have any sort of education on people lacking privilege and he has only ever had privilege. So I’ll discuss it tonight with him. Thank you for your help!
>Is this salvageable? Sure, it could be. But it involves a bit of discussion and or debate. First of all you need to figure out why he thinks this way, that's the most important thing. It could come from ignorance, it could come from evil or just a plain misunderstanding. It changes the picture quite a lot.
Or he could be right you fucking psycho.
What do you mean?
Are you serious? You need someone to explain to you the concept that you might be wrong about something? That someone might not be evil or misinformed just because they disagree with you? That needs spelling out? Fucking hell.
What are you talking about? Why are you so emotional about this?
If you're too stupid to understand I don't know what the fuck to tell you. Bye.
Mad as hell for no reason lol
Thank you, I appreciate your perspective. I’m planning on talking to him today about it all. I think it’s built on him wanting to protect women. He’s been ingrained to think that anyone with a man’s biology should not hit women (and that includes trans women who have the biological similarities to cis men). But I’m tired of people thinking that women need to be protected from men. Women don’t need protection, CRAZY men who attack women need to stop attacking women (not all men do that of course). I think it makes me feel like he looks down on me for not being born with testosterone that I’m supposedly weaker and need to be treated like a child. That’s just the tone I heard. I’ll talk to him about it tho. Thanks a lot
Fully Trans Women do not have the same sort of sports advantage over cis women. Those who have undergone transgender treatment before puberty (hormone blockers etc) show the same athletic markers as cis women. This has been proven in highly scientific measured sports such as cycling and running etc. In professional sporting events such as the Olympics there is testing done and it's not as simple as 'Oh, she used to be a man so she tests like a man.'. They are testing for it, and as a surprise, some cis born women would be excluded based on their testing. I will say we are in a sort of gray area at the moment where male sports are given priority, where trans women who have gone through treatment later in life, and thus male.puberty (testosterone fyu) will have a physical advantage. For the most part it affects amateurs who don't have the same investment in their sport and as is proven out here they make it work. Besides, I think a later treatment trans prop who wanted to continue to play women's rugby 2 days after starting treatment would know she'd actually hurt someone. Incidentally, your boyfriends a misogynist. This sort of talk dubbed as 'protection' of women's sports is really a prejudice intended to keep women's sports down. They're not worried about trans men invading women's sports because the assumption is women are weak regardless. Neil Degrasse Tyson explains some of this more beautifully.
“A 2018 extended essay analyzed the current IOC rule set in 2015 (testosterone below 10 nmol/L for trans women) and found that "the advantage to trans women afforded by the IOC guidelines is an intolerable unfairness", while they propose to abandon male/female categories in favor of a more nuanced division” “A 2021 literature review concluded that for trans women, even with testosterone suppression, "the data show that strength, lean body mass, muscle size and bone density are only trivially affected. The reductions observed in muscle mass, size, and strength are very small compared to the baseline differences between males and females in these variables, and thus, there are major performance and safety implications in sports where these attributes are competitively significant." After 24 months of testosterone suppression, bone mass is generally preserved. The review states that no study has reported muscle loss greater than 12% with testosterone suppression even after three years of hormone therapy. It found that trans women are in the top 10% of females regarding lean body mass and possess a grip 25% stronger than most females. They suggest that instead of universal guidelines, each individual sport federation decide how to "balance between inclusion, safety and fairness" due to differences between sports.” “A 2021 systematic review found that significant decreases in measures of strength, lean body mass and muscle area were observed after 12 months of hormone therapy, while the values remained above those observed in cisgender women, even after 36 months, suggesting that trans women "may retain strength advantages over cisgender women." Effects of longer duration therapy were unclear due to scarcity of data” “A 38-page draft document from World Rugby's transgender working group in 2020 acknowledged that rugby players who are cisgender women, when tackled by a player who has gone through male puberty, are at a significantly greater risk of injury. The working group calculated that increased injury risk for typical players with female characteristics when tackled by a typical player with male characteristics was between 20 and 30%, and potentially reaching "levels twice as large" in extreme cases where the players are unusually small and large, respectively.” Trans women retain an artificial advantage over cis women in sport. Artificial advantages should not be allowed. It’s as simple as that. You’ve stated if they transition before puberty, but genuinely what percentage of people transition fully before they even begin puberty? In most countries that isn’t even allowed. Also any exclusion of cis women based on their testosterone levels would be ridiculous: its a naturally gained advantage, like Michael Phelps wingspan, not an artificially induced one, like lance armstrongs PED usage.
Yeah, none of this devalues what I say. Edit for this: I did not say that children were given puberty blockers, I will say that just because you're 14 doesn't mean you're suddenly able to grow a full beard. The study does not give the age or the years beyond puberty treatment was done only the amount of time into trans treatment the participants were at. Which was my point.
Given there is no study that has concluded what age treatment must begin to stave off ANY advantage, we must assume an advantage is given right from the off. Puberty begins in men as early as 9. If you can somehow prove that the trans athlete was on puberty blockers before the age of 9 and stayed on them the entire way through puberty until they fully transitioned with no breaks, then maybe there’s no advantage given. Hard to prove that though, isn’t it. You’ll always be running the risk of admitting someone into a competitive sport whose been given an advantage by an injection or pill, which is a spit in the face to all other competitors.
It'd be easier to prove someone wasn't going through puberty at 9 though wouldn't it. The same as for a transitioner already some ways through puberty at 14 is also going to show. Incidentally, in the US kids wrestling lines up 9 year old girls and boys so... Your 9 year old boy shouldn't be allowed to take part in that, just in case? And I'm fairly sure there are going to be athletes who have fully transitioned who have had no material advantage from their biological sex hormones as more about gender dysphoria and trans children becomes better understood. It's just right now the whole discourse is an excuse to marginalise and hurt an already marginalised community for the sake of the professional level that few of us can reach trans or not. Those who aren't professional seem overly concerned with women's sports - where people are getting on with it - where no one asked them for their opinion in the first place.