A transgender athlete for the Kilsyth Basketball club, in Victoria, has applied to play for the NBL1 Women's League. This is the league below the professional WNBLlevel.
This issue would normally be addressed by Basketball Victoria, but Basketball Australia has stepped in and convened a panel to handle the matter. This shows just how significant this issue is. For if this player is allowed to play, it sets the precedent for future trans-athletes.
Inclusion
The discussion around it is often framed as an issue of inclusion. We should be inclusive and let the trans-athletes play, people say. Yet it should be noted that the trans-athlete is very much welcome in their own biological category. It isn’t the case that they are denied to ever play again. The issue should more accurately framed as appeasing certain self-concepts. It is not so much an issue of inclusion but an issue of placating ideologies.
Differences
Even to the naked eye it would seem quite obvious that men and women have different athletic capabilities. But to express it more precisely, men have undergone a different developmental process which has produced greater height, feet and hand size, stride length, skeletal muscle mass, bone density, lung capacity, and larger hearts. These changes can’t be undone by reducing testosterone levels six months prior to competing.
Records
I was recently in a basketball stadium and came across a trophy cabinet. Engraved on it was a list of recent MVPs (Most Valuable Player) for a top women’s league. And it struck me, that if this new precedent passed, we might one day see a trophy like this filled with the names of biological men. A trophy celebrating women’s accomplishments might one day be filled with the names of men.
This is the issue. In the name of ‘inclusion’, female athletes will be erased.
Andthis doesn’t seem a far-off reality because we have already seen biological men beat out biological women to win events. Lia Thomas was a notable case in swimming. Laurel Hubbard in weightlifting. Cece Telfer in sprinting. Sasha Jane Lowerson in surfing.
Debate
The LGBTQ agenda really does put the Christian in a tough position. It flies across the face of God’s creation of two genders. It goes against God's design of sex within a covenant heterosexual relationship.
Yet we also don’t want to so strongly alienate people that we burn bridges to winning souls.
It is a tough position because every Christian should be speaking with grace, gentleness, and love, yet also with truth. I don’t think we should shy away from the debates. But I also don’t think we should mock people and use truth as a lash towards those we disagree with.
The settling truth is that the Holy Spirit can convict us in which way to act. The Holy Spirit will give us the prompts and direction to speak sternly to one person, and speak gently to another. To proclaim truth loudly in one instance, and hold our tongue in another.
Christlikeness isn’t simply expressed in stating truth. You could lead a wicked life and still profess truth to the masses. It is speaking truth in love. It is treating people with dignity. It is speaking what the Holy Spirit has prompted you to say.
Time will tell what Basketball Australia has to say, but whatever the outcome is, I believe eventually people will come to the correct conclusion.