Jamie Nye: U Sports transgender athletes policy opens debate

U Sports have a new transgender student-athlete policy. Athletes will get to play on the team of their choice. Either with the gender from their birth or the gender in which they now identify.

No questions asked, no surgery required, no testosterone suppression treatment.

But is that the best policy, in terms of what is right or what is fair?

The Olympics have relaxed their policy. They have however dropped the allowable natural testosterone in half for women’s sports

U Sports says the science they’re using says naturally produced testosterone does not have an impact on athletic performance. Other medical journals disagree.

So U Sports will not require testosterone suppressant therapy, which is in line with some organizations. Others make it mandatory for a year before transgender women can compete against other women.

More science and research is being done and reported every year. It’s a quickly changing landscape that needs to be monitored closely.

U Sports, however, believes no one’s gender identity should be questioned on campus, nor on the court, floor, mat, field or track

Idealistic, though open for debate.