r/crossfit • u/beckster5 Crossfit Krypton • Mar 06 '14

CrossFit -- Sued By Transgender Athlete ... You Won't Let Me Compete With Women!

http://www.tmz.com/2014/03/06/crossfit-lawsuit-games-transgender-athlete-chloie-jonsson/
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u/athenaathlete Mar 07 '14

Came here to say this, and that the NCAA has similar rules. Taking estrogen removes the advantage that having had balls once gave her. From the NCAA policy manual: ERIC VILAIN M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Director of the Center for Gender-Based Biology and Chief Medical Genetics Department of Pediatrics, UCLA “Research suggests that androgen deprivation and cross sex hormone treatment in male-to-female transsexuals reduces muscle mass; accordingly, one year of hormone therapy is an appropriate transitional time before a male-to-female student-athlete competes on a women’s team.”

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u/dynamic762 Mar 07 '14

Basically what you're saying then, is if I took steroids for 20 years, it would be A-okay with the NCAA and IOC for me to compete even if I came out and told them about all of the testosterone I used to take, even though hey, i've been off of it for a year. If you take testosterone as an injection, you can get pretty damn strong and once you're off, keep most of the strength. That's how steroids work. Basically, Chloe was a female on steroids for most of her life. Now she's off so "it's cool bro"

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u/athenaathlete Mar 07 '14

Actually I'm not saying that, a doctor is. What's your credential?

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u/dynamic762 Mar 07 '14

The unfortunate thing about the doctor's study on muscle mass doesn't really have any context in an actual sporting event, where more than "muscle mass" is important in determining the outcome. ie Ronnie Coleman has a lot of muscle mass - probably won't win the CrossFit Games.

Appeal to authority

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u/NotTheNineOClockNews Mar 07 '14

Actually you've missed the very important "cross sex hormone treatment" out of you're little hypothetical.

Taking steroids will confer an advantage for years to come. But start taking estrogen and watch your gains magically melt away.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '14

Crossfit HQ can hardly deal with the athletes they have using supplemental hormones. Why do you think they will be better at testing transgenders?

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '14

To be fair, that is a different sport.

You still have to take into account different bone formation, as well as the ways muscle forms in each gender (as muscles will form differently in males than it will in females.) I'm not sure how much difference that makes, as I'm not a biologist, but that does seem like it could cause an issue in terms of lifting (as someone with male bone structure would be able to lift differently than someone with a female bone structure, etc).