Summary
The New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard looks set to make history after being confirmed as the first transgender athlete to compete at an Olympic Games. Hubbard previously competed in men’s events before transitioning in 2013. She is eligible due to a change in International Olympic Committee guidelines on testosterone levels in 2015, and after qualifying requirements were modified by the International Weightlifting Federation. For many campaigners this is a landmark moment for trans people, whose participation at grassroots level sport is shamefully low. Moreover, while there are many different male and female body types, they see elite sport as reflecting society’s obsession with gender stereotypes and worry about the implications for anyone who does not meet ‘conventional standards’ of femininity. Opponents think that allowing transgirls, who were assigned male at birth, to compete with cis girls is unfair. They argue that, in the vast majority of cases, males are stronger, faster and more powerful than females – if that were not the case we would not have had to segregate sport in the first place. The New Zealand Olympic Committee chief executive, Kereyn Smith, said this complex issue required, “a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play”. This raises a deeper philosophical question: what is the relationship between rights and rules? And which of these is best placed to achieve fairness – not just in sporting competition but between competing demands? When should rules and laws be challenged and when does a person’s sense of their natural rights go too far? With Dr Dafydd Mills Daniel, Joanna Harper, Debbie Hayton and Adam Wagner.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a program from BBC Radio 4. You can download many more BBC Radio 4 programmes for free. |
| 0:07.7 | Find these at BBC.co.com.uk slash radio 4. |
| 0:12.1 | Good evening. The New Zealander Laurel Hubbard is set to make history by being the first transgender |
| 0:17.1 | athlete to compete in the Olympic Games. She's a weightlifter, a super heavyweight, who lived as a male until her mid-30s, |
| 0:24.3 | and has since had hormone therapy but not corrective surgery while identifying as a woman. |
| 0:29.9 | The International Olympic Committee changed its rules not long ago to make the testosterone level |
| 0:35.1 | the key test to qualify to compete as a female. |
| 0:38.9 | Her selection has been held as a triumph for trans rights, |
| 0:42.0 | a welcome rejection of outdated gender stereotypes, |
| 0:45.1 | and an acceptance that there are many ways of being and expressing femininity. |
| 0:50.5 | Critics point to the Olympics motto, faster, higher, stronger, |
| 0:58.6 | and say these are, generally speaking, the characteristics of the male of the human species. |
| 1:12.1 | They point to evidence that those who change their gender, after puberty, anyway, retain many of those physical advantages, and say that to allow them to compete against those born biologically female is unfair, or as one of Ms Hubbard's weightlifting rivals put it, a bad joke. New Zealand's Olympic Committee said |
| 1:18.1 | the issue here was to balance human rights with fairness on the field of play. How do we weigh |
| 1:23.5 | rights against rules? And if it's fairness we want, is it rights or rules that will deliver it? |
| 1:29.5 | That's our moral maze tonight. The panel, Melanie Phillips, social commentator at the Times, |
| 1:33.5 | Ashaka, the libertarian Marxist from the Navarra Media Group, the historian Tim Stanley, and the chief |
| 1:39.3 | executive of a health charity, Matthew Taylor. Melanie, Melanie Phillips, do you have an initial view on this? |
| 1:46.5 | Yes, I think that sport is all about fairness and inclusivity because it's fair, and rights are inherently divisive. |
| 1:55.0 | I don't think rights have really any legitimate place in sport. |
| 1:59.5 | Ash, Ash, Sarka. |
| 2:03.3 | I'm not necessarily convinced that rights is the language which will always deliver justice, but when it comes to this particular issue |
... |
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