More than anything else, the question of fairness plays into conversations about gender diverse athletes. And to be honest, it's an important question to answer. Sports only works because there is an expectation about fairness. If we couldn't be certain that the odds were evenly matched, then we'd have less interest in competing with one another. Unsurprisingly, that same thinking informs the way we concern ourselves with assumed advantages held by transgender and intersex athletes. But before we get to the topic of gender diverse athletes, we first need to think about what we actually mean when we say something is "fair" or not.
What is fair?
When talking about women's sports, in particular, issues concerning fairness and justice hit close to home. In the United States, at least, the battles to be included in sports, to have access to athletic facilities, to have equal pay, to be free of fear are all still prevalent, even in a post-Title IX world. And, as we have also seen in regards to women's sports, even with Title IX, "equality" does not automatically correlate with "equity". Therefore, it is unsurprising that people would worry about the inclusion of gender diverse athletes in women's sports, in particular. But as philosopher and master's cyclist Rachel McKinnon makes clear in the following lecture, fairness for gender diverse athletes is achievable, as is fairness for women athletes writ large.
