aspects of the “transgender debate” here, many of which focus on the continued and worrisome spread of normalization gender dysphoria in society, the military and beyond. But one of the side-bar aspects of this discussion has had to do with the world of sports. Whether you’re talking about a girl wrestling against boys or comparing the Bobby Riggs vs Billy Jean King tennis match to Renee Richards, questions of gender bending in the competitive arena come with all sorts of complications.
Now another sport is being featured in this ongoing debate and it’s the world of competitive cycling. For the first time a man identifying as a woman will be racing in a USA Cycling sanctioned event in the women’s category and competing against some of the top female cyclists. Jillian Bearden (formerly Jonathan) is going to be competing in the Colorado Classic and is able to do so because both the International Olympic Committee and Cycling USA have removed the requirement for transgender athletes to have their “transition” surgery prior to being able to compete. What they’ve done instead is require that men “transitioning” to be women spend at least one year on medication to suppress their testosterone production, increase estrogen and keep their T levels below a certain, unspecified level. (It will come as no surprise that there are no parallel testing requirements for women identifying as men.) From theDenver Post:
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