This is a heavy topic, so feel free to remove it if it's against forum rules. I have been listening to several Joe Rogan podcasts lately, which often includes discussion on transgender people and sports. The obvious criticism against the inclusion is that men transitioning to women (MTF) have the advantage of a mans bone structure and many years of testosterone in their body. However, female to male (FTM) have little to no advantage since their body is still lacking the bone structure and natural testosterone. On the other side of the argument, some biological women can have exceptionally high testosterone (eg. Caster Semenya) and have a natural advantage over most women. According to Badminton England (https://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/media/7451/badminton-england-transgender-policy-2019-final.pdf): However, this is only for England, how do other governing bodies handle this situation? Have there been any instances of transgender badminton players? Do you know any transgender badminton players?
Badminton England's regulations are word-for-word lifted from the IOC regulations, so these rules should apply to all countries, only translated to their respective languages. A cursory look into the German regulations just mentions that these IOC rules apply to all top-level competition. Personally, I think the central point is I'll leave it to the sports scientists to determine what criteria must be fulfilled. There seems to be some disagreement, with IAAF defining a Testeron level of 5 nmol/l, but whatever it is, if the competitor has the same or worse starting conditions and winning chances as other athletes training with the same intensity and conditions, I see no reason to bar them from competition.
Male to female transgenders should NOT be allowed to compete in any female sporting discipline that requires general athleticism like strength, speed, jump, etc. Testosterone level is one thing but the advantage gained by most males throughout their life is just unfair. There are plenty of examples of m2f transgenders who competed within the rules and thoroughly dominated their female opponents. And this is while dealing with the stress and hassle of gender transitioning! To allow this is to ignore basic biological differences between men and women that cannot be overcome just by gender transitioning thus doing a huge disservice to women. The solution is either they should compete in the male division or make a new category for transgenders.
In a tournament not long before the time I would have to warm up for a mixed doubles the organizer asked me if I had seen my partner, as he didn't know what she looked like. I had to try doing a search for her name on Facebook to find someone who at least might be her, as I needed to recognize her to warm up with her. I had a quick look at the profile of the first girl who came up (who did turn out to be her), and saw she posted something about a recent sex change. Her smash wasn't really that devastating, as I wondered it might be. She probably hadn't been playing long, though. Her voice sounded male to me.
