Biology Isn’t a Balancing Act

There is a clip going around on X of Cenk Uygur appearing on the Triggernometry podcast and discussing the issue of men in women’s sports. Uygur is the founder and host of The Young Turks, a long-running progressive online news and commentary network, and a frequent voice on the American left.

His views are often considered “heterodox” but not because they don’t strictly line up with leftie party line views or mainstream group dogma. Rather because his views are further to the left of the Democrats. He basically just hates the Democratic Party. Which is fine, I don’t like them either. But for different reasons.

Uygur’s comments on the show were revealing.

Here is the clip:

He claimed that at the professional and Olympic level, leagues should decide the rules. He says it’s up to them, the leagues, and we should all accept that. He’s not fully conceding male advantage in total but conceding that perhaps there is male advantage at the high level and elite league’s have the right to decide what their own rules are.

This makes no sense. Why would male advantage exist at the highest levels of sports but not at the high school level? It’s an illogical and incoherent position.

He cited a case of a “trans woman” in her forties who immediately lifted two hundred pounds more than the biological women in the competition. Without much training at all.

He’s close on the facts. But it’s even worse.

He is referring to Canadian male powerlifter Anne Andres. Here is Andres disparaging women because apparently he doesn’t understand inherent upper body strength differences between men and women. Nice fella. He’s basically like: why are women so weak and pathetic?

At the Canadian Powerlifting Union’s 2023 Western Canadian Championship, Andres won the female masters category with a total combined score that was over 200 kilograms (more than 400 pounds!) higher than the closest competitor, drawing significant public debate and media coverage regarding athletic fairness

Then Uygur pivoted.

At the high school level, he said, it becomes a “balancing act.” He called the entire issue “the tiniest” in America and a “wedge issue” designed to distract from corporate power. That’s what he thinks everything is about. Well that, and Israel.

His solution: let deluded males who “identify as female” compete against girls in high school and, I guess, middle school, though he doesn’t mention that age group.

Because it doesn’t matter that much or something, for high school girls.

“I would rather have my daughter come in second, third, or eighth . . . than traumatize those kids [“trans”],” he declared. “I’m not checking your genitalia and I’m not traumatizing you when you’re a kid.” He completely ignores any trauma to the girls in having to share a locker room with boys or give up their own hard won triumphs to boys.

This is not a serious or coherent position. Truth cannot be negotiated. There is no balancing act when it comes to biological reality. Men are not women. Male puberty produces irreversible advantages in muscle mass, bone density, lung capacity and strength that no amount of hormone suppression erases. And there are advantages even before puberty!

The first major testosterone “wash” or surge for a baby boy happens in utero. Testicular testosterone production begins at around 7 to 8 weeks, elevates from there, and hits its peak early in the second trimester. Testosterone levels at this point reach levels comparable to an adult man.

Or, simply put, we have girls’ and women’s sports for a reason. And they are for girls and women. Period.

Conceding the principle at the elite level while forcing high school girls to absorb the costs is illogical and, frankly, cruel. Plus, where does he think those Olympic level athletes come from? They work their way up from, you guessed it, high school sports.

Where is the line then, Cenk? At the Olympic Trials is it ok to have men competing in the women’s category but not IN the Olympics? What about the qualifier for the Olympic Trials? How far down the line in competitive sports is it ok for boys to compete in girls’ before cutting them out?

High school sports are not recreational playdates. It is so demeaning to women and girls and their hard work to suggest that they are. High school sports determine scholarships, national rankings, roster spots and the formative experience of fair competition. Some of the top girls will go on to compete in college and then vie for Olympic berths.

Telling girls that they must simply accept displacement so that males with “gender dysphoria” are not “otherized” (his words, not mine) subordinates female achievement and safety to male feelings. It makes girls and women second class citizens.

The genital-check talking point is a deliberate distraction. No one is proposing invasive inspections of children. Schools already require physicals and medical documentation. A doctor’s note confirming biological sex is straightforward and already standard practice for other eligibility questions. And frankly, when the test for sex is made readily available, I see no reason why this would not be added to the doctor form and basic physical. But setting a clear boundary even before that time, would discourage the practice currently afoot of having males competing in women’s sports. As you all know, the actual rules right now in 23 states dictate that gender identity trumps sex. Let’s make it clear with laws that that must not be the case.

Oh and by the way, in the 27 states with laws on the books to protect the women’s category, there are no genital checks. And there will be none in the 2028 Olympics or by the Women’s Tennis Association. It is so dumb and provably false I don’t know how these people can keep repeating it with a straight face. They just lie.

The alternative Uygur endorses — allowing bepenised males (I’m stealing this phrasing from Libby Emmons because I find it hilarious) into female locker rooms and competitions — creates real privacy and safety problems for girls. Those problems are not theoretical. And he doesn’t seem to care about the girls who may be traumatized by this.

The most damning part of Uygur’s remarks is the personal one. He is willing to have his own daughter lose opportunities, titles and privacy so that a male competitor is not made to feel uncomfortable or sad. He says that this is the compassionate thing to do. And if she doesn’t get into her first choice college because of it, so be it.

But where is the compassion in lying to a confused boy and telling him his delusion is reality and that he can, in fact, become a girl? It’s cruel.

This is also a profound abdication of a father’s duty to protect his daughter’s rights. It is difficult to imagine him telling a son, “Just take the L; that other athlete is vulnerable, so your hard work and fair play come second. Just be nice.” Head pat.

We do not tolerate even one athlete using performance-enhancing drugs because it destroys the integrity of the contest. Why would we accept even one male taking medals, scholarships or team spots from female athletes? We would only do that if we thought girls’ experiences just didn’t matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

The numbers already exceed a handful of isolated cases; and each one is one too many. Thousands of girls and women have already been impacted.

Uygur’s framing treats biological reality as optional and female sacrifice as the price of compassion. He offers up his own daughter’s sacrifice as not only compassionate but necessary!

It is neither compassionate nor truthful to force female athletes to accept males in their competitions and spaces. Categories exist because sex is material for sport and beyond. Girls and women should not have to “live with” losing to males at any level.

Uygur’s so called “balancing act” is merely prioritizing boys’ feelings over girls’ rights, privacy and opportunities.