Update: after this article was published, Martina Navratilova apologized for using the word “cheats.” She did not, however, retreat from her basic argument -- that allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports is unfair to athletes born female.
On Wednesday, the transgenders in sports debate moved to the Fox Sports 1 television studio, where Jason Whitlock discussed the controversy with former NFL players Marcellus Wiley and Mark Schlereth and former NBA player Jim Jackson. Wiley called allowing males to compete against females a "sports integrity issue," and Schlereth said it's a matter of unfairness. Retired tennis legend Martina Navratilova said as much in a recent Times of London op-ed, and she is now public enemy No. 1 in the LGBT world.
Whitlock kicked off the discussion (at 50:52 here), first talking about two boys, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, who recently took first and second places in a sprint race final at the Connecticut girls' state indoor track and field championships. Miller broke the girls' state record in the 55-meter dash. This sparked the renewal of a controversy that began last spring when the same two boys dominated the girls' state outdoor meet sprints.
Navratilova angered her LGBT friends when she wrote, "Allowing transgender women in women’s sports is cheating. ... It’s insane and it’s cheating. I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her. It would not be fair.’”
Whitlock acknowledged the topic is red-hot right now and wonders how dramatically it will impact girls' and women's sports, suggesting a potential re-shaping of college (women's) basketball. "I don't think this is the right conclusion for transgender women to compete directly with ... other women. I just think there is a competitive advantage," he said.
Wiley agreed. "Ah, definitely a competitive advantage. Objectively there is a competitive advantage," he said, referring to the International Olympic Committee's 2004 decision to allow transgenders to compete "in open field." "And now you're starting to see the results and some success from that. We have to understand that this is not a human rights issue. This is a sports integrity issue." More from Wiley:
"So what this story is talking about is so demoralizing because there's an unfair advantage given to the transgender athlete. Now what are we talking about, how can we fix this? That's gonna be a different conversation beyond, 'should they be allowed to compete against explicitly birth certificate male or a specifically birth certificate female?'"
Schlereth said he would not want his daughters forced to endure the disappointment of the girls' sprinters in Connecticut who were beaten by biological boys:
"As the father of a professional athlete and the father of two daughters who play sports, if my daughters were top of the state and got to run in the state finals and got beat by a transgender athlete, I would have a problem with that. It would bother me. I don't have a problem with them being transgender, but it's the competitive balance issue that I would have an issue with or that I would have a problem with."
Schlereth says he's okay with having a discussion about transgender issues with sports. He wants inclusion and fairness, but also suspects that a bunch of people will try to take advantage of the situation this inclusiveness permits. He mentioned the potential loss of scholarships for females due to an unlevel playing field.
"So is it, you're taking scholarships away?," Schlereth asks. "All of a sudden I'm a young lady who's competing against this, a tilted competition, do I stop competing, do I stop using the gift that was given me because I get discouraged? Because I'm competing in an unfair contest? Those are the things we have to think about, both sides here."
FS1 panelist Jim Jackson also said young women may be deterred from competing in sports knowing the playing field is not level.
