The Trans Women Athlete Dispute with Martina Navratilova: Nuanced BBC documentary is necessary viewing

The new documentary explores what it takes to compete and what it means to belong
Martina Navratilova with trans golfer Alison Perkins
BBC

Regardless of the fact that it’s Pride Month, The Trans Athlete Dispute with Martina Navratilova is necessary viewing. Suspend judgment, if you can spare an hour.

It is a subject that inflames and agitates. Can anyone who was born biologically male, with the physiological advantages male adolescence confers, be considered to be a fair competitor in women’s sport, even if they now identify as a woman?

In the US, we are told, 17 states allow trans high-school athletes to compete without any restriction — but in Connecticut, female athletes have brought a discrimination case because they feel they are being denied top finishes and, possibly, college scholarships.

Many athletes fear that the advantages of testosterone can never be mitigated, even with hormone treatment. “I don’t want ... races to be won by biology, instead of by talent,” says former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies, who opposes transgender athletes being allowed to compete in women’s sport.

Tennis star: Martina Navratilova presents the new documentary
BBC

Davies is still furious that she was beaten to the gold medal in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow by East Germany’s Petra Schneider, who later admitted she was administered testosterone as part of a state-run doping programme.

That was a case of a deliberate, coercive doping. But the issue of transgender athletes is complicated. In May this year the South African Olympic champion middle-distance runner Caster Semenya lost a landmark case against the IAAF, the governing body for athletics, meaning it will be allowed to restrict testosterone levels in female runners. Semenya is female but has differences of sexual development (DSD).

Navratilova is diligent in closing the knowledge gap, yet not impartial. In December the tennis legend and gay rights campaigner tweeted: “You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women. There must be some standards, and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard.” Her comments attracted criticism across social media. “We’re pretty devastated to discover that Martina Navratilova is transphobic,” tweeted the rights group Trans Actual. “If trans women had an advantage in sport, why aren’t trans women winning gold medals, left, right and centre?”

Navratilova returns serve. “For so many years women couldn’t even compete, now we finally can”, she says, but “must now adjust again”. In 2016, the International Olympic Committee ruled athletes assigned as male at birth can compete as female after a year of hormone therapy. “We’ve been adjusting all our lives!” Navratilova says. It’s a journey for the tennis star, who has “been discriminated against myself”. She “landed somewhere she didn’t want to be” with her comments and is “trying to bridge the divide”. There is an apology, too, as she educates herself on transphobia.

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It’s not her story that rings out strongest here, though. “I’m trying to explore how to be me, how to be accepted, and how to do stuff that I enjoy,” says Alison Perkins, the first trans member of the Professional Golf Association, as she discusses her transition while teeing off with Navratilova.

“It might be easy to go and have a coffee as a transgender person,” Perkins says, “but to enter a gym, to join a running club — a lot of trans people will avoid sport, because it is hard.” When they finish their round of golf Perkins crumples slightly in Navratilova’s hug, looking back on the interview. “That was my whole life there,” she says.

This is not a debate to be played out in the hot crucible of social media but on the grass pitches, legal practices and university labs that Navratilova visits. It is an emotive, nuanced examination of what it takes to compete, and what it means to belong.

The Trans Athlete Dispute with Martina Navratilovaairs at 9pm on BBC One tonight.

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