The situation in Russia concerning the up coming Olympics and
their stance against gay people bothers many people. I believe a person’s genes
guide their behavior, which causes a great deal of concern from many quarters. There
are those who criticize that statement and say that would mean we are devoid of
free will; we are genetic robots. There are those who would argue that if that were
true we would not be responsible for crimes we commit because we are “acting
according to our genes”: rape and kleptomania for example. Others argue that
deviant behavior is not inherited it is learned; therefore, can be changed.
I counter these arguments with the thought that we are responsible
for what is in our genes no matter how fortunate of unfortunate. They are our
genes. While it is clear, we can modify some of our behavior to fit into what
people around us call “normal”. The critical factor is do we want to modify what
is in our genes. I am a male; I would have no desire to modify my behavior into
that of a female. I remember an incident on Oprah Winfrey’s show when she asked
a transgender guest why she wanted a sex change operation. The guest responding
with a question for Oprah that visible shocked her, “What would you want if you
looked down as saw a penis?”
Just like genetic diseases. If we have sickle cell anemia or
spinal bifida or Downs syndrome, we handle them as best we can because that is
what we are. Genetic or not, we write rules and regulations to protect one-another
from harm caused by these differences. Watch MSBC Lockup, TV cameras are
brought into prisons and prisoners are interviewed one-on-one. It soon becomes
obvious, that our prisons are full of people who have mental problems—whose
genes deviate from “normal”. They are different and we can do nothing about it
so we lock them up. Of course, there are those in prisons whose behavior is a product
of mind-altering drugs.
The International
Olympics Committee (IOC) has written rules; some of those rules deal with sex
differences. The Olympics are several thousand years old but women completed
only relatively recently; the first was in 1900. Nonetheless, women compete
against women and men compete against men except in a limited number of non-physical
sports and some team sorts. Although there have been gender challenges because
of one women complaining about another, there are finally rules concerning sexual
identity in IOC rules. The new rules state that medical
experts will examine through a blood test the testosterone levels in a woman
and will then make a recommendation about whether she would or would not be
eligible to compete. An athlete can herself
request an evaluation, if during routine urine testing for performance
enhancing drugs it is noticed that the athlete has male characteristics, and
finally drug testing results reveal abnormal testosterone levels. Of course, athletes
can use testosterone as a performance-enhancing drug. Therefore, can males with
low levels of testosterone add more to enhance performance?
As so often happens, the solution raises many more
questions. What level of testosterone is acceptable to allow a woman to compete
against other women? Can a male with low testosterone compete with females? Is
it sexist to test only women? Why would they test men for levels of
testosterone?
Finally, transgender issues include the matter of sexual
preference, which seems where the Russian mindset is in connecting their politics
to the Olympics. It is obviously wrong to assume a transgender female, who identifies
as a male would be attracted to another male or a transgender female would be
attracted to another female because that is not always the case but more
importantly, it is no ones business but “theirs”.
The same sex attraction of one athlete to another or to one of their guest or
of one guest to another is private; it is personal. It is in their genes
therefore it can get no more personal than that.
The big question is, “should the IOC test athletes in the
first place if they do not know how to handle the results”. My solution is
simple. Have scientist establish normal ranges for testosterone in non-transgender
women and men. Men and women qualify for events as males and as females on that
basis, if they cannot qualify on that basis, well I am sorry, it is in their
genes—they own it—just like a genetic disease, it is their; it is in there genes.
If you think my suggestion is too radical, stop and think about it, this approach
is exactly what the IOC has done.
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