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Aiden Fant may only be 15 years old, but he’s seen the world change. He wonders if things are changing too fast.
“We’ve always been taught not to hit women,” he says.
Fant’s classes are at the Gladden Boxing Club in Gainesville. He is one of the rising stars in the gym and is ranked No. 3 in USA Boxing’s 145-pound junior division. The governing body has a new education plan.
This will allow transgender women over the age of 18 to compete in the women’s division. They must have undergone gender reassignment surgery and have regular hormone tests.
That doesn’t make any of the gym’s employees feel better about the new policy.
“You’ve come up with a crazy topic,” Lee Gladden said.
He has been training boxers for 20 years. I stopped by his house the other night to get an expert opinion on transgender participation in boxing. Other voices will not die out either.
“Allowing men to hit women, even under the guise of athletic competition, is reprehensible,” Sen. Marco Rubio said in a statement. “This is behavior that cannot be tolerated, much less encouraged, in any civilized country.”
Of course, the inciting word there is “male.”
Transgender The Bible defines trans women as full-fledged women. They deserve all the rights and privileges associated with it.
I agree, except when it comes to sports. There are indisputable advantages to being born male.
Well-meaning trans activists acknowledge this, but argue that it is the price society must pay to become more inclusive and tolerant.
It’s debatable when it comes to track and field, swimming, and rock climbing, but boxing is different.
It’s not a race. It’s not a game.
It’s a battle.
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The important thing is to cause damage to your opponent. And men are better at that than women. The approximately 2,000 deaths recorded in the ring since records began 300 years ago would attest to that.
Sure, a female mixed martial arts heavyweight champion might beat your average male psychology professor, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.
Boxing has weight classes to ensure fairness. There is no way to ensure fairness when someone born male fights someone born female. That’s why the World Boxing Council started creating a separate category for transgender people.
Amateur boxing is not that dangerous. Competitors wear headgear and the focus is on scoring points, not breaking ribs. still…
“All you need is one shot to do damage,” Gladden said.
USA Boxing has said such risks are acceptable due to medical requirements. However, surgery or testosterone suppressants do not erase skeletal differences. Trans women will still be taller, have higher bone density, and greater lung capacity.
“If you put LeBron James in the WNBA after his gender reassignment surgery, he would still have an advantage,” Sean Rodriguez said. “So I definitely think this is unfair to women.”
![In this photo provided by Triller, Mike Tyson throws a punch during the third round of an exhibition boxing match against Roy Jones Jr. in Los Angeles on Saturday. The bout was unofficially ruled a draw by the WBC referees at ringside. Tyson and Jones fought eight two-minute rounds, with both men smiling and appearing healthy in what was a highly unusual turn of events. [Joe Scarnici/Triller via AP]](https://www.gainesville.com/gcdn/presto/2020/11/29/NTGS/82694a28-f0f9-4883-bd18-55f797743085-TysonJones.jpg?width=660&height=451&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
Oops, we’re again distinguishing between boxers who were born female and boxers who became female later in life.
Rodriguez, a 17-year-old nicknamed “Turbo,” is ranked sixth in the 165-pound junior division. He doesn’t want to seem intolerant, but the idea that he would hit on any type of woman bothers him.
But the concern here isn’t that guys like Turbo have to fight trans men. That is, a man like Turbo realizes that he is a woman and begins to fight as a woman.
Imagine if a young Mike Tyson had such a revelation.
Would a civilized nation tolerate the genocide that would ensue?
Supporters of USA Boxing’s new policy will say that’s an exaggeration. Of course, they also downplayed Leah Thomas, who won the NCAA 500-meter freestyle, Laurel Hubbard, who made New Zealand’s Olympic weightlifting team, and Jaycee Cooper, who won the U.S. Super Heavyweight Bench Press Championship.
The difference was that none of his opponents were literally hurt in the process.
“Be yourself,” Fant said. “But there are certain areas where you have to draw the line.”
In boxing, all you need is one shot.
If accepting risk is now considered tolerant, then society really needs to have some meaning hammered into it.
David Whitley is a sports columnist for the Gainesville Sun. Please contact us at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley
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