• (Christine) The sprinter was taking drugs to lower her testosterone levels
• Max a (DSD athlete) an athlete with a difference in sex development, was forced to make a choice, change her body or give up competing in the women’s category
• Max decided to fight
• Science excludes women from sports
• Max was undressed in front of a male doctor to be tested, in my opinion, this is an invasion of privacy
• Nobody explained why she was being tested, and nobody updated her about the tests for months
• Months later she found out she had high levels of testosterone
• in 2018 – DSD athletes could only compete in SOME events – not the 400m
• Max was dropped from the team
• Nude parades??
• Bar body test – I guess this seems like less of an invasion of privacy but still not cool
• Sex testing – tom boys in sports worried
• They had to carry certificates of femininity, described as a business card that says “I am female” – I find this weird
• 1968-1999 every women who competed in olympics, in every sport, had to take a chromosome test and get a card to compete
• this test doesn’t catch “cheaters” but catch women who do not have the second X
• women were being kicked out of their sports, losing their titles and respect
• 1992 olympics dropped sex testing, but the IOC held on
• many people fought this, governments even fought it’
• 2000 olympics were the first games athletes didn’t need cards
• one concession: sports authorities could still check someone they considered suspicious
• 2009 sex testing came back

The first thing I would add to this timeline is something about the gender verification cards women had to carry around. I would add this to the timeline mainly because it was one of the things that shocked me the most in the podcast we just listened to. I would also add this in because it ties into gender testing. Finally, I would add this in because of just how crazy it sounds that women had to carry around an ID to confirm they are women.

2000: The first Olympics women did not need a card to compete

I would add this to the timeline because it shows exactly how long women needed to carry verification that they were women. I would also add. this in because considering the podcast I just listened to, I feel that this was a huge milestone for many advocates at the time.

2009: Sex testing came back

Although there is a section in this timeline stating that an athlete had to have a sex test, it doesn’t specifically state that sex testing came back. The reason I would add this into the timeline is just to give additional clarity for someone viewing the timeline.

One of the things that I experienced playing sports on coed teams is that the boys wouldn’t pass the ball to the girls very often. They would pass to other boys, but it almost felt like they were ignoring the girls on the team. I think on some teams this would happen more than others. I remember playing for a coed team that accepted girls and boys ages 13-16. Being a 13-year-old girl playing with 16-year-old boys was challenging, and often times I would feel left out. It was also challenging because in my case, I was a smaller girl whereas many of the 16-year-old boys were bordering on 6 feet tall. On this team, I did feel very left out, but it is important to note on other coed teams I didn’t feel as left out. I recall playing in the same league, but I was the oldest age (16). Although my gender/sex differed from many others on this team I felt very included. Many boys on this team had no problem passing me the ball.

The point I am trying to make with my experience is that sometimes the gendering of sport seemed very apparent while other times I didn’t notice it at all. Although I can not possibly relate to some of the women who were affected by the gendering of sport in the Olympics, I can say that when it did affect me, it made me feel sad.

Although taller girls did have some sort of an advantage, as an athlete I was able to adapt my play to work around this and find my own advantages. I think every athlete has to do this in order to compete at a certain level. Yes, sports can sometimes be unfair but this element of sport is something that drives athletes to compete.

Another important point Robins brought up in this article is the fact that science literally proves that within 6 months of an individual who is transgender taking hormones, their body is extremely altered. Science says that trans women have the same body as biological women. Another thing I found important is that Nazis were the ones that started gender testing. As a society, we have understood that Nazis are bad, but we can’t understand that the implementations such as gender testing are also bad?

Towards the end of this article, Robins brings up the point of view of viewers who are transgender. she first brings up the point that Khelif, being a cis-gender person at least got to tell her story and was heard. The audience now knows that she is a cis-gender woman. Robins brings up the point that if this situation were to happen to someone who is actually transgender, it would be unlikely that they would be able to tell their side of the story. The final important point that I think Robins brings up is the fact that many transgender people simply give up their sport. Although this is not something they may want to do, they do it because they do not want to enter this political battle that transgender people have to deal with when playing sports.

To conclude, when Robins’s issues like these have nothing to do with sports, fairness, or even with women, but everything to do with transness and public expression, I think she uses these important points to express that this battle should not concern fairness or cis-women, but only concerns and ultimately affects transgender people.

From celebrities and others speaking on social media without taking time to properly educate themselves about this matter, to the extent of gender testing; this article, as well as the Paris Olympics prove that what it has always been is an excuse to publicly relitigate the existence of trans women.