I am a transgender woman and I occasionally race my bike. AMA

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mstyer

mstyer

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That thread about my former teammate and friend, Rachel, was pretty ugly. There were a lot of uninformed opinions and calls for the people affected to chime in. I suspect most didn't because it requires a tremendous amount of emotional labor to have those conversations with people who are willfully ignorant. I'm willing to put myself out there and answer as many questions as I can.

Ask Me Anything
 
The thread was shut down but didn't seem particularity ugly for such a controversial topic. Let's just cut to the chase:

Do you think it is fair?
 
Ok first, thanks for coming on and offering to answer questions @mstyer.

Second - to the trolls out there on either side, tread carefully. I'll be watching.

I think Kevin's question is too vague. I think this conversation has a lot of layers and questions that will lead to other questions based on the answers. To me, before you can get into the fairness/unfairness the first question to me is this:

Do you agree that a transgender female would have a different/stronger muscle base as a starting point? This is sort of a yes/no question. I'm not asking you if you think that is ok or not - we'll get to that based on your answer. I am asking from a "ground rules of the argument" perspective. If you were born a male, and had a twin sister, then at age 30 you became a transgender female, do you think that from an athletic perspective, you would have a muscle/bone density advantage over your sister?

Note: forgive me if I am not using the precise terminology. I'll do my best and feel free to correct me if I make mistakes.
 
Norm said:
Do you agree that a transgender female would have a different/stronger muscle base as a starting point? This is sort of a yes/no question. I'm not asking you if you think that is ok or not - we'll get to that based on your answer. I am asking from a "ground rules of the argument" perspective. If you were born a male, and had a twin sister, then at age 30 you became a transgender female, do you think that from an athletic perspective, you would have a muscle/bone density advantage over your sister?
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In a word, no. There are a myriad of physical differences between people, whether it's height, flexibility, fast twitch or slow twitch, etc. that all could potentially constitute a competitive advantage or disadvantage depending on the sport. Nobody ever says that those differences are an unfair advantage though. On a personal level, once I started hormone replacement therapy my strength plummeted approximately 25% but I still have to haul my same 5'10" body up those hills. I get smoked by smaller riders on anything that involves climbing.
 
This might be a tad too personal so skip if it's out of line.

I know while you were racing as a male in the women's field that some of your competitors thought it wasn't fair. (I know of several that stopped racing all together being that we sponsor the largest women's club in the state) How do you feel this will effect women's cycling overall? Might be too complicated an issue to even address as I feel the number of females that don't understand what's going on is just as high as male.
 
clarkenstein said:
Do you think that going as a transgendered athlete should get the attention it currently does or would you prefer to just be in the rankings like everyone else (no special mentions)?
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I'm content to be a mid-pack nobody, but if I accomplished something special you can be damn sure I'd be celebrating. It wasn't that long ago that folks were sharing stories about Denise Mueller-Korenek for breaking the land speed record. People celebrate masters cross wins by Adam Myerson. Why should it be a different standard for a trans person?
 
mstyer said:
In a word, no. There are a myriad of physical differences between people, whether it's height, flexibility, fast twitch or slow twitch, etc. that all could potentially constitute a competitive advantage or disadvantage depending on the sport. Nobody ever says that those differences are an unfair advantage though. On a personal level, once I started hormone replacement therapy my strength plummeted approximately 25% but I still have to haul my same 5'10" body up those hills. I get smoked by smaller riders on anything that involves climbing.
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So, ignoring the weight, loss of strength, fast versus slow twitch, height, hand-eye coordination, VO2max differences, and so on. You are suggesting that as a man, having a twin sister, that you would not have a higher muscle & bone density than she has at age (say) 30?

To hedge on this, I will say this. I believe that you are moving on to the follow-up question if we were to agree that the answer is actually yes. Specifically, my follow-up question would be this:

Given than initial starting point of being stronger than said twin sister, does the 25% loss in strength, coupled with the additional physical hurdles you face, counter that initial starting point? If so, how much? 100%? Less than 100%? More than 100%?

Add-on to that? Do you think that any physical advantage (as stated above) is really in league with the same advantage that someone with a better VO2max might have, or a fast-twitch loaded racer on cross race day, or a tall guy in the NBA, etc?
 
jimvreeland said:
This might be a tad too personal so skip if it's out of line.

I know while you were racing as a male in the women's field that some of your competitors thought it wasn't fair. (I know of several that stopped racing all together being that we sponsor the largest women's club in the state) How do you feel this will effect women's cycling overall? Might be too complicated an issue to even address as I feel the number of females that don't understand what's going on is just as high as male.
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Let's clear something up first: I never raced in the women's field as a male. I started hormone therapy more than 8 months before entering my first race as a woman and a full year after coming out to the first few people closest to me. The effects of the HRT on my strength, recovery, and other performance markers came into play within the first 3 months. I went from being able to hang with an A group to struggling at the back of a B group.

I have been welcomed with open arms into the women's field by all of the women that I race with and know personally. If someone has an issue with me being there, I would invite them to look up the rules, talk to me, etc before just using it as an excuse to drop out of racing.
 
mstyer said:
Why should it be a different standard for a trans person?
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I don’t think it should be different- that’s why I asked. Maybe there is a disconnect in my head where I can’t make the jump. If there shouldn’t be anything different for a trans person, why is the fact that they are trans brought up? Shouldn’t it be a non-issue? Celebrating has nothing to do with it.
 
Norm said:
So, ignoring the weight, loss of strength, fast versus slow twitch, height, hand-eye coordination, VO2max differences, and so on. You are suggesting that as a man, having a twin sister, that you would not have a higher muscle & bone density than she has at age (say) 30?

To hedge on this, I will say this. I believe that you are moving on to the follow-up question if we were to agree that the answer is actually yes. Specifically, my follow-up question would be this:

Given than initial starting point of being stronger than said twin sister, does the 25% loss in strength, coupled with the additional physical hurdles you face, counter that initial starting point? If so, how much? 100%? Less than 100%? More than 100%?

Add-on to that? Do you think that any physical advantage (as stated above) is really in league with the same advantage that someone with a better VO2max might have, or a fast-twitch loaded racer on cross race day, or a tall guy in the NBA, etc?
Click to expand...

Phew....where to start on this one? I'm not a physiology expert so I can't really speak to differences in muscle or bone density. Anecdotally speaking, my girlfriend and I are the same height, nearly the same weight, and built the same. She was assigned female at birth. We both deal with the same physical hurdles when it comes to riding as a woman of this size. Differences in how much we train or how experienced we are massively outweigh what was written on our birth certificates.
 
clarkenstein said:
I don’t think it should be different- that’s why I asked. Maybe there is a disconnect in my head where I can’t make the jump. If there shouldn’t be anything different for a trans person, why is the fact that they are trans brought up? Shouldn’t it be a non-issue? Celebrating has nothing to do with it.
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Because we are a marginalized group. We face additional hurdles in the form of transphobia, access to healthcare, additional testing, and counter-acting the effects of the medications we take to manage our hormone levels.
 
I guess the only empirical way to do this is to follow the history of transgender athletes for an extended period of time pre and post transition, charting times/pace/wats etc. per kg and compare the trend to some sort of baseline. Not sure how one would pick the baseline... I guess an athlete of each gender/sex (not really sure what the hell I should call it anymore) who is considered “comparable” again no clue how to come to that conclusion.... to see if when the dust settles... are the numbers in the bell curve. It’s impossible to be 100% right no matter how it’s done. I’d hope that it would be as equitable as possible.
 
mstyer said:
Because we are a marginalized group. We face additional hurdles in the form of transphobia, access to healthcare, additional testing, and counter-acting the effects of the medications we take to manage our hormone levels.
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Got it. So it’s part of the story, like when you see athlete profiles, or hear someone just had a baby the day they are playing the Super Bowl. These were terrible analogies.

Disconnect has been connected.

Thanks again.
 
mstyer said:
I'm content to be a mid-pack nobody, but if I accomplished something special you can be damn sure I'd be celebrating. It wasn't that long ago that folks were sharing stories about Denise Mueller-Korenek for breaking the land speed record. People celebrate masters cross wins by Adam Myerson. Why should it be a different standard for a trans person?
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I agree that if you accomplish something you should celebrate and be celebrated. Correct me if i'm wrong but I think @clarkenstein 's point was would you rather the headline read "mystyer Wins Women's Race" or "Transgender mystyer Wins Women's Race"?
 
Juggernaut said:
I guess the only empirical way to do this is to follow the history of transgender athletes for an extended period of time pre and post transition, charting times/pace/wats etc. per kg and compare the trend to some sort of baseline. Not sure how one would pick the baseline... I guess an athlete of each gender/sex (not really sure what the hell I should call it anymore) who is considered “comparable” again no clue how to come to that conclusion.... to see if when the dust settles... are the numbers in the bell curve. It’s impossible to be 100% right no matter how it’s done. I’d hope that it would be as equitable as possible.
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This has been done. Dr. Joanna Harper has studied this extensively and consulted on the current IOC policy.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...nsitions-alter-athletic-performance-including

" In 2015, she published the first study of transgender athletes' performances, finding that transgender women who received treatment to lower their testosterone levels did no better in a variety of races against female peers than they had previously done against male runners."
 
mstyer said:
To not acknowledge it is to erase it.
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If the fact that one is a transgender individual has no overall effect on their performance in said race, then why is that detail relevant?

And thanks for this! I personally am gaining at least some level of enlightenment from it.
 
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