Boxing Champions and Olympic Gold Medalist Condemn USA Boxing’s Transgender Policy
Famous boxing people, like Ebanie Bridges and Amanda Serrano, as well as Claressa Shields, who won gold twice at the Olympics, are criticising USA Boxing’s rules about transgender women fighters. The big argument is about whether or not to let transgender women play as girls. It causes worries over safety, fairness, and the future of sports for women.
Ebanie Bridges, the past IBF bantamweight champion, used social media to show her anger about USA Boxing’s choice. In a hard message, she criticised the rule as “not right on many points.” She said while she doesn’t have problems with transgender people, there can be big dangers when they fight in sports where hurting others is meant to happen. She noticed that breaking records in other sports and possibly causing harm in combat sports are very different.
Bridges, known for her strong views, said that the problem is not just about checking hormone levels. She wondered if looking only at testosterone amounts was enough. She worried about things like bone strength and other body parts that make people born with a boy label different from those born for girls. Bridges suggested a pragmatic solution: the creation of a special group for transgender people in sports to ensure level playing fields and solve the safety worries many have.
Amanda Serrano, a champion in featherweight games, agreed with Bridges and shared his unhappy feelings. Serrano asked why people born as men can change into women and then compete with real-life female athletes. In a social media post, she asked for the situation to “make sense.” She stressed that women who were born as females deserve equal chances. Serrano noticed the obvious difference: women born as females have different rules than trans athletes. He called for equal treatment in laws regarding sports.
Claressa Shields, a two-time Olympic gold winner, said she didn’t like the decision. She used simple words to tell everyone about it. Shields, well-known for her success in the boxing ring, showed doubt about whether the decision was right. This shows that top athletes don’t all agree on how transgender policies should be handled.
The main point made by these famous people in boxing is that they believe women’s sports will be less safe and fair. Yes, we know that transgender people have the right to play sports as their true selves. But many worries are mostly about how these differences could make it hard for honest competition in women’s boxing games.
Bridges’ suggestion to have a special division for transgender athletes is a practical solution. It wants to make space for them in women’s sports without changing the importance of those activities. This suggested idea wants to find a middle ground between being kind and fair, understanding the special problems caused by physical differences in people who were thought to be male or female when they were born.
These boxing champs think the same way. They believe it’s important to protect fairness and give everyone a chance in competitive sports. As people’s ideas grow, so do talks about transgender participation in sports. This needs careful thinking of the hard problems that come with it.
The argument about USA Boxing’s rules for transgender people shows we still need to talk, work together, and set out steps so all sports players have a fair chance. Although the views may change, all these big female players have something in common: they strongly say no to the current rules for girls’ sports.