Gendered sports

Gender in sports has become a hot topic in recent years. We're supposed to treat genders as equals, but we have to develop lesser leagues just for females. When we add transgender athletes into the mix, this further complicates everything.

There has been an ongoing debate about whether or not transgender women should be allowed to compete on women's teams. There have been transgender athletes that have been successful, which raises some serious questions regarding fairness to cisgender females. Does this fairness mean that we can force transgender females to live their lives as males? This becomes especially concerning when you look at suicide rates from this segment of the population.

Then you have non-binary athletes. They don't even have the option to compete as the gender they identify as. Can they choose which team they want to play for? Do we choose for them? Either way, we are forcing them to deviate from their gender identities.

I'm not going to lie. I don't have a good solution to gender issues at elite levels. That said, there is a very simple solution for most sport offerings, which should focus primarily on recreation. This includes schools, where much of the controversy has appeared. All we have to do is remove gender from the equation.

There is no practical reason to gender recreational sports. You remove gender-related controversies. You can diversify offerings since you no longer need to worry about having enough interest from the right gender. Non-binary athletes aren't being forced to live their lives as a gender they don't identify as.

I keep hearing about the obesity crisis. We should be prioritizing recreation. Recreational sports should not be gendered. Even without the controversy surrounding gender in sports, making gender definitional to recreational opportunity is downright ridiculous. Let's make this long overdue change.