I never said to give steroids to all. I am one of the few people in this thread saying SPORTS IS NOT FAIR TO EVERYONE because it is basicaly genetic lottery.
Well then just have females compete directly with males and be done with it. It's a genetic lottery whether you're born a man or a woman after all. If you were born a woman then too bad, the peak men will always outperform peak women in sporting events. But it's a lottery so boo hoo, too bad.
Except that isn't how it works. We divide between men and woman so that both sexes have a fair shot at competing and winning. In some sports, such as boxing, we then subdivide even further into different weight classes so that technical ability can be rewarded whether you are naturally small or large.
Yes, sports is very heavily based upon genetics as well as on training and such. It's the very nature of physical activity. Some people are naturally more adept or have slightly better genes for something. But we still divide by gender so that, broadly, the field is competitive. So that humans with high testosterone levels, and all the physical advantages that brings, are not competing directly with those with low testosterone levels.
The problem is when you introduce people who went through puberty with testosterone, and maybe spent years training with high levels of testosterone, and then have them compete with other people who didn't. That's a very big grey area, and the fact that their testosterone levels at the point of taking part are broadly similar to the other competitors does not change the fact that years of living like a man will have provided that individual with advantages that do not go away.
If a male goes through puberty and develops a broad skeletal build, that does not simply disappear when transitioning. And even if some of the musculature is lost when transitioning, the broadness and general 'masculinity' of their skeletal build will still be largely retained, which is surely an advantage in a weight lifting competition.
Muscle memory is also a very real phenomenon. Men find it much easier to gain large amounts of muscle than women due to testosterone production. If you lose that muscle, it is easier to get it back then if you are starting from scratch because of muscle memory. Someone who lives and trains as a man for years is therefore able to accumulate muscle memory much easier, regardless of the fact that their testosterone levels will be comparable to other competitors when competing.
Handwaving this away as part of the genetic lottery is simply disingenuous. Those transitioning had years of opportunity to accumulate muscle memory and develop a skeletal frame that was basically impossible for their competitors. It goes beyond someone of the same sex having slightly better genes or slightly higher hormone levels and lands squarely in the realm of a flat out unfair unadvantage from an extremely different starting position. And I think that starting position is absolutely key to the argument about this, unfortunately.
This is absolutely not an attack on transgendered people, it's a cold, logical look at the principle of a level field within the sporting event. Nor am I saying that there will be a flood of transgendered people dominating sporting events. But there doesn't have to be a flood for it to be a topic worth discussing and debating for the benefit of everyone involved in a particular competition.
