Everyone I have spoken to about it in person finds the whole thing bonkers

I’m a female athlete so I first became aware of the issue of transwomen in sport when it was brought up in news articles reporting the Caster Semenya case. It was completely obvious to me that males shouldn’t be allowed to self ID into female sports from personal experience.

For example, I frequently finish in or near the top 3 women in competition but male friends who would be nowhere near the same level in the men’s category can beat me easily, or come very close even with relatively little training.

From following a few people who spoke about that issue, I read articles about the impact self ID could have in other areas of life and found myself getting more and more frustrated with the lack of consideration for women’s rights.

I have talked to numerous friends and family about the issue. I follow many GC people on twitter and like tweets but find myself too scared to retweet or comment publicly.

I’m nearly finished a PhD and I’m worried about how publicly holding these views would affect my career prospects.

Everyone I have spoken to about it in person finds the whole thing bonkers. Often other people bring up the males in women’s sports issue with me because they find the whole thing so crazy.

HG, PhD candidate and athlete