As we have observed, although wokeness is making some inroads in Danish academia, it meets resistance in broader society. No one wants to defund the police except the far-left Red-Green party, which has advocated its abolition for decades. Danish institutions aren’t insensitive to social injustice, but they usually take a moderate stance on identity politics and grievance issues. A good example is the guidelines on transgender athletes presented by the Danish Sports Confederation in December.

Transgender Olympic weightlifter Laurel Hubbard. Photo: Edgard Garrido/Reuters.

This was before UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas created a stir by becoming the first transgender woman to win an NCAA national championship and the NCAA subsequently tightened its policy on transgender participation. The Danish Confederation’s recommendations on participation by transgender persons (DK), entitled “Inclusion of Transgender, Intersex and Nonbinary Persons in Sports,” take a nuanced and balanced approach, addressing the issues of both inclusiveness and fairness. While they give thorough consideration to the interests of transgender persons, they go against the International Olympic Committee’s rules on eligibility of transwomen (that is, biological males) for elite women’s competition.

Fairness for cisgender athletes

The report stresses that it does not constitute a set of rules but rather offers general principles for the various sports associations and clubs to consider and to apply as appropriate in their individual fields. It urges these organizations to take a clear position on “the dilemmas” of sexual identity issues and to determine how “gendered” the sport in question is, that is, how important it is for a competitor to be large or strong or to have great endurance. Safety concerns are obviously greater in boxing than in curling, for example.

Of the seven items on the list, the first six are devoted to the interests of transgender persons’ participation. They maintain that, for recreational sports and youth sports, inclusion should be the decisive factor because their purpose is more social than competitive. The last recommendation, on the other hand, holds that in elite competition fairness should take priority, that is, fairness toward biological females. Its wording is rather circumspect:

Let fair competition be the weightier factor in women’s elite sports in order to give priority to the considerations of the large group that has been assigned female sex at birth [my translation; see a full translation of the seven recommendations below].

“Physiology is not a social construction,” said Rikke Rønholt, a former sprinter and spokesperson for the committee that produced the report. “If we want to have elite sports for women, we must recognize sex categories.” She added that this was an “insanely sensitive topic,” but if she had had to compete against Wilson Kipketer, the Danish world champion and Olympic medalist, she wouldn’t have had an athletic career.

Complaints

The report was delayed by the pandemic and took two years to complete. It involved the participation of representatives of various interests, including LGBT+ organizations. It was generally well-received by sports researchers, who called it sensible and ideologically unbiased. Although it urged strong support for transgender participation, its conclusion predictably disappointed transgender advocates, whose criticisms were a bit mystifying.

A spokesperson for the Association to Support Transgender Children argued that excluding transwomen from women’s competition is equivalent to excluding tall people (DK) from basketball. The chair of Copenhagen Pride suggested dividing athletes by height, strength, and age rather than “preserving the binary understanding of sex.” LGBT+ Danmark (DK) wished that DIF had issued clear rules for elite sports instead of general guidelines because it would be “very inappropriate” if they excluded transwomen (that is, followed the DIF’s recommendation) and still hoped that LGBT+ athletes would be able to “dream of Olympic gold without having a glass ceiling hanging over their heads at the outset.”

How high to the ceiling?

If transgender women are excluded from a particular level of competition, then the proverbial ceiling wouldn’t be invisible. The task of the individual sports associations will be to determine at what stage “elite” competition begins, that is, when a transgirl or transwoman may no longer compete as a female. But in a small country like Denmark, there might not be many elite trans athletes (there hasn’t been any prominent case yet) and the defined elite level, besides encompassing professional sports, might consist mainly of the national team, which falls under the jurisdiction of an international sports organization that has its own rules.

In any case, the guidelines offer an even-handed, constructive alternative to an often acrimonious debate. Here are the full report in Danish and a full translation of the seven recommendations:

1. Take a position on the dilemmas surrounding gender identity issues so that they do not come as a surprise when a situation arises.

2. Determine how “gendered” the sport in question is and thus how big a factor it is, for example, to be big and strong and have greater endurance.

3. Let the male ranks be open to all since the physical conditions of transgender, intersex, and non-binary people do not create competitive advantages.

4. Let inclusion be paramount in ordinary and recreational sports, since they are primarily about leisure, socializing, and health rather than athletic results.

5. Let inclusion be paramount in children’s and young people’s sports since children—regardless of gender identity—most often just want to be with friends and like-minded people.

6. Create an inclusive culture in sports. For example, setting boundaries for language use and creating inclusive facilities and environments where everyone is safe.

7. Let fair competition be the weightier factor in women’s elite sports in order to give priority to the considerations of the large group that has been assigned female sex at birth.