The grey area in Rainbow inclusion

“XX, you’re in. XY you’re out. It’s that simple.” 

That was the opinion shared by transgender woman and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner on Fox News recently.

It came in the wake of a discussion sparked by Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, over whether or not transgender women should be allowed to compete in the WNBA. 

Former male NBA players Enes Kanter and Royce White used the dialogue as a platform to upload controversial posts declaring for the 2027 WNBA draft. 

The posts were intended to posit that if a transgender woman can compete, so too can a cisgender man.

However, a Canterbury LGBTQ rights activist said the issue was not quite as simple as a couple of letters.

“I mean that's such a massive oversimplification of the realities of biology," Qtopia healthcare lead Jennifer Shields said.

“I don't think there's a simple answer necessarily. I don't think there's a way to create one rule that will apply in every situation like that.”

She added that the ‘blanket rule’ approach to trans sports inclusion has drawbacks for athletes of all ages.

“At a national level we've seen this interference in trans people being able to participate in community sport through the directed removal of Sport NZ’s trans inclusion guidelines.

“We have heard from families whose trans kids are no longer able to play with their friends at school. We're talking about kids who haven't even gone through puberty so all the conversations about safety and fairness are completely out the window.”

However Sport NZ said the removal of the guidelines was a move to prioritise fairness and safety. 

“In July 2025, after considering the review, the Government informed Sport NZ that it should not be involved in publishing guidelines related to gender in sport. Sport NZ was directed to stop all work on the guidelines and remove them from our website."

“Sporting organisations will continue to make their own decisions on the participation of transgender people in community sport and there are a range of expert organisations that can provide support.”

Sports ethics expert and University of Otago lecturer Dr Taryn Knox said the rules should not be universal, suggesting that social sports should be approached differently to a professional level.

“The right way to do it is very, very difficult. You’ve gotta think about the level at which people are playing. So is it just the social level or is it the elite athlete?”

Knox said sport should be about having fun, getting fit and making connections at a social stage, and it shouldn’t matter too much whether someone is trans or cisgender. However, once a certain stage is reached, the priorities begin to shift.

“As you become more elite it does need to change to some degree. For elite athletes this is their life and fairness at some point becomes more important. So there is a crossover point, exactly where that lies I don't know.

“But even once you're an elite athlete, just saying XX, XY is just too simplistic. The chromosomes that you were born with need to be taken into account but there's lots of other things that matter as well.”

She expanded on the complexities of gender biology differences and their relation with sport, adding that there are some things that no amount of hormonal therapy can change. 

“My research with my colleagues has shown that it doesn't change the size of your heart, the size of your bones, or lung capacity. Depending on the sport, even if you're taking hormone therapy and you get your testosterone below a certain amount, you're still going to have other advantages.”

For Shields, discussions like those over the WNBA can quickly turn to transphobia, especially on online forums.

“It’s really horrific, especially the nastiness of online discussion. I think there are definitely people out there who have never been interested in women's sports but are seeing this as an opportunity to stir up some hate towards trans people.

“It has immediate effects on the mental health of trans people who are exposed to this stuff online. We know in New Zealand in 2022 that about a quarter of the community were seeing negative messaging about trans people every week. More recent data from Australia shows that that’s continued to increase.”