This is in response to Kip Pope’s March 13 op-ed (“Why Maine is wrong on the transgender athletes issue“). Pope’s argument errs first by equivocating and using numbers (57%) that do not apply to trans women, and second by using outdated science when better numbers are available.

He cites a “57%” advantage for “boys” over girls. The problem, of course, is that trans women are not boys in ways that are quantifiable in relation to athletic competition. Oddly, Pope drops the equivocation by citing (but not naming) the July 2023 National Institutes of Health study

A subsequent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in April 2024, however, far exceeded the 2023 study in terms of breadth of metrics and by using a representative sample from civilian, rather than military, test subjects.

The results do not support the idea that trans women have an unfair advantage. It shows that by most metrics trans women have no advantage and by some metrics — jumping height relative to body weight, VO2 transfer — they have significant disadvantages. The way forward is reasonable HRT requirements, not blanket bans.

Erica Connerney
New York, N.Y.