At the Paris Olympics, boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan were subject to questions about their sex identity. Speculative accusations were made against these female athletes with intersex traits of being male and transgender. What’s galling is people in powerful positions have often spread such misinformation and disrupted the lives of many female athletes.
Pratima Gaonkar, a young female athlete with intersex traits, ended her life in October 2001 after being questioned to prove her biological sex identity through a so-called ‘sex determination test’.
This started in the 1940s. For a long time, female athletes with genetic differences were targeted with ‘sex verification tests’. There is limited data available on male athletes’ chromosomal or hormonal profiles. However, a study conducted on over 600 elite athletes in 2014 revealed that 16.5 percent of male athletes had low testosterone levels, while 13.7 percent of female athletes exhibited high testosterone levels. It is estimated that nearly 2 percent of male competitors had testosterone levels within the typical female range.
But it’s female athletes with intersex traits who are often misbranded as transgender. For instance, G Nagalakshmi, a former national-level competitor with intersex traits, was selected for a post in the Tamil Nadu police. However, the state police disputed her sex identity, which was ignorantly misrepresented as transsexual by the media, medical practitioners and the judiciary. There are over 20 south Indian female athletes with intersex traits who lost track of their lives and careers because of misinformation and ignorance.
It’s pertinent to understand that sex and gender identities are separate, and cannot be used interchangeably. Sex identity is related to a person’s biological sex, whereas gender identity is related to the social and psychological construct of a person. Being intersex is a sex characteristic, and not to do with gender. Intersex people are born with sexual anatomy that does not fit the typical definitions of female or male. There are over 40 intersex variations.
The governments of India and many other nations still lack data on intersex populations. In India, they are not counted separately in the census. One major reason is most governments do not even recognise intersex as a separate sex identity. On a recent petition in the Supreme Court, Gopi Shankar M vs Union of India, a three-judge bench led by the Chief Justice sought responses from eight Union ministries on making provisions for recording births and deaths of intersex people, and including them in the census. After a prolonged delay, the case has been listed for September 2.
There are more than 30 elite athletes, including Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Rafael Nadal, who have genetic differences. While their natural physical advantages are celebrated, female athletes with similar differences are punished.
In 2006, Santhi Soundarajan, a remarkable athlete, was compelled to undergo a sex verification test after winning a silver medal for India at the Asian Games in Doha. It led her to despair and attempt suicide. She later said, “Don’t do this to female athletes… My life is completely shattered because of wrong judgements of Indian and international sports bodies. Your decision doesn’t just affect us on the track but also derails everything in the world outside of it.”
In 2014, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand was barred from competing in the Commonwealth Games on questions on her sex identity. The Indian government sponsored her case to challenge the hyperandrogenism regulations at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In a historic verdict, CAS suspended the International Association of Athletics Federations’ hyperandrogenism gender test rules for two years and termed it “unscientific”. Due to this, the 2016 Rio Olympics was conducted without sex verification tests.
Even the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to protect the rights of intersex people when 24 countries voted in favour and 23 abstained; none voted against the resolution. The UNHRC said in a fact sheet that 1.7 percent of the world’s population is intersex.
The need of the hour is to put on a decolonising lens and erase the prejudicial differences among the diverse sex and gender identities, and adopt from Indic values that fostered an inclusive environment for people of diverse characteristics.
Female athletes with intersex traits are ostracised in society. Grave human rights violation, non-acceptance and non-recognition often compel such athletes to end their lives; many other voices remain unheard.
Intersex variations can be picked up at any time. They are not always obvious from birth. There is no one intersex experience. Some females with intersex traits can reproduce. It is the genetic factor and determination of female athletes with intersex traits that play a vital role in establishing their sex identity. National and international sports bodies need to understand the science behind it. Female athletes with intersex traits cannot be put into a third classification in sports, as it would increase the chances of leaving athletes with disorders of sexual development.
This debate seems never-ending. The best way forward is to remove the physiological differences between the sexes. Athletes with intersex traits born and raised as female cannot be compelled to compete in a separate category. The government and sports bodies must sensitise the masses and tailor their regulations to protect them.
(With inputs from Vijay Mishra, human rights lawyer specialising in international SOGIESC laws)
Gopi Shankar Madurai
Advisor, Juvenile Justice Committee, Madras High Court, and co-founder, Intersex Asia, Taiwan
(Views are personal)