How to read a news article

Poor journalism—what’s said, what isn’t said, and what’s outright factually incorrect—has gone a long way toward confusing the issue of trans-identified men in women’s sports. As you can see from the previous sentence, using the correct terminology (more on trans-identified males below) makes things clearer which is the duty of journalism. The duty of journalism is very much not to support an ideology.

Reuters recently published a story about French sprinter Halba Diouf that was an ode to ideologically driven storytelling, disrespecting the profession and their readers. Unfortunately, articles like this are common. It’s helpful to be able to read between the lines and mentally auto-correct to extract the truth of the story. As an example, below I’ve pasted Reuter’s story interspersed with my hints in italics.

"We're being hounded" - French transgender sprinter decries Olympics ban

1. The headline features an emotional plea, setting Diouf up as a victim in what will be a one-sided article. What’s missing is Reuter’s companion story on how female sprinters feel about competing against trans-identified males. Or even more interesting and relevant, the forced silence around this topic.

2. Use of transgender in the headline frames this as a transgender issue, that a transgender person is being banned because they are trans, rather than an issue of fairness. “Transgender” lumps trans-identified men and trans-identified women together, when in fact trans-identified women who are not taking testosterone have never been banned. They can and do compete in the female category, even though they identify as male, because their sex is female. In the same way, trans-identified males are free to compete in the male category, so it’s misleading to infer in the headline that this person is being banned for being trans. This is a story about maintaining fairness in the women’s category.

3. Which leads to the word “ban.” I wish we could ban the use of the word ban, because it’s nearly always used incorrectly, as above, to infer that Diouf was banned for being transgender. In fact, Diouf is free to compete in the male category. This sprinter is not allowed to compete in the female category because this sprinter is a trans-identified male. We would never say that a 185-pound boxer is banned from the 140-pound weight class. It’s incorrect use of the word “ban.”

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, May 9 (Reuters) - French sprinter Halba Diouf feels she is being marginalised and hounded after her dream of participating at next year's Paris Olympics was shattered when World Athletics (WA) banned transgender women from elite female competitions.

1. Substitute trans-identified male for “transgender woman.” This is my biggest peeve. The word woman leads the reader to think that the person being described is just another kind of woman—like short woman, Black woman, old woman, French woman. And from there, the innocent reader wonders why a “trans woman” can’t compete in the female category. “Transgender woman” is a lie. A “transgender woman” is a man who identifies as a woman or wishes to present as a woman. This person’s sex is and always will be male, which is extremely relevant to sports. When you see the words “transgender woman” substitute trans-identified man as in the above sentence: “…World Athletics banned trans-identified men from elite female competitions.” Clearer, and makes sense.

2. Then of course there are pronouns. Seems like a small courtesy, but journalism should not sacrifice accuracy for an individual’s ideological belief. Use of the pronoun “she” along with “transgender woman” again leads the innocent reader to think this person is female. And if the writer uses the pronoun “she” with the correct “trans-identified male,” it’s confusing. And not parallel usage, which gives me the fantods. When you substitute trans-identified male for trans woman, make your life easier and auto correct to “he.”

Diouf had been training hard to improve her 200 metres time in the hope of running on home soil at the 2024 Games. But her ambitions were dashed in March when governing body WA banned transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in women's events, citing a "need to protect the female category."

1. When you read how the trans-identified male’s “ambitions were dashed,” think of the other French sprinter whose place Diouf took on teams, and the other female sprinters whose place he took on podiums. They too trained hard but lost out to a person with an advantage that was baked in at birth, that the female category was designed to exclude. Not only that, there’s enormous pressure on female athletes to accept that unfairness, shut up, and smile lest they be labeled transphobic and lose sponsors. Ask yourself why Diouf’s feelings matter but female athletes’ do not.

2. Look a little deeper into that “need to protect the female category” that Reuters felt was silly enough to put in quotes. As if this decision by World Athletics was merely a justification for bigotry. There’s a mention of male puberty but Reuters did not feel the need to include any of factors that male puberty endows—larger heart and lungs, longer arms and legs, narrower hips, more lean muscle—that confer sports advantage regardless of testosterone reduction or gender identity. Lack of science that illustrates why we need to protect the female category is a red flag that you’re not getting the full story.

"I cannot understand this decision as transgender women have always been allowed to compete if their testosterone levels were below a certain threshold," Diouf told Reuters in an interview.

"The only safeguard transgender women have is their right to live as they wish and we are being refused that, we are being hounded... I feel marginalised because they are excluding me from competitions."

Born in Senegal, Diouf arrived in France at the age of four. As an adult, she moved to Aix-en-Provence where she started hormone therapy to change sex - and her gender transition was recognised by French authorities in 2021.

1. Aghhh, change sex! Factual error Reuters! Millions of years and thousands of scientific studies have proven that humans cannot change sex. No hormone therapy, no surgery, no belief or outward expression changes one’s sex. It’s a biological reality that has huge implications for your physical body, the one you use in sports. In the next breath Reuters uses “gender transition” which is more accurate since gender is a social construct. Diouf’s sex will always be male; his gender identity, the way he wishes to be seen, is female. Sex and gender are not interchangeable, though they’re often incorrectly used that way, as Reuters has done here. Sports categories are predicated on sex, not gender identity.

The tighter measures imposed by WA around one of the most contentious and divisive issues in sport - how to balance inclusivity while ensuring there is no unfair advantage - follow a similar move by World Aquatics in 2022.

1. Again, Reuters sidesteps the opportunity to explain why World Athletics and World Aquatics, the two largest sports federations, decided it was unfair to include trans-identified men in women’s sports. Facts would get in the way of this sympathetic article so they left them out.

LGBTQI advocacy groups say excluding trans athletes amounts to discrimination but WA President Sebastian Coe has said: "Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations.

[1/8] French sprinter Halba Diouf, 21, a transgender woman athlete who dreams to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Games, attends a practice session on an athletics track in Aix-en-Provence, France May 3, 2023.

Until the new rules came into force, female transgender and athletes with Differences in Sex Development (DSD) could take part in elite events between 400m and the mile only if their levels of natural plasma testosterone was below five nanomoles per litre, though 100m and 200m sprinters were clear to race.

Those rules impacted DSD athletes such as two-time Olympic 800 metre champion Caster Semenya and Francine Niyonsaba, who finished runner-up to Semenya at the 2016 Olympics - neither were allowed to compete at the 2020 Games. Namibia's Christine Mboma shifted from her preferred 400m distance to the 200m in Tokyo and won a silver medal.

In March WA's council cut the maximum amount of plasma testosterone for DSD athletes in half to 2.5 nanomoles per litre from five. The WA rules also stated the level must be maintained for at least 24 months before DSD athletes can compete in female competitions.

1. Be wary of the conflation of trans athletes with those with DSDs. They are completely separate issues, but they are sometimes linked maybe to elicit sympathy. People with DSDs are indeed “born that way.” While they are not a third sex category, they were born with a genetic anomaly that causes development that’s different from most people of their sex. There has been no biological link found to transgenderism; there is no trans gene. Gender identity can be fluid; DSD is not. For this reason, DSD athletes often resent being trotted out as proof of that one can be born in the wrong body.

Diouf's endocrinologist, Alain Berliner, said the 21-year-old "is a woman, from a physiological, hormonal and legal point of view.

"Her testosterone levels are currently below those found on average in women who were born as women..." he said, showing Reuters the results of her blood samples dated May 2.

1. You can find an “expert” to support almost any theory, in this case Diouf’s own endocrinologist. Hardly an unbiased source. And the most naive among us should question an endocrinologist who is unaware of the immutable physiological features endowed by male puberty. Pay no mind to Dr. Berliner’s testimony about testosterone levels. More than a dozen peer reviewed studies have shown that reducing testosterone does not mitigate the advantage of a person who has been through male puberty. That’s why World Athletics ruled it unfair for trans-identified males to compete in the female category, regardless of testosterone level. T level can be brought to practically zero within a week or two of testosterone blockers and estrogen therapy, which gives you a man with very low testosterone. Not a woman. Heart size, lung size, bone structure, muscle mass—none of that has changed a wit. It’s disingenuous and troubling that a medical professional would say that tweaking hormones temporarily produces a woman. (A search of Alain Berliner turned up nothing in the medical profession)

Diouf, a practicing Muslim who loves shopping and wears mini-skirts as well as long djellaba robes, said she had not kept any pictures of her as a boy.

"It was not me," she said.

Reuters uses a mind-blowingly stereotypical trope of shopping and wearing mini-skirts to show how very female Diouf is, but fails to question the fact that practicing Muslim women do not wear mini-skirts, and in many parts of the world, women have been jailed and killed for not covering themselves completely.