ScholarWorks@중앙대학교

초록

Laurel Hubbard (43 years old), a transgender woman from New Zealand, was participated in 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held in 2021 as the first transgender national athlete in Olympic history and drew attention from all over the world as she competed on the Olympic stage. Public opinion welcomes transgender athletes’ participation in the Olympics in terms of diversity and protection of minorities. However, the issue of fairness in the Olympics, which is “is it fair for transgender female athletes to compete with cisgender female athletes?’, has arisen. In this study, legal issues regarding the status of transgender athletes as Olympic athletes will be discussed based on the IOC regulations on transgender athletes' Olympic qualifications, and transgender athletes' participation in sports events and issues of fairness in the Olympics and recently transgender athletes from each state in the United States are discussed. The discussion will focus on the litigation and the court's judgment (Hecox v. Little, Soule by Stanescu v. Connecticut Association of Schools, Inc.). Currently, the IOC regulations for transgender athletes' participation in the Olympics allow transgender female athletes to participate as female athletes only if androgen levels do not exceed 10 nmol/L, which differentiates the requirements for transgender male and trans female athletes. This can be seen as a standard for fair competition and competition in the Olympics, but ‘fairness’ is an ethical and social standard rather than an absolute standard. Therefore, the question of whether it is fair for transgender athletes to compete with cisgender athletes is not a scientific or biological issue. Rather, it boils down to the issue of ‘social consensus’ about how inclusive the society is for minorities. It cannot be concluded that legal issues related to transgender athletes' participation in sports are merely controversies in the 'Olympics' or 'American' high school/university athletics circles. In Korea, the unfortunate death of a transgender sergeant after forced discharge and the movement to deny admission to transgender female freshmen by students at the university have already made the topic of protection of transgender rights and interests and discrimination and reverse discrimination issues a hot topic. Therefore, in Korea, it is necessary to establish a social consensus through an open discussion on the participation of transgender athletes in sports, and based on this, establish an institutional framework and prepare related policies and regulations.

키워드