Quote of the Day

[Content Note: Gender policing.]

"I feel that it's wrong to have to change your body for sport participation. I'm not changing for anyone."—Dutee Chand, India's 100-meter champion in the 18-and-under category, who has been barred from competing against women because she has hyperandrogenism, which the International Association of Athletics Federations says disqualifies her from competing as a female runner, unless "she lowers her testosterone level beneath the male range. She can do that by either taking hormone-suppressing drugs or having surgery to limit how much testosterone her body produces."

Chand has decided to fight her ban.

"Last month, she filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, challenging guidelines put in place in 2011" by the IAAF, following the controversy (generated by their ignorance and bigotry) around the participation of South African track runner Caster Semenya.

It has taken a lot of courage for Chand to stand up for herself; other athletes with her condition have quietly consented to surgery or left sports altogether. But Chand says she is willing to handle the scrutiny that has come with her public stand.

"I cried for three straight days after reading what people were saying about me," she said, regarding what she saw being debated in Internet forums. "They were saying, 'Dutee: Boy or girl?' and I thought, how can you say those things? I have always been a girl."

Here is a simple solution, international sports boards: Let people who identify as women compete with women and let people who identify as men compete with men. It's really just that easy.

Especially when you don't try to complicate it with absurd hypotheticals about men who will "become" women just to win at sports.