Discussion Item 5A4 FIDE transgender female ban from FIDE women's events

[Fred McKim]

Do the voting members think the CFC response was too weak, too strong, just right? Lets keep things respectful.

Women's Chess in my opinion is a means of encouraging activity from that gender. I don't believe anyone has come out and said the average female has less potential than the active male. I fully support the inclusion of transgender females in Women's events.

[Lyle Craver]

My personal view is that if someone is dedicated enough to their new identity to actually go through the surgical process required then we should be supportive. I do NOT support the fakers who would have us think that merely dressing as the opposite sex or feeling an 'affinity' qualifies.

The important thing as far as CHESS is concerned (as opposed to weightlifting or wrestling - and I do have a niece who in her day was a champion wrestler, she is now a high school teacher - or pole vaulting) that Chess has been sexually integrated from the very early days. Certainly well before anybody reading this was born.

The argument against transgender athletes is that there definitely is a difference between physical abilities based on the original gender - but that affects different sports very differently. In some sports this effect is huge, in some it's minimal or totally non-existent. I argue that for Chess we're in the latter category.

I saw the Botez children growing up and (at least until their brother decided he preferred soccer to chess) there was no difference between their dedication and training routines. I've seen plenty of other kids male and female up + coming siblings of whom I could say the same.

Again while I acknowledge there may be innate differences that are material to other sports, I don't believe such differences apply to Chess and I thought Vlad's public statement on this subject was both balanced and represented our federation well.