The war against women continues, especially in the sporting arena where women aren’t competitive with men physically. The entire world watched it play out with Khelif vs Carini in Olympic Boxing.

Khelif appears to be a man in muscle and bone mass, stance, body mechanics, facial anatomy, everything. Most people would sex Khelif as a male if they met him or saw him in any context. Yet in the Olympics he is determined to be a female. There is considerable confusion about how Khelif’s sex was determined.

Khelif failed sex tests administered by the International Boxing Association (IBA) but very few people know or can find out exactly what tests were administered. Russian speakers can apparently find out that a cheek swab DNA test was administered that showed XY on his 23rd pair of chromosomes.

Then the argument becomes that Khelif has a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD) of which there are many but most people with DSDs are identifiable as male or female even if their phenotype is ambiguous. To make matters even more confusing there are a tiny minority of people with DSDs born with three chromosomes on their 23rd pair or one.

Now everyone is becoming an internet expert on various DSDs to explain why a person who appears male on every measure is really female and sanctioned to pummel women competing at the highest level of sport. This decision has the potential to seriously harm women competitors in sport. In the past five to ten years we’ve seen males competing as females from high school to the Olympics render women’s sports meaningless and physically injure girls and women.

The Olympic committee that determines eligibility didn’t do any testing beyond looking at the sex listed on Khelif’s passport. This is strange considering that prior to the year 2000, cheek swabs to determine genetic sex were routine at this level of competition.

My question is this: why not just tell us the truth? If Khelif has a DSD that overrides his visibly male body and physical advantages from that male body, why not just tell us the truth and explain how his DSD (and that of other visibly male high level contenders) renders his visibly male body and advantages both null and somehow female?

Privacy you say? Olympians have every physical characteristic minutely observed, not to mention every performance and utterance. They’re restricted from making money with their sport, so their finances and funding are scrutinized. These athletes are looking for worldwide acclaim; they aren’t looking for privacy and have agreed to give up a certain amount of it where privacy is relevant to their sport. Why not tell us the truth?

I feel terrible for the people born with DSDs. I can’t imagine as a person or a parent having something as fundamental to identity as sex be ambiguous. Most of us are sexed before we even have a name. Sex is arguably the first component of identity. Being born with a DSD shouldn’t be shameful and shouldn’t have to be hidden. No disability should be a source of shame. Why not just tell us the truth?