USA Boxing has introduced a “transgender policy” that will allow male boxers who transition starting in 2024 to fight in the female category.
The governing body that oversees America's amateur and Olympic boxing will allow transgender athletes to compete under certain conditions.
While boxers under 18 must still compete with their birth gender, transgender fighters are allowed to fight in the category of their choice.
They must meet certain criteria, including declaring their new gender identity, undergoing gender reassignment surgery and undergoing regular hormone testing.
Both male and female transgender athletes must have undergone quarterly hormone testing and provided US Boxing with documentation of their hormone levels for at least four years following surgery.
USA Boxing has added a “transgender policy” to its rules starting in 2024
USA Boxing is the governing body that oversees America's amateur and Olympic boxing (pictured: Jennifer Lozano of Team United States at the 2023 Pan Am Games)
Female boxers who have transitioned from male to female must demonstrate that their total serum testosterone level has been below 5 nmol/L for at least 48 months prior to their first competition.
Your total serum testosterone level must remain below 5 nmol/L throughout the desired eligibility period for the female category.
Meanwhile, a male boxer must demonstrate that his total serum testosterone level has been above 10 nmol/L for at least 48 months prior to his first competition and must maintain it above this level throughout his eligibility.
USA Boxing announced the policy on Friday, saying in a statement: “The purpose of this policy is to provide fairness and safety to all boxers.”
USA Boxing took the step to implement this policy after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled in 2021 that each sport and its governing body are responsible for deciding how athletes are disadvantaged compared to others.
Because the International Boxing Federation has not yet ruled on the eligibility of transgender boxers, USA Boxing said it stepped in to make its own decision with the goal of “the safety of all boxers and fair competition among all boxers.”
Male boxer Patricio Manuel, who began transitioning to male in 2013 by taking hormones and top surgery a year later, made his professional boxing debut in 2018, becoming the first transgender person in American history to do so.
Manuel had an amateur boxing career that included five national title wins and a tryout for the 2012 U.S. Women's Olympic Team. At the beginning of the year he won his third professional victory in a row.
The new policy, announced Friday, sets conditions that athletes must meet
Male boxer Patricio Manuel became the first transgender person to make his professional boxing debut in American history in 2018
Manuel had an amateur boxing career that included five national title wins and a tryout for the 2012 U.S. Women's Olympic Team
USA Boxing's policy comes as female athletes have expressed in recent months that they are “genuinely afraid” of fighting transgender women.
In October, female martial artists said they pulled out of a major competition because they felt “scared” and “unsafe” after being forced to fight transgender women in previous tournaments.
Professional martial artist Jayden Alexander said she was “devastated” after fighting a transgender woman in July and has banned herself from future competitions to avoid fighting them again.
“The experience was horrific and scary,” Alexander said in a recent social media post about the experience. “I was absolutely in fight-or-flight mode and as an experienced competitor, I can honestly say I have never been mentally in a match before.”
“In the coming months, as I returned to competing, I had to exclude myself from a Jiu-Jitsu World Series and from a women's absolute competition at a NAGA to avoid having to compete with not one, but two transmales Athletes compete,” Alexander explained.
Over the summer, videos of female competitors battling transgender challengers went viral, sparking protests over fairness and safety. Some noted that the transgender participants were much harder than the female opponents.
Since then, the North American Grappling Association has changed its stance on transgender competitors.
Two transgender athletes won medals at the Oct. 21 event, which was boycotted by several women
The policy had stated that women would not be forced to compete against transgender fighters – but several women said that was not the case and boycotted a tournament in Georgia in late October.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, the House Subcommittee on Health and Financial Services became the latest legislative body to address the controversy surrounding transgender athletes in women's sports.
The hearing came as the Biden administration's Education Department pushes to change Title IX to support the inclusion of trans athletes in women's sports.
But committee chair Lisa McClain (R-Michigan), former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, former Oberlin lacrosse coach Kim Russell and Sarah Parshall Perry of the Heritage Foundation spoke in favor of a ban.