Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and show host Piers Morgan argued over trans athletes in a heated debate this week over the future of competitive sports.
“What I see is sports is on the frontier of how to handle this frontier of people who are trans,” Tyson said on “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” “It’s on the frontier of how to resolve that. And I’m making this up now: imagine the future of sports does not distinguish sex, it distinguishes and sorts people by hormone ratios.”
Tyson recently spoke with comedian Bill Maher on his show to discuss the role of scientists in discussing the inclusion of trans athletes in men’s and women’s sports.
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“I’m making this up, but imagine if that were the case,” he said. “That would be interesting. You get a hormone test, you’re in this range and then you compete against other people with the same range.”
“That’s ridiculous. Neil, that is ridiculous,” Morgan said.
“No, it’s not! I’ll tell you why it’s not,” Tyson said.
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“I say this respectfully because I love you, but it just seems to me like you’ve dug yourself into a slight hole on this issue and you’re trying to get out of it,” Morgan said. “And now you’re suggesting slightly mad cat theories, whereas the science, to me, is obvious. You’ve already given the best argument I’ve heard for why we separate the sexes.”
“You misquoted me in this very interview,” Tyson said.
Tyson argued that in competitive sports, men were on average faster and stronger than women.
“Across the board that is the case,” Tyson said. “There is no dispute there. That is just objective truth.”
“Now we have to ask: Why do we watch sports at all?” he continued. “We like the equality of the contest and not knowing who would win. That’s what makes sports fun.”
“If there’s a wave of trans women who dominate the sport against other women, all those sports will become less interesting based on how we all watch sports,” Tyson said, suggesting that the inclusion of trans athletes in sports may require rethinking how athletes are matched up against each other.
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