Unfair Advantage

So I came across this brilliant piece by Katherine Cross on how writers with Guardian and New York Times columns still claim to be being 'silenced' by trans people who happen to be on Twitter.

Particularly disappointed that Hadley Freeman buys into the nonsense that Fallon Fox has 'unfair advantages' due to having once had testosterone in her system.  Two facts, one born out of doing research (supposedly a key element in the journalist skillset, but what do I know, I don't write for the Grauniad), and one born of personal experience:

Like, check your privilege before criticizing this national newspaper from the leather-armchaired Ivory Tower of your Twitter account, yeah?

1) State boxing and wrestling commissions, the bodies in the US which rule on who gets to compete in MMA bouts, mandate that trans woman competitors must spend TWO YEARS on HRT, which includes taking anti-androgen drugs - testosterone-blockers;

How lifting weights feels after three months on T-blockers.

2) I have, myself, been on testosterone-blockers since April, at the same time as which I've embarked on a get-fit campaign, which has allowed me to observe their effects on my physical strength.  Despite training hard during the process, in a mere three months, I have lost 2kgs of muscle from my torso area. It was actually easier to hoist the backpack in which I carry my gym kit before I started lifting weights about. This put me in the interesting position of watching cis women who attended the circuit training sessions I was going to visibly finding them easier and easier as the weeks passed, while I found them harder and harder. There is an advantage here - and at times it certainly seemed unfair - but it isn't on the trans side of the equation.