The XY Games

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/opinion/03boylan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20XY%20games&st=cse&oref=slogin
- Hide quoted text -
---------- Forwarded message ----------From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>Date: Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 9:19 AMSubject: The XY GamesTo: letters@nytimes.com
To the Editor: Dismissing the best efforts of the IOC to put men in the men'sevents and women in the women's events, professor Boylan challengesthe conclusion that athletes with one X and one Y chromosome--butinsensitive to testosterone--are men. She writes: "By any measure,though (except the measure of the Olympic test), they are women." Imarvel that this howler got past an editor. While we may rhapsodizeover the emotional, spiritual and intellectual dimensions of theOlympics, they remain physical contests, with tangible measures ofvictory, constrained by our too, too solid flesh. There are sports inwhich men and women can and should compete in the same events withoutany distinction. For the rest, the IOC tests of gender properly makephysical distinctions of physical characteristics.Barry Levine1142 Brown AveLafayette, CA 94549