By: Sasha Rubick, Fact Checker
Content warning: transphobic language, misogyny.
Transvestigation, the process of “investigating” whether someone is transgender, has affected an untold number of public figures. From Michelle Obama to Serena Williams to Beyoncé: online conspiracists have utilized pseudoscientific anatomy diagrams, and demanded invasive testing to falsely “determine” someone’s sex. These investigations label appearances and behaviours according to traditional notions of gender roles, target gender nonconformity, and reinvigorate misogyny. The most notable way transvestigation occurs is by targeting successful cisgender women. It implies that trans women are seeking to take advantage of so-called “biological” women, and that a cis woman’s successes only happened because she was “secretly trans.” It also reinforces misogynistic norms, by threatening women’s privacy and reputations if they defy traditional gender roles — for example, if a woman has “masculine” features, like extra body hair, or participates in “manly” activities, she may be the victim of transvestigation and face harassment, cyberbullying, or worse. Transvestigation is treacherous: it harms both transgender people and cis women.
Since transvestigation leans on gendered expectations, it also disproportionately affects racialized women, who have long faced sexual scrutiny. It’s no coincidence that every example in the introduction was a Black woman. Since transvestigators push a standard of “femininity” based in whiteness, racialized women will often be punished for any perceived nonconformity. Thus, any woman who is successful and doesn’t conform to racist standards of femininity is at risk.
This issue goes far beyond celebrities. Calls for women to prove their sex while participating in athletics have resounded internationally, including the new Olympics policy, which mandated gene-screening for people competing in women’s category events this March. Trans sports bans such as these have become increasingly enforced as a way to apparently “protect women and girls’ sports,” at the cost of trans inclusion and acceptance. These bans are supposedly made to allow cisgender women to win against “stronger” opponents. However, according to Dr. Joshua D. Safer, speaking to the ACLU, “a person’s genetic make-up and internal and external reproductive anatomy are not useful indications of athletic performance.” Additionally, trans women athletes may even have physical disadvantages against cis women in sports. But trans sports bans lead to even more hurdles for women to participate in sports.
Just look at Imane Khelif, an Algerian Olympic gold medalist boxer. Khelif is a cisgender woman, but failed a “murky eligibility test for women’s competition” in 2023 from an association that was banned from the Olympics the following year. Afterwards, rumours of her being secretly male spread far and wide, especially when she was competing in 2024. Khelif faced a wave of harassment and calls for her to be removed from competition (even though she was fully eligible) by people like JK Rowling, Elon Musk, and JD Vance. Khelif’s race and physical strength absolutely affected how she’s been treated. Khelif notably played a match with Italian boxer Angela Carini, who withdrew and burst into tears after a punch to the nose. All ordinary, this was a boxing match between two professional fighters at the Olympics. But seeing a “victimized” white woman being defeated by a strong woman with North African features was apparently too much for the internet, and Khelif received droves of scrutiny, speculation, and hatred — yet another example of a woman being unfairly targeted due to gender nonconformity and racism.
This form of institutionalized transvestigation is all over the place. Last year, the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act was enacted in Alberta. The system is managed via complaint. If someone questions a teenager’s sex, they will have to prove their eligibility to play on a girls’ sports team via birth registration document if they’re 12 or older. People wanting to participate on boys’ teams don’t have to do a thing. According to the Edmonton Journal, the bill has led to girls’ teams being cut or turned co-ed because there aren’t enough participants. Considering that trans people are estimated to make up about 0.5% of the youth population in Canada, how is this legislation “protecting women and girls?” To me, it seems like it’s holding them back. Protecting women and girls means letting them participate in sports, and allowing them dignity and privacy.
A similar bill was raised in BC (and thankfully didn’t pass). If you think transvestigation is isolated to conservative areas or public figures, think again. A nine-year-old girl’s gender was questioned at a track meet in Kelowna just because she had a pixie cut.
That’s the reality of transvestigation: it goes far beyond defaming and harassing public figures. Beyond transphobia, transvestigation is inherently misogynistic. Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has termed it a “hate-driven conspiracy theory.” Its proponents are promoting a theory called “Elite Gender Inversion,” which holds that a shadowy cabal of elites are all secretly trans. It’s one step further on the alt-right radicalization pipeline.
“I reject the framing of issues like sports as some mythic battle between trans rights and women’s rights.”
Transvestigation is presented by the right as a way to protect and empower cisgender women. Women’s rights are often pitted against trans ones in this way. This is a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (more commonly known as TERF) idea, that “gender ideology” is incompatible and dangerous to women and feminism. This viewpoint has majorly informed recent pathways to transphobic legal discrimination. To me, though, the idea that trans rights and women’s rights can’t both exist freely at once is ridiculous. Enforcing a delineation between transgender and cisgender people is defended under the guise of “protecting women,” but does the opposite. I reject the framing of issues, such as in sports, as some mythic battle between trans rights and women’s rights. Our liberations are intertwined: they can, will, and do coexist.
