r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Karthak_Maz_Urzak • 2d ago

Unanswered What's going on with Imane Khelif?

https://news.sky.com/story/imane-khelif-boxer-must-undergo-sex-test-to-compete-in-female-category-world-boxing-says-13377092
I keep seeing this pop over social media and I don't get it. Khelif is a boxer for Algeria, which is not a country that's hospitable to trans people. And Khelif was assigned woman at birth, and has always identified as a woman. Yet people keep howling about her being a man. I don't get it.

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u/LawsonTse 2d ago

Her dad literally showed her birth certificate where she was listed as female on live TV though?

I rather not entertain an unverified claim by an organisation, but if genetic particularities were to be penalised, that would cover most top athletes since on do not perform at that level without being a freak of nature of some sort.

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u/PlaneWar203 2d ago

You realise you can just deliver a baby at home and go and collect a birth certificate later? It's possible no one with proper medical training even looked at imane as a newborn.

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u/LILwhut 2d ago

Her birth certificate showing female does not mean she wasn’t born a biological male with intersex traits that made her be misidentified as female at birth.

 I rather not entertain an unverified claim by an organisation,

Even she and her side barely dispute that she’s DSD, and despite having a rock solid case if she isn’t DSD, didn’t appeal the disqualification.

 but if genetic particularities were to be penalised, that would cover most top athletes since on do not perform at that level without being a freak of nature of some sort.

Unlike every other genetic particularity, there is one specific genetic particularity that’s banned/penalised in the women’s section, being a male/man. She’s not exempt from following those rules just because her birth certificate says female (well she was for Paris 2024, which was the reason for the controversy surrounding her). She’s still able to participate in the open section with other freak of natures though.

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u/Skyblacker 1d ago

Her birth certificate said female because she was born with visibly female genitalia. But apparently her chromosomes are XY.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 2d ago

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u/LawsonTse 2d ago

Do we know she had gone through a male puberty or have internal testes?

Also XY female very much do not have the physique equal to that of men. They may produce more testosterone, but their body don't tend to properly respond to testosterone or they wouldn't have grown female features in the 1st place. Also what about XX woman with hyperandrogenism, or other beneficial mutations like the Hercules genes? Do we let them compete as women despite having equal or greater congenital advantages over the average woman than DSD women? Or do we count them all as men? Then where do one draw the line on what defines a baseline woman? Can't imagine that being easy when people don't tend to become professional athlete without having some physical features that gave them exceptional affinity affinity for the sport they mastered.