The case for debating the other side

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The tension was palpable when I stepped into the auditorium in Tampere, Finland.

It was 8:00 pm on Monday, Oct. 6—the second day of the Play the Game 2025 conference—and hundreds of journalists, academics, athletes, and human rights activists were funnelling into the expansive room to attend a session I overheard being described as the “main event of the conference”: a debate about the inclusion of trans athletes in sports.

The session included two trans athletes: Grace McKenzie, one of the leading figures in the “Rugby For All” movement, and Joanna Marie Harper, the renowned researcher and scientist who specializes in studies of trans athletes. The roundtable also included European Aquatics bureau member Pia Johansen, and , a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and publisher of the on Substack.

Opposing the arguments for trans inclusion in women’s sports was Jon Pike, Professor of Philosophy at the UK’s Open University. Pike is heavily involved in prohibiting transgender athletes, especially trans women, from participating in sex-segregated competitive sports, and has advised many sports organizations and regulatory bodies on this topic including the World Anti-Doping Agency, World Rugby, British Triathlon, and the Sports Councils Equality Group.

As I took my seat, my heart began to race, beating so powerfully in my chest that I could hear the pulse in my ears. This didn’t feel like a main event to me. It felt personal.

As many of my longtime readers may already know, my beloved wife and partner, Jay, came out as nonbinary in 2021. I wrote about it in one of my early newsletters, and it remains one of the site’s most popular articles.

I am extremely proud of my wife,