Olympic Committee Warns Media Against Using ‘Biologically Male,’ ‘Female’ When Referring To Trans Athletes

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued media guidelines on Thursday that urged reporters not to use specific terms while covering transgender athletes.

The IOC, which governs the Olympic Games, published its Portrayal Guidelines ahead of the 2024 Paris event to “provide practical checklists and advice to help ensure gender-equal and fair representation of all athletes across all forms of media and communication,” the press release reads. The guide includes a section on “Problematic Language” that included the phrases “biologically male” and “biologically female.”

“Use of phrases like those above can be [dehumanizing] and inaccurate when used to describe transgender sportspeople and athletes with sex variations,” the guideline reads. “A person’s sex category is not assigned based on genetics alone and aspects of a person’s biology can be altered when they pursue gender-affirming medical care.”

The guideline also advises against using the phrases “identifies as,” “sex change” or “the transgenders.”

“It is always preferable to emphasi[ze] a person’s actual gender rather than potentially calling their identity into question by referring to the sex category that was registered on their original birth certificate,” it reads. “If there is a clear reason to refer to the category a person was assigned at birth, the terms to use are: ‘assigned female at birth,’ ‘assigned male at birth,’ or ‘designated female at birth,’ ‘designated male at birth.’”

The IOC issued a framework in November 2021 that determined athletes should be allowed to compete on the basis of gender identity, and that they should not be required to undergo “targeted testing.”

The IOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.