Nike Continues To Fail Women With Alleged Study On Trans-Identifying Youth | Amber Harding

Nike loves to market itself as a champion for women. The brand has launched entire campaigns celebrating female athletes — complete with inspirational slogans, slow-mo footage and narrations about "empowerment" and proving the naysayers wrong. But behind the polished ads and performative hashtags is a pattern that’s hard to ignore: Nike consistently fails to actually protect female athletes.

This alleged study on transgender-identifying youth is just the latest example.

The sports apparel giant is reportedly funding a five-year study on trans-identifying male children who are being given puberty blockers and hormone therapy — all to see whether suppressing male puberty early enough can make competition in girls' and women’s sports more "fair."

But let’s call this research what it is: disturbing.

The very premise of this study is an admission that biological males have an inherent advantage over females in sports. Of course, most sane people will admit that's common sense. That’s why we have separate men's and women's divisions in the first place.

RELATED: Physicians Warn of Medical Risks In Trans Youth Study Allegedly Funded By Nike

Instead of acknowledging that boys shouldn’t be competing in girls' sports, though, this study asks, "Okay, but what if we just chemically impair them first?" It’s like asking how many dizzy bat spins we need to give Aaron Judge before he starts hitting a baseball like a high school JV player. 

Except much more insidious. Horrifying. Unethical.

Nike is reportedly funding a study involving transgender-identifying youth taking puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

(Photo by Li Hongbo/VCG via Getty Images)

Let’s also point out what isn’t being studied. This research isn't about