Transgender in Sport.
Sport is currently a difficult place to be transgender.
From the harassment of Imane Khalif in the Olympics, to the multitude of rules preventing transgender athletes from competing in sports such as rugby, swimming, cycling and track and field, it can be an unpleasant world to step foot into.
The International Rugby League (IRL), International Swimming Federation (FINA) and the International Cycling Union (UCI) have all restricted male-to-female athletes from competing, saying that due to their AGAB (assigned gender at birth) they have a “biological advantage” over other female athletes.
There has been a rise in testing for testosterone, with female-to-male athletes banned from competing if they have been on hormone therapy for over a year. With this causing problems for women with a naturally high level of testosterone, it has meant that some have been banned from competing due to a natural hormone that their body produces.
All of this raises a few questions.
The first one being “Who is harmed?”
The obvious answer is the transgender athletes who have to fight for their right to compete.
However, these rules have also impacted other athletes.
Imane Khalif faced an avalanche of cyber harassment this year due to unsubstantiated and calumnious rumours of her being a trans woman, despite the reams of evidence against.
There has also been evidence that this type of testing disproportionately affects POC, with some of the accusations against Khalif being that she “looks male” due to her not being white. This can also be seen in the cases against athletes Caster Semenya, Santhi Soundarajan and Francine Niyonsaba.
The second question is “Why is this being implemented?”
The reasons being given revolve around the “disproportionate advantage” that transgender athletes are supposed to have.
What this ignores is the fact that superb athletes often have a “disproportionate advantage” over their peers anyway, quirks such as Michael Phelps’ lack of lactic acid that allows him to recover fast and large lung capacity.
Where the boundaries of natural human bodies lie contains pitfalls for anyone trying to delineate people into “male” or “female”, let alone good or bad at sport.
All of this has driven transgender athletes away from sport. Quite beyond the rules imposed by governing bodies - there is often harassment at a club or team level, forcing trans athletes to quit.
However, there are some places fighting against these draconian laws, and giving transgender athletes a place to play.
TRUK United FC has teams for both transmasc and transfem people, competing all across the UK in the pink and blue of the trans flag. The website Pride Sports helps people find sports teams from football to wild swimming across the UK.
And finally, my team York RI Women’s Rugby have helped me through the last year and a half.
I am non-binary and transmasc, and my team has supported me every step of the way. They have given me the space I need in changing rooms and corrected themselves about my pronouns. The captain has corrected the referees on multiple occasions and the manager is helping me talk to the club about my needs as a trans athlete.
While I am regularly angry about the decisions being made about me and others like me, by people who have never had a compassionate thought about trans people in the first place, I know my team is safe.
I know that all of them will help me and other trans athletes through this time, supporting us until we are no longer discriminated against for our gender, our bodies and our athletics.
