Transgender people and Sports

One of my good friends gave me a link to an article that talks about the issue of transgender people and sports, specifically male to females and female to males. The article focused on how the NCAA will make it more fair for trans athletes or potential athletes to join teams in colleges. I'm not going to post the whole article, but there will be a link at the end to the entire thing. This article made me happy and extremely annoyed all at the same time. I'm going to pick out what I feel are the biggest problems with how they are approaching things.

"For those undergoing hormone treatments, the report recommends that a male-to-female transgender athlete should be able to participate on men's teams, but should complete one year of hormone treatments before competing on a women's team. The report recommends that a female-to-male transgender athlete, who is taking prescribed testosterone, should be allowed to compete on men's teams, but must seek an exemption to NCAA rules barring the use of testosterone.

For those not undergoing hormone treatments, the report recommends that transgender students should all have the option of competing on the teams consistent with birth gender, that female-to-male students be allowed to participate on either the men's or women's team, but that male-to-female transgender students not be permitted to compete on women's teams.

The report notes the concerns some have expressed about male-to-female athletes having an unfair advantage because of their pre-transition bodies."

First of all the overall theme here is that cisfemales are ALWAYS going to be weaker than males, therefore it doesn't matter if a transman plays on the mens team. However, if a transwomyn wanted to play on the womyns team, it is an unfair advantage for that team. First off all this is essentialism at its worse! Pretty much says all womyn are weaker than all men and doesn't take into account the many variations that happen naturally. I promise you that there are cisgirls out there WAY stronger than cismales, but not according to the NCAA. If I were a cisfemale who played sports I would be rather insulted that they think that I am automatically weaker than my male counter parts.

Secondly, why should transmen have to get permission to use testosterone? Why can't the NCAA just give them permission? Cut out the middle man so to speak. There is absolutely no reason why they should have to seek out special permission. This only serves to make the process more complicated. The NCAA should just make it a rule that transmen are allowed to use testosterone.

Lastly, why is it such a big deal for a transwomyn, who hasn't started transitioning, to be on the womens team? If EVERY college is allowed to do it, is there really an "unfair" advantage for one team or the other? If this means that teams actively recruit transwomyn all the better, because that means that they are actively being trans-inclusive as a opposed to only being so in theory. Also this whole taking hormones for a year thing is ridiculous because hormones effect everyone differently. Some people get "weaker" after like a month others don't get that much "weaker" at all. There is no cookie cutter, one size fits all option! There is no reason for this rule other than to keep the status quo in place. Now lets look at who exactly came up with this report.

"The report was written by Pat Griffin, former director of the It Takes A Team! Education Campaign for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in Sport and professor emeritus of social justice education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and Helen J. Carroll, director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ Sports Project. The report was co-sponsored by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Women's Sports Foundation and It Takes a Team! The sponsoring organizations held a meeting last year to gather experts -- including NCAA representatives -- to discuss these issues."

Anyone else notice that there ISN'T a specific organization that deals exclusively with transgender issues? Not a one! In other words it was a bunch of cisgender people who came together and decided what would be best. So much bullshit! Transgender voices weren't heard in this situation at all and since we are dealing with something that directly affects us, we should have voice in the debate. This is a lot like men sitting around and deciding what is best for women without any input from women. No wonder there are these problems since it is all people who don't fully understand transgender issues. I'm not saying it should only be trans people, but it shouldn't be all cisgender people either. The final thing I want to talk about is towards the end.

"Further, the issue can be important for the way teams are classified. A female on a male team does not change the designation of the team, but a male on a female team classifies the team as "mixed," making it ineligible for NCAA women's championships. Any classification of a team as "mixed" lasts for the rest of the academic year."

How exactly are they defining male? My definition of male is anyone who identifies as a man regardless of there sex assigned at birth. Going based on what other parts of the article have said, I don't think they are defining male in that way. They are probably defining it in terms of what someone has between their legs. So basically even if I were allowed to be on the women's team, since I have been on the hormones for almost 5 years now, it would probably qualify as a "mixed" team simply because I have dick. Gee, thanks so much for invalidating my gender you fuckers!

Despite everything mentioned above I am grateful the NCAA are at least attempting to take this on. Even if they do FAIL for the most part. If you want to read the whole article click the link below.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/05/trans