Transgender Athletes in Sports: How can we become more Inclusive?

Unscripted (Commentary)
By Keith Edmonds Ink Spot Contributing Writer

In the world of sports, we presume that there are only two types of competitive people: Men and Women but we are starting to see that people are more diverse, and more complex.

I would like to present you with another “group” of people who are changing the landscape of sports and how we view it daily, Transgender athletes. It is this category of person(s) that we really struggle with when it comes to seeing our athletes compete, especially in our traditional sports of football, basketball, baseball, and track & field. The sports world has long been dominated by men but since the inception of Title XI (in 1975), women in sports have come leaps and bounds over these past 50 years and are widely recognized for their tremendous talents and abilities. Now that we have made the adjustment to seeing them perform on the “big stages and arena’s” we are being forced to adjust our thoughts once again towards another entity moving into our “minds of acceptance”. Trans Women and Men are starting to make a name for themselves in the sports world. How do we explain the fact that trans athletes were born with biologically male bodies but still want to compete as women, it can change our thoughts about athletic competition entirely. Doctors explained that even after taking hormones, these uniquely different athletes just do not fit neatly into female or male categories, so now what do we do? Folks, we need a solution!

Women’s sports were created to give females an opportunity to express themselves in athletics without feeling that they needed to crossover into male sports and compete against men for recognition for their talents. (I mean, at least I think that is what I thought women’s sports were for. Am I being chauvinistic)? So, what’s considered fair competition when we begin to allow this new group of athletes to compete in sports? Women competing as men and/or men competing as women? Wait. What are we suggesting?

I saw this headline in the news today regarding a cycling event overseas and the registration process and it just blew me away; “Riders who were assigned male at birth will be prevented from racing in British Cycling’s elite female events under a new transgender and non-binary participation policy published by the governing body. New rules for competitive events, due to be implemented this year, will see our racing events split into “open” and “female” categories, with transgender women, transgender men, non-binary individuals, and those whose sex was assigned male at birth eligible to compete in the open category. Now I consider myself a person with an open mind and a person that is willing to accept the differences in people without a hint of prejudice, but am I or are we being evaluated on our thoughts of the transgender world?

Gifts are given to all of us and though they may come differently, it is still a gift, right? Trans women as well as Trans men must not be shoved to the sidelines. These brave athletes, who come out as trans (despite widespread discrimination and even threats of violence against them), must be welcomed onto our athletic teams, schools, and programs. Considering their determination and ability to perform under pressure, who would not want them as teammates? Bruce Jenner who competed in and won the decathlon in the 1976 Olympics, has become one of the most outspoken people defending transgender athletes as after a long bout with depression, and being afraid of condemnation introduced himself to the world as Caitlin Jenner in 2015. He referred to his condition as “Gender Dysphoria” stating “People suffering from gender dysphoria (a mismatch between someone's biological sex and their gender identity), is like being born right-handed or left-handed. It is just who you are. It's something I didn't understand, especially growing up in the 1950s and 60s."

Now, I can’t even imagine what it would have been like growing up in an environment or era where we didn’t have to even remotely think about things like that, so I won’t even attempt to bring you as readers an understanding as to what he is saying, but what I will say is this is another part of being in todays society that we have to try to come to at least some remedial understanding of, and come to terms with. I did not say we have to accept it because accepting it must be an individual choice, but to deny these individuals an opportunity to display their talents because they do not fit into our societal norms or match what WE think athletes should be in is discriminatory and wrong. Wow, I know I have given you something to think about with this piece. Imagine waking up every day and trying to decide if you are going to be who YOU are or what SOCIETY thinks you should be? Scary thoughts…