After Atalanta

I only found about this story from a FB friend who posted a link to the petition on Change.org. And despite my searches for more info--I cannot find any. So I wonder if this is actually making news in Beverly--which, coincidentally, is my home town. So a woman was told she cannot take her daughter into the children's locker room before swim lessons at the Beverly YMCA--where I once was a little guppy trying to work her way up to dolphinhood. Why can this mother not take her daughter into the kids' locker room? Because the woman was born a man. And apparently she still has "male eyes" and her gender presentation is confusing to people. First (though in no particular order), pretty condemning of men, no? All men are looking at little girls with leering eyes is the suggestion here. Of course, the message could (most likely?) be that a transwoman is more likely to be some kind of pervert. Second, let's perhaps use this as a teachable moment, people of the Beverly...

Kye Allums, the openly transgender member of the George Washington women's basketball team, has announced that he will not be playing his senior year. It is largely due to the two concussions he suffered this season, according to some sources . He has sustained eight during his career. He noted that he might not have been medically cleared to play anyway. According to the NYT though the university's statement included this passage: "[Allums] has decided it is in his best interest to no longer participate in intercollegiate athletics." That leaves some room for speculation. I would have been speculating anyway given my propensity for suspicion. The statement also included a comment from Allums that he came to this conclusion all on his own . His announcement last fall, of course, drew a lot of attention--both positive and negative. But due to his injuries he only ended up playing in eight games this season, which may have tempered some of the attention. Of course the m...

How did the end of the week come so quickly? And how did all these things build up? It's not so much that I missed the following news/events, it's more that I haven't found a good moment to mention them. On Tuesday night the Texas A&M Aggies beat Notre Dame in the championships of the Women's Final Four Tournament. Thankfully the score and the quality of play was indeed better than the men's game the night before. Or else I would still be blushing sheepishly and hanging my head. Erin Whiteside at the Sports, Media, and Society blog (out of Penn State's Curley Center) notes the problematic way Twitter users were comparing the men's game (as it was ongoing and immediately afterwards) to the women's game. As in, even the women can do better than this kind of sentiments. I tried, in my own post about this issue, to note that the complaints about women's basketball never ever being able to be as interesting as men's basketball are false generaliza...

At this year's Tribeca Film Festival, a new documentary about the life of Dr. Renee Richards will make its debut. ESPN sponsors its own sport film festival within the festival and Renee is one of the 33 films in the line up. The documentary explores "the story of Renée Richards, the first transgender tennis player to compete in the women’s US Open." I am pretty sure she is the only transgender athlete to compete in the women's US Open--or in any grand slam. This seems to counter prevailing notions that "things are getting better." And one might even argue that there has been a certain regression since Richards played in the 70s. Last year around this time the story of German tennis pro Sarah Gronert made news in the US. Gronert is intersex (she has wrongly been referred to as transgender ). And despite surgery and much jumping of hoops for the WTA, Gronert is still facing a lot of criticism. Apparently her serve is (according to one opponent's coach) he...

So, as somewhat expected, the LPGA players voted to eliminate the organization's "female at birth" participation policy. Yesterday the group decided, prompted by the recent lawsuit by Lana Lawless, to change its ways. So, yea! I don't have much more to say on this one. I recommend everyone take a look at Pat Griffin's blog where she has posted an open letter to the LPGA commending their actions and urging them to carefully consider what the new rules will look like, i.e. she asks them to consider a policy other than the Stockholm Consensus, the IOC's policy which mandates surgery.

USA Today ran this piece focusing on Lana Lawless, or rather leading with the golfer's story, but extending the discussion to gender in sport, i.e. when gender is not so neatly packaged. The LPGA was scheduled to gather for a players' meeting in which they would consider the "female by birth" rule that excludes Lawless and other transgender athletes from competing on the tour. But the USA Today article cites other cases--like GW b-baller Kye Allums--as well as some of my favorite people, Helen Carroll of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Dr. Heather Sykes of University of Toronto. There was also the seemingly obligatory call to Dr. Renee Richards who as a male-to-female transsexual sued for the right to play on the women's tennis tour in the 1970s. Richards, who is not exactly a vocal champion for transgender rights, simply said "It's a conundrum." Sykes kind of summed it up well, I thought: "The gender boundaries have never been clear,...

Well I take back all my previous criticisms of the LPGA. Ok, I don't exactly take them back. But I give the organization--now under new leadership--major props, praise, and applause. It appears that the recent lawsuit brought by golfer Lana Lawless challenging the organization's "female by birth" participation policy has inspired LPGA leadership to consider an amendment to its constitution. The membership will address the potential change on November 30. Leadership is encouraging the members to make the change. From the Golf Channel: In a special “one-agenda item” meeting at the Hana Bank Championship in South Korea at the end of October, LPGA players were briefed on the upcoming vote and the vital nature of it. According to sources familiar with the meeting, LPGA players were told the “female at birth” provision was created “in a different time” and would be a significant challenge to defend legally today. Players were also informed that the International Olympic Com...

I guess I should be okay with the fact that the worst (that we've heard of) that has happened to George Washington's Kye Allums after his announcement of his gender change is that the media doesn't quite know how to talk about him. Nevertheless, confusion within the media likely reflects confusion in society generally over gender identity and its intersection (or not) with sexual identity. This article out of Minnesota, Allums's home state, was a little problematic. In addition to the offensive lead ("Kye Allums just looked like one of the gals Saturday afternoon" *le sigh*), the writer basically gave Allums a sex change halfway through the article. Allums was referred to as a she for several paragraphs: "she dipped her shoulder;" "her season debut;" "she looked stylish." And then magically she became a he. Allums is a man. He made the announcement. He came out as transgender; explained the situation; explained his name change and...

I am in San Diego getting ready to give a presentation on genderqueer athletes playing women's sports--just two days after news that Kye Allums, who plays on George Washington University's women's basketball team, has just come out as transgender. The news broke earlier this week on smaller websites --or at least those are the links that friends sent me with the "what do you think about this?" messages. But now the story has gone national . I was in the hotel fitness center this morning and CNN had a teaser and then story about Kye Allums's recent announcement that he is transgender and will continue to play on the GWU team with the support of his coach and teammates and the approval of the NCAA (because Allums has not started hormone therapy yet). From what I have read, the comments on some of the posted stories about Allums's gender identity have been pretty disgusting (though I have not read them myself--just heard second hand). So Allums's announc...

Not sure why I thought the LPGA was allowing MTFs play on the tour. The USGA has adopted a policy governing the participation of transgender people, as has other international golf organizations. Mianne Bagger, a woman who was born a biological male, plays on the Australian and European Tours. I probably should have questioned why she was not playing in the United States and given the LPGA's fairly conservative philosophies (except when it comes to posing its tour members in bathing suits on golf courses in an attempt to gain some publicity), I should not have been so surprised. Whether the LPGA will be able to keep its no-trans policy is the question inspired by a lawsuit by Lana Lawless . I have blogged about Lawless before. She won, in 2008, the women's world championship in the long drive. The competition is run by Long Drivers of America which did not have a female-at-birth policy at the time which meant Lawless, who was born a male but had sex reassignment surgery in 2005...

Pat Griffin (of It Takes a Team) and Helen Carroll's (from the National Center for Lesbian Rights) editorial in Inside Higher Ed . They provide and throughtful and informative piece on transgender athletes focusing on high school and collegiate student-athletes.