NCAA implements new policy for trans athletes

Imagine that your deeply felt and lived-in gender identity doesn’t align with the biological sex assigned to you at birth.

Imagine the difficulty you would face trying to perform the gender identity you’re most comfortable with in a society that is widely transphobic and believes firmly that one’s expression of gender must strictly coincide with his or her biological sex.

How one’s gender identity is expressed, something that everyone does and almost everyone takes for granted, is made more apparent.

Now imagine the further complications that would arise if you’re also a student athlete.

The guidelines for what team you can play for in sex-segregated sports are unclear, and there’s little to no awareness or support available for your situation.

All of this is changing.

While IU’s football victory on Saturday was great, this is what’s truly exciting for me in the world of college sports: the National College Athletic Association recently released its new policy regarding transgender student athletes.

The surprisingly thoughtful and comprehensive document “NCAA Inclusion of Transgender Student-Athletes”  demands equal opportunity for transgender individuals.

It acknowledges the importance of embracing these student athletes while being conscious of their differences and the reality of discrimination.

The policy effectively explains the specificity of the transgender experience and includes testimonials from former and current transgender student athletes.

The protocol with regards to involvement in sex-segregated sports reads: “A trans male (female to male) student-athlete who has received a medical exception for treatment with testosterone ... for purposes of NCAA competition may compete on a men’s team, but is no longer eligible to compete on a women’s team without changing that team
status to a mixed team.

“A trans female (male to female) student-athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication ... for the purposes of NCAA competition may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment ...

“A trans male (FTM) student-athlete who is not taking testosterone related to gender transition may participate on a men’s or women’s team.

“A trans female (MTF) transgender student-athlete who is not taking hormone treatments related to gender transition may not compete on a women’s team.”

The policy should be commended for allowing exception to hormone use in college athletics and for making it clear that transgender people don’t always undergo surgery or hormone treatment to alter their bodies.

While the imposed year-long wait for MTF athletes to undergo hormone treatment reinforces notions that male bodies are larger or stronger than female bodies, the policy at least establishes guidelines where none existed before.

The document is even more exciting due to its progressive and proactive language. It explicitly outlines and reinforces equality for transgender student athletes. It includes an appendix that delineates gender-related terminology more clearly than some of my gender studies courses have. It even poses a challenge to students and educators to “rethink an understanding of gender as universally fixed at birth.”

But just because this policy has been put into effect doesn’t mean that equality will happen overnight.

However, it does mean measures have been taken on a structural level to implement equality for an often overlooked group of people.

Transgender people, theory and politics are rarely discussed in the mainstream, with the exception of the soon-to-be contestant on Dancing with the Stars, Chaz Bono.
In the world of college sports, it’s Kye Allums.

Allums, a FTM transgender man, received attention last year as the first openly transgender Division 1 basketball player in the NCAA’s history.

The George Washington University guard, who played as a man on the women’s basketball team, raised awareness for the presence of transgender people in college athletics.

“Do not fear what you don’t understand, and actually look up things to understand it,” Allums said in an AP interview.

I wonder if he ever expected the NCAA itself to be a locus of raising consciousness.

The NCAA’s new policy is a surprisingly balanced and helpful means of understanding and making visible a group of people who are often misunderstood.

­— ptbeane@indiana.edu