Iran Women’s Football Team got into trouble in September when news came out that eight of its players were not fully females. The alluded players, whose names were not revealed, were still undergoing sexual-reassignment surgeries at that time, and have yet to complete the full process. However, they were still put into the field. The Iranian football association was accused for “acting unethically” because of this.
Photo: mango news/YouTube screen grab
Sex-verification first became mandatory for woman athletes in July 1950 before the European Championships in Belgium. There was a widespread fear of men pretending to be women to compete and win in the women’s categories due to biological advantage. Even though these tests are evaluated by gynecologists, endocrinologists, psychologists, and internal medicine specialists, they have been dubbed humiliating, insensitive, and not entirely accurate. It marginalises female athletes who might be considered intersex—a genetic condition allowing her to have a male genetic make-up but female anatomy.
Indian athlete Santhi Soundararajan made news when her silver medal was stripped after failing gender test (Photo: YouTube screen grab)
For example, Indian athlete Santhi Soundararajan had her career in sports ruined when her 800m silver medal at the Asian Games in Doha in 2006 was stripped after failing a gender test.
Here are four transgender athletes successfully fought to play as their chosen gender.
1. Jae Bates
(Photo: Jae Bates/Google Plus)
Jae Bates graduated in 2014 from Hopkins High School in Minnesota where he was an openly transgender athlete on the track-and-field team. He competed in the women’s track-and-field team during his time at Hopkins even though he came out to his coach and teammates in his second year. They were all supportive.
“This is really important to me because track and field was such a formative part of my high-school experience that I want all other students to participate in whatever way they feel comfortable and to feel supported by their state and by their team,” Bates told The Guardian in response to a directive passed in Minnesota which would dictate how schools will treat transgender athletes.
Bates had to make the difficult choice of giving up swimming, a sport he loved, because of the strict gender policies around the sport. “I enjoy the activity of swimming now that I have figured out my gender identity, but for a while, I was so torn about it that I decided I hated it and quit,” Bates told The Guardian.
2. Caitlyn Jenner
Caitlyn Jenner is perhaps the most talked-about transgender person this year. She came out as a transwoman this year shortly after her divorce with Kris Jenner. Since then, she’s become one of the most famous openly transgender people in the world. Jenner is a retired American athlete who’d competed in the Olympics, and won the gold medal in 1976 for the decathlon. She appeared on E!’s reality TV show Keeping Up with the Kardashians and now stars in her own show called I Am Cait—focusing on her gender transition.
3. Zenisha Pakhrin Tamang
Zenisha Pakhrin Tamang (@zenishapakhrintmg) is the first openly transgender contestant on season three of Nepal’s reality television show—migme Mega Model (@megamodelofficial). When she was studying in Everest higher secondary boarding school in Nepal, she was quite the athlete. She played on the female basketball, badminton, and table tennis team for Everest Higher Secondary Boarding School.
“I was very active in sports and extra-curricular activities, and I was very good at it. I won medals during school days, and I played for the female team. My teammates, teachers, and coach all supported me,” Tamang told migme.
Tamang came out on national television during her audition on season three of Nepal’s modeling show Mega Model.
“We are proud to say that migme Mega Model Season Three will introduce a transgender model. If she is talented, beautiful, and have the qualities to be a model, why not?” said a spokesperson from Image Channel, which produced the show.
4. Chris Mosier
Chris Mosier at the finish line at a duathlon where he finished 7th (Photo: outsports)
Chris Mosier is the founder of TRANS*ATHLETE, an “online resource for students, athletes, coaches, and administrators … about trans* inclusion in athletics at various levels of play,” writes the site. Mosier is also the first-known openly-trans athlete to join a US national team of his gender identity, and will represent the US in the 2016 World Championship duathlon in Spain.
– by @derekcai
