Newsflash 11/5: A League of Their Own

            Yesterday, CNN reported in “First transgender athlete to play in NCAA basketball” that a Kye Allums, a junior at the University of Washington, will play on the Division I basketball team as a man this year. Allums, who stands at 5’11”, says he realized his true identity when his mom texted him one day, “Who do you think you are, young lady” (CNN Wire Staff). This “aha!” moment made Allums realize who he truly was. He explains how we grew up as a tomboy, but felt uncomfortable in the body he was born in, female with female parts. Struggling to find his identity, Allums attempted to be more feminine when he reached adolescence, mimicking teenage girls’ appearance and interests. However, Allums finally realized he should stop denying his true feelings: that he was in fact a man “trapped inside a woman’s body.” With courage, Allums decided to identify as a male and was met with support from his teammates, coaches, family and University administrators at Washington. I think Allums' case is unique, but I believe we will begin to see more cases just like his. Further, I think that although the NCAA has been accepting and understanding of transgender athletes, the organization needs to make further steps to clarify rules governing these students who identify as a sex that they were not biologically born to have.

            Allums’ situation is unique, but a growing phenomenon in the world of athletics today. According to NCAA rules and regulations, Allums will be allowed to continue playing on the women’s basketball team at Washington, even though he identifies as a male. This is because Allums has agreed to forego any testosterone therapy while he is a member of the team. Robert Chernak, senior vice provost at George Washington, said the university is fully accepting of Allums’ decision to live as a male student (CNN Wire Staff). “Kye has informed the university that he will not begin any medical or drug protocols while a student-athlete,” Chernak said. “Kye will continue to be a member of the women's basketball team” (CNN Wire Staff).

            Allums is also in a special situation, in that his coaches and teammates are fully supportive of his decision to become a male and to continue playing women’s athletics. Their acceptance of Allums as “big brother” of the team is indicative of a society that is beginning to embrace peoples’ differences and eliminate prejudice towards transgender people. Allums’ friends and family understand his struggle being “trapped” in a body that he feels he should not have and are fully accepting of his decision to identify as male.

            Anne Fausto-Sterling, author of Sexing the Body, would certainly have a lot to say about Allum’s situation as a transgender playing collegiate athletics. Fausto-Sterling reminds us that “the rules for living as a male or female are strict” (Fausto-Sterling 73). Pointing to history, Fausto-Sterling traces the distinctions between male and female from social constructs. She explains that it is not science, but our political and social ideologies that dictate what sex should be. She states, “labeling someone a man or a woman is a social decision... and only our beliefs about gender-not science-can define our sex” (3). Certainly, Allums felt that as a female, with female genitalia, that he ought to act a certain way, like other teenage girls he knew in school. However, his strong inclination towards masculinity was hidden for some time by the strong messages he received from social constructs that he ought to act and appear a certain way. I think that if these ideologies did not exist, as they did not in earlier time periods, Allums and others like him would not have to struggle with finding their true identity, fighting social norms and expectations.

            Further, although Allums is the only transgender athlete in the NCAA right now, his situation is a growing occurrence in collegiate athletics today. At a Women’s Studies brown bag this year, entitled “Coaching and Gender,” Assistant Director of Athletics-Compliance Coordinator Ann-Marie Guglieri spoke about the growing concern for NCAA officials to clarify rules and regulations surrounding transgender issues. Guglieri explained that the current rule is that a student athlete is eligible to play for the team that corresponds with his or her sex as listed on the student’s driver’s license. In addition, if a transgender changes his or her sex on the driver’s license and continues to play on an NCAA team, the team will be considered “mixed” and therefore will become ineligible to compete in the NCAA championship. This means that if Allums changes his sex to male on his driver’s license, Washington will only be eligible, as a mixed squad, to compete in the men’s championship and not the women’s. While the article does not list Allums’ identified sex on his driver’s license, in order to be eligible to compete for the NCAA title, he must remain female according to state classifications.

Further, athletes must comply with NCAA drug regulations in order to remain eligible. This means that a transgender athlete cannot take hormones that would give them an unfair advantage in competition. Since this is a growing phenomenon, Guglieri explains that the NCAA is continuing to expand and clarify regulations in order to accommodate athletes like Allums, who wish to identify as something other than their biological sex.

            I think Allums’ situation is very interesting and indicative of a society that is growing to accept people on the “sexual continuum,” as Fausto-Sterling writes. As a student athlete at Colgate, I have not had any teammates who have identified themselves as another sex, but two years ago one of my teammates came out to us, explaining that she is a lesbian. Like the Washington women’s basketball team, our team was more than accepting, assuring our teammate that we will continue to support and love her regardless of her sexuality. Athletic teams are truly like families and it is comforting to see the Washington team in full support of their brother, Kye Allums.

            However, I think that the NCAA should take rapid steps to clarify rules governing transgender and transsexual student athletic eligibility, as Allums’ story may give other student athletes who struggle with gender identity the courage to follow a similar path. Rendering a team ineligible to compete for a women’s national title simply because one’s sex on a driver’s license is male seems to be unfair, especially if the transgender athlete is not taking hormones that may give him an unfair advantage. If Allums, for instance, wants to truly change his sex in state records, he will let down his team, which may be in the running for an NCAA title. The only way they could win is by entering the men’s tournament, which would create a distinct physical disadvantage.

            Despite the NCAA’s unreasonable and often vague rules, I think the organization, as well as collegiate athletic programs as a whole, are doing a good job of acknowledging people who identify as a sex that differs from their biological makeup. By even employing rules to govern these people, it shows that the NCAA is doing its best to include all types of people. Furthermore, the support the organization as well as the University of Washington has given to Kye Allums shows that just because someone is different from the norm does not mean that they do not deserve respect for the hard work they put into being a student athlete.

CNN Wire Staff. “First transgender athlete to play in NCAA basketball.” CNN. 4 November, 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/03/transgender.basketball.player/index.html?iref=allsearch>. 

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sexing the Body. New York: Basic Books. 2000.