Transgender and Sports

The article discusses the inclusion of transgender in sports and the controversy surrounding it. It talks about the recent decision by Cricket Australia to include transgender people in sports and the parameters set for their participation. The article also discusses the historical context of women's inclusion in sports and the opposition faced by transgender people. It concludes with the author's opinion on the matter.

Running head: TRANSGENDER AND SPORTS
Transgender and Sports
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Author Note:

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Transgender and Sports
The participation of the Transgender in the Transsexual women in sports has always
remained a topic for debate in the world of Sports. The controversy and the opposition came
from the ends of the male domain and the female domain. The recent claim by the Australian
Government, that, the transgender will be included in the world of sports, has again resumed
the debate. Recently, the Cricket Australia, has propounded that sports will never encourage
forms of discriminations, and they have passed a policy that states that the transgender people
will be included in the world of sports, both at the elite level and at the grass root level. The
sport’s national governing body have announced that sports are for everyone, therefore, all
the games, especially, cricket will included gender diverse approach and will include the
transgender. The CEO of Cricket Australia, Kevin Roberts have stated that cricket has the
most diverse attitude, and it is all about physical strength and stamina, therefore, cricket will
essentially include a diversified approach in the game and will include the transgender and
gender diverse players, as that will help the country to gain a higher position in the world of
cricket. He added that the transgendered and the gender diverse players will be included in
the female elite to compete with the women. However, the board has decided some
parameters, one of which is that the concentration of testosterone in their serum must be
below 10 nano moles per liter. They have said that fairness will be preserved for all, and no
discrimination will be made. The selection process will follow a complete ethical rule,
ensuring a fair competition amongst (Cunningham. 2019). The CEO is of the opinion that this
decision should be made across the world, and their initiation will inspire the board of cricket
of other countries to include such a perspectives within.
The inclusion of the transgender within sports has been an age old topic and the
people have opined their varied opinions since. Historically speaking, sports have always
been seen as a male domain, especially games like football, cricket, and tennis. The women
were also not included in the International Olympic Committee. Therefore, to gain a position

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in the sports world, the women had to also fight to gain their position in the sports world.
Therefore, the touch of masculinity in the sports was included by the perception of women’s
sports. The sports bodies of different countries had included the women’s sports section into
the system. The inclusion of women’s sports was further challenged by inclusion of the gay
sports men and the transgendered (Jones et al. 2017). There was a revolutionary situation
when the women sports section was first included in the Olympics. It was seen that the world
was not ready to consider women into the sports. It is still perceived that women should not
be playing cricket and football or the car racing games, from a basic notion, all the games
which requires more stamina and physical strength should not be played or participated by
women. Therefore the women had to fight with thee society to gain their position in such
games. However, when they are faced with competitions from gay men sports sand the
transgendered sports, it was the women, who had voiced against the concepts. The
transgendered and the gay men were to get included in the women section, for their
masculine touch, and it added up to the competition among the women sports section. The
women voiced against the inclusion of the transgendered because of their physical strength.
The transgendered are as physically capable as the men, it is only because of their other
physical aspects and their feminine aspect, that they are to be included within the women
sports section (Travers. 2018). Therefore, the women of sports are definitely ready to include
the transgendered within the games.
There are little examples where the transgendered were included in the sports. An
early the first transgendered women to take part in the sports world was Renée Richards, who
had to went through a gender re- assignment therapy to get included into the women tennis
team. Her inclusion in the women’s tennis team was a ground breaking event that had
revolutionized not only in the sports world but also in the society. She had to face many
protests, the media had went frenzy against her. Certain sects of Feminist even voiced against

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Transgender and Sports
the situation. Many women tennis players were seen to have withdrawn themselves from the
game, to protest against this. Especially when she had accepted the in vitiation for the US
Open, women players of Women’s Tennis Association and United States Tennis Association
had withdrawn themselves from the game. The basic notion was that Richards was more
physically potent that the other players. The protest became even stronger when Richards was
asked to take the Barr body Test, that identifies the chromosome sequencing of person,
Richards had denied to take the test, and was eventually banned form games (Eitzen. 2000).
However, the Richards case got blurred with her banning and eventual retirement from the
games. However, in the year 2004, in the Olympics, IOC had allowed the transgendered to
take part in the game, but the participation was restricted only to the fields of Olympic, that
too, the participation was not made by many people. It was not until 2016, that people had
taken any stand against it. After the modifications made by the IOC, many transgendered
seen to have ben voicing against the existing social condition. They are fighting for their
rights. It comes within their fundamental rights, to choose their occupation, from which they
are denied.
The social situation regarding the inclusion of the transgendered into the sports world,
has remained the same, and it can be said that the social situation is not likely to get changed.
It is seen that with changing times, the society is evolving, but the concept of the
transgendered is such a topic, where the people are much rigid, and it is not easily breakable
(Hargie. 2017). The most important point is that with the inclusion of women in the sports
world, it could be done, because the women holds comparatively much large a number in the
world that the transgendered people, and further, the percentage of transgendered people
being aware of their situation, is much less, as compared to the women who are much aware
of their position and their choices. Another important aspect is that a very less percentage of
the transgendered are interested in sports. The life that they indulge into, is very difficult, and

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according to them, involving in sports, I something which they cannot afford to get involved
into (Pitsiladis et al. 2016). Therefore, they lack the strength in their claims, which,
eventually affects the protest and the claims that are made by them. The society, even today
has not been able to accept the Transgender and provide them with their rightful claims. They
still deny their existence in the society, therefore, granting them their right to bet involved in
sports and taking it ad n occupation, is still a long way to achieve.
However, according to me, the stand that the Australian government and the Cricket
Australia has taken, is revolutionary, and is a correct approach to account the situations of
diversity within the country. Australia, is seen to be rigorously taking steps to account the
diversified situations. They are taking major steps to get the aboriginals and the Torres Strait
islanders, included in the mainstream cultural and political life of the country. Therefore, to
include the transgender into the sports world is a very good decision, and it was high time,
that the government of one of the first world countries take measures for the inclusion of the
transgendered into the mainstream culture (Caudwell. 2014). Therefore, the strand that
Australia has taken, will further enable and inspire other first world countries to include the
similar agenda into their orientation. Furthermore, the Cricket Australia, has rightly taken the
step by including the fairness aspect into the decision, and more importantly, since they have
made this a bill, and nit any announcement, therefore, it will, leave the society no option but
to accept the scenario (Westbrook, and Schilt. 2014). Also, since, the Cricket Australia, has
also included the fairness aspect within the decision therefore, the women of the country, will
also not be able to oppose the decision on technicality. Therefore, thus, the situation will
gradually change, however, the Transgendered must have the understanding and the
awareness that they are provided with such an opportunity.
However, according to me, the women involved in the sports world is already faced
with many difficult situations, regarding getting involved into sports and taking sports as their

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Transgender and Sports
occupation, and they are constantly battling against the society for the same. Therefore,
including the transgender into the women section, will increase the competition for them.
Therefore, according to me, there should be a different genre or section which will only be
consisted with the transgendered, and thus, it will be a fair game, and many transgendered
will be inspire to get involved and take sports as an occupation.

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References:
Caudwell, J., 2014. [Transgender] young men: gendered subjectivities and the physically
active body. Sport, Education and Society, 19(4), pp.398-414.
Cunningham, G.B., 2019. Diversity and Inclusion in Sport Organizations: A Multilevel
Perspective. Routledge.
Eitzen, D.S. ed., 2000. Sport in contemporary society: An anthology. Macmillan.
Hargie, O.D., Mitchell, D.H. and Somerville, I.J., 2017. ‘People have a knack of making you
feel excluded if they catch on to your difference’: Transgender experiences of exclusion in
sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 52(2), pp.223-239.
Jones, B.A., Arcelus, J., Bouman, W.P. and Haycraft, E., 2017. Sport and transgender people:
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athletes. Current sports medicine reports, 15(6), pp.386-388.
Travers, A., 2018. Transgender issues in sport and leisure. In The Palgrave handbook of
feminism and sport, leisure and physical education (pp. 649-665). Palgrave Macmillan,
London.
Westbrook, L. and Schilt, K., 2014. Doing gender, determining gender: Transgender people,
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