Essay on Transgender in Sports

In the last several years the United States of America has shown progression towards equality for LGBT. With whole states being the frontrunners of support for LGBT rights it has become apparent that change is happening. In 2012 gay marriage was legalized in all fifty states, allowing many couples the ability to wed. Close friends of my mom were able to wed because of the law. Not only has there been steps taken for sexuallitys but, also for those who are transgender. In the last couple years the Transgender Community has seen discussion after discussion about the use of bathrooms. It has shown that there’s many who support trans bathroom rights and that the country is willing to move forward. Also on the chopping block of the transgender

When discussing injustices, it is pivotal--for the sake of true progressive social change--to include all oppressed groups into the dialogue. Transgender People tend to be heavily misrepresented and demonized. Because of transphobia, there

.3 percent of Americans are Transgender, though there isn't exact we estimate there is about 700,000 Trans people in America. When it comes to representation and protection this community is largely ignored. A common excuse for their exclusion is that they are too much of a minority to

According to Heather Skyes in her article “Transsexual and Transgender Policies in Sport”, the vast variety of genders that make up our society today including transsexuals and transgender are still not accepted into the world of sports due to anxieties from large sporting organizations. In our culture, there is a ‘binary structure’ which separates male from female. When a person is transsexual or transgender, the binary structure becomes challenged. There are so many exceptions to the binary structure, that it becomes nearly impossible to universalize “gender inclusive policies”. These individuals increase the ‘anxieties’ that Skyes suggests sporting organizations have, because transsexual and transgender people do not fit the norm.

It’s not hard to say that America has come so far into society and our freedom. How can our country forget when slavery ended in 1865 and gave women more rights in 1920. However, over time America has ignored the basic rights of transgender people. Transgender people are not any different from African Americans, or women. Why should they be treated any different, they're humans just like everybody else. They deserve the same basic treatment as a human rather than being treated like they're not from this planet. There are transgender people today who are getting harassed and tormented for just going into the bathroom for what they identify as. They should be able to go into a bathroom for which gender they identify as. Rather than making special bathrooms for transgender people that make them stand out and feel like they’re labeling themselves for using.

Brown, K. D. (2014). The transgender student-athlete: Is there a fourteenth amendment right to participate on the gender-specific team of your choice? Marquette Sports Law Review, 25(1), 311-328.

The United States is a divided society. We like to categorize ourselves according to political affiliation, race, and religion. We are members of the middle, low-income, or wealthy classes. We choose what seats to sit in during a football game according to the team we are rooting for. It is oddly comforting to know that you belong. All too often, however, transgender youth are denied that sense of ubelonging because they defy society’s categories of male and female. The gender binary divides society into two separate, unequivocal categories that marginalizes transgender youth and directly impacts their emotional health and well-being. Society’s collective response of demeaning, shaming, and violence further increases the divide.

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” (US Dept. of Education). The Education Amendments of 1972 and revised in 2015, including the Title IX segment assures transgender student-athletes obtain impartial, respectful and lawful access to collegiate sports teams based on current and legal medical knowledge. The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidelines regarding Title IX and transgender students that prohibit sex-based discrimination based on gender identity (FindLaw).

Next, male-to-female athletes have an unfair advantage when it comes to having a generally bigger skeletal frame. It is commonly known that men in general are designed to be stronger than women. This is largely due to their bigger bone structure and larger muscle mass. These two anatomical forces when energetically combined become powerful forces of speed, strength, and endurance which are all characteristics of a great athlete. Many transgender individuals choose to undergo hormone therapy to help change their appearance into looking more feminine or masculine. However, in the case of transgender athletes who desire to compete in the Olympics, the IOC has required male-to-female athletes to undergo two years of hormone treatment in

Sports are one of the great American pastimes, but the reality is that sports have encouraged a very distinct separation between males and females in the American society. The attitudes acquired through sports are learned on the field and breached into the real world to create conflict between the sexes. The issue of gender inequality goes far beyond the sports world, yet male dominated organizations form and support the sexes. With this separation of sexes we see the social and cultural strain on athletes participating in opposite gender sports, because society frowns on women participating in male dominated sports.

While the topic of gender has become a hot debate today in society, many people have doubts on whether or not transgender people should be allowed to play professional sports. More specifically, in the Olympics where recent changes in ruling have created various opinions on the topic. While there is great evidence for both sides of the argument, there is a physical advantage for transgender people in sports. There are both genetic structure advantages and hormone benefits that transgender athletes have over born athletes of their gender. The current rules in place were incorrectly made and has changed the Olympics future for the worse.

How does one define gender? Is it in terms of sex or is a distinct term with separate qualities and qualifications? In the past century, sports have wrestled with these questions on how to qualify and quantify gender. By addressing these issues, whether intentional or not, the sports world has certainly broken down some barriers to transgender equality. Nevertheless, there is certainly more work to do to further progress transgender equality in sports and arguably it is the moral obligation of the sports world to pursue such equality. Ultimately, transgender people should have the right to pursue competitive careers that match their gender identity.

In a lot of places around the world more and more people are coming out as “Transgender.” The term transgender means that the person’s gender identity does not correspond with the gender they were assigned as having at birth. From personally having a transgender boyfriend I have since realized that these people experience a lot of discrimination in and from society. Many people simply just do not understand what the term transgender means and they see it as someone just “wants to be a man” or “wants to be a woman.” While there may be people who present it this way, it is more so that the individual just “feels” different, and “feels” as if they are “in the wrong body.” Some people experience this feeling at a young age as my boyfriend did in his elementary age. We live in a world who put these people down for being who they truly are, and no human being wants or needs that.

This study reveals much about the attitudes that persist in society today regarding sport and gender. Early on, sport was created to serve men, evolving as a celebration of maleness, valuing strength, power, and competition. It idealized, promoted, and rewarded successful, elite athletes, established “the dream” as a professional career in sports, and viewed mass participation in sport as a tool to weed out the weak (Hill, 1993). In contrast, women’s sports originated to “address the expressed need for healthful exercise” (Huckaby, 1994). Unlike the competitive warrior mode

The unemployment of transgender people is high mainly because of the fact that they become unemployed since they decide to come out as the gender they truely feel which is the opposite of the sex they’re born with. Nineteen percent of transgender people are denied health care because of their gender and are becoming homeless, which will lead to more abuse once they enter a homeless shelter. Despite the fact that “gender equality” is mentioned in the laws of the United States, it isn’t necessarily true since there is inequality present when a transgender person is present in situations where they shouldn’t be discriminated or treated unfairly to begin with. For things such as going to the bathroom and putting up with being part of the fifty-three percent of transgender people who are verbally attacked to becoming a prostitute or a drug dealer just to get by with some money to survive and pay to transition to fit your gender expression, are issues that could’ve been avoided if the laws improved by explicitly adding transgender people to the list of those being protected in the law. The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act may say that people shouldn’t be discriminated or mistreated based on gender, but it is only most effective if the person is cisgender and not transgender. The discrimination and lack of protection is causing fourty-one percent are attempting suicide because they feel unprotected and therefore depressed, especially since they have no support. In order to diminish the amount of discrimination transgender people in the United States face everyday of their lives in aspects that leave them vulnerable, The United States needs to have laws explicitly stating that the rights of transgender people are being protected by the