The 2016 Rio Olympics have been known to be the gayest Olympics of all times with athletes proposing on the bench to coming out with cute and cheesy photos. According to an article of Outsport.com there are 50 openly gay athletes participating in the Rio Olympics arguably the highest number to take part in any such event.
All this is the curtsy of the latest development and changes in the society which has led to the recognition of gay, lesbian and bi individuals and their right to choose how to life and with whom. But in between all this acceptance and respect we forget a smaller faction of the LGBT community i.e. the trans-genders.
The exact number of transgenders in the world is unknown due to lack data for most developing and under developed countries. But an estimate puts them around 1% of the world’s population. When we talk about the representation of this 1% of the world population in the Olympics we come across only a couple of names. The two unnamed British athletes who transitioned form male to female will be competing in the female category and Chris Mosier, a duathlete (that’s running and cycling) who was chosen for Team USA for the 2016 World Championship. That makes it 2 unnamed trangenders in the 11,000 athletes competing in the Olympics because duathlon is not actually a part of Olympic.
The participation of the two British athletes was never in question as they had transitioned a couple of years prior to the Olympics complete with a hormone therapy and a gender reassignment surgery and had been completing in the female category since. The question still remained with respect to the participation of Chris Mosier as he had not undergone the gender reassignment surgery.
As far as history gone transgenders were not allowed to participate in the Olympics under male or female category because they lacked the anatomical features to qualify as only one of them. In 2004 a new regulation was passed that allowing trangenders who have gone through the gender reassignment surgery and the hormone therapy for 2 years prior to the Olympics they were to participate in along with the legal recognition of the changed gender were allowed to take part.
This regulation brought new hope for the transgender athletes for participation not only in the Olympics but also the national and other international level competitions which recognise IOC rules. But it still didn’t provide the equality that is needed for the equitable representation of the transgender community.
This changed when in 2015 Chris Mosier qualified to become the first transgender member of the US National Team for 2016 World Championship. There were questions as to whether he would be able to compete due to policies regarding transgender athletes. Mosier reached out to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Triathlon Union upon qualifying, challenging the rule requiring “full lower” sex reassignment surgery.
Thus starting a debate on the importance of anatomy. Joanna Harper who is currently a part of a team of advisors to IOC on gender based issues conducted a study on the transgender athletes both male to female and female to male. According to the study anatomy as such does not play a part in the performance enhancement or otherwise it was only the hormones like Testosterone that played a part in the performance enhancement but it is not known how much. Thus leaving the requirement to change the anatomical features for participation redundant.
Based on this study and the 2015 judgement of Court of Arbitration of Sports new guidelines were discussed in November 2015 and implemented in January 2016.
The guidelines leave no restriction for a trans man, like triathlete Chris Mosier, to compete against men. Allowing Mosier to participate in the World Duathlon Championships if the corresponding rules are changed in time.
According to Joanna Harper who also happens to be the chief medical physicist, radiation oncology in Providence Portland Medical Center, and also a trans “The new IOC transgender guidelines fix almost all of the deficiencies with the old rules,”. “Hopefully, organizations such as the ITA will quickly adapt to the new IOC guidelines and all of the outdated trans policies will get replaced soon.”
In addition to opening the door wide for trans men, the new policy removes the need for women to undergo gender-reassignment surgery to compete.
“The waiting period for trans women goes from two years after surgery to one year after the start of HRT,” Harper said. Which basically amounts for at least 3 years before a transwomen can qualify. The new guidelines provide for hormone theory and only 1 year of testosterone monitoring before qualification matches. This change is in consonance with the NCAA rules and is as good as it gets. According to Harper “The waiting period was perhaps the most contentious item among our group and one year is a reasonable compromise”.
But even after all this we are left with not a single openly trans athlete in Rio Olympics. Some trans athletes like Chris Mosier and Dr. Bobbi Lancaster stand as an inspiration for all the trans out there but there is still time before we see a openly trans participate in the Olympics.
By: Ananya Saroha
