George Washington University last week announced that Kye Allums (formerly Kay-Kay Allums) will be allowed to continue to play on the Women’s Basketball Team. During her sophomore year, Allums began identifying as a male, but “is still biologically a female, and so will be able to continue playing on the women’s team—and to hold on to his scholarship.” We quoted part of that last statement directly from the Huffington Post because we couldn’t figure out how to write all the delicate “he/she” references!
So let’s review: Allums is a female who insists that she is a male and yet wants to continue to play on the women’s basketball team. A “transgendered male” is evidently in the process of obtaining hormone treatments and gender reassignment surgery and the George Washington University administration is patting themselves on the back for being so tolerant and inclusive.
So what about equity? Looking at the differences in physical size and strength between males and females, is it fair to have females playing on a male team or males playing on a female sports team? Throughout sports history, the answer to that question has been an unqualified “No” and there have been numerous policies and procedures put in place to prevent that type of inequity from occurring. But it appears we may be entering “a brave new world.”
If you read through “On the Team: Equal Opportunity for Transgendered Student Athletes,” you will read a rousing defense of transgendered individuals on sports teams with the “equity” question addressed like this:
“A growing number of transgendered youth are undergoing medically guided hormonal treatment prior to puberty, thus effectively neutralizing this problem [unfair advantage due to growth in long bones, muscle mass and strength that is triggered by testosterone]. Transgendered girls [males] who transition in this way to not go through a male puberty.”
“There is a great deal of natural variation in physical size and ability among non-transgendered girls and boys [don’t buy into stereotypes on physical ability and stature and the difference in sexes].”
Here’s our predication: You will have few, if any, transgendered males (females turned male) lining up to be on male sports teams. Individuals who claim the title of “transgendered” might lie to themselves and mutilate their bodies in a futile attempt to be something that every cell of their body screams they are not. But in the case of physical prowess in sports, biology simply won’t allow them that type of deceit.
This is a fictive world that these individuals, as well as those who pander to this type of tragic psychosis, live in. And if things continue this direction, we all may be forced to participate in their charade.
To see more articles on the topic of Transgendered or Intersex, go here.