The Importance Of Transgender Rights And Equality In Sports

At the elite level of sports, based on importance: men come in first, women in second, and transgender athletes do not make the podium. With social justice and equality growing in pop culture, the importance of transgender rights and equality are beginning to be acknowledged. Sport acknowledges this by looking for ways to be inclusive with transgender athletes, but it is questioned if fair play can be maintained (Reeser, 2005, p697). Transgender is an umbrella term defining those who identify differently from the gender or phenotypic sex they were assigned at birth; they identify as the opposite gender or as neither (Bianchi, 2017, p230). We need to recognize that sex and gender are different. Sex is defined by the biological chromosomes you receive; most commonly XY and XX. Chromosomes can vary. Gender is a social construct, created by society to define how you should act. This places individuals into categories, generally man or woman. When individuals do not identify by these categories or go against the categories they have been given, society often reject the individual or labels them as different. …show more content…
Intersex is a term that describing those who have a mix of male and female physical attribute; this can occur from chromosome or hormonal differences (Buzuvis & Sartore-Baldwin, 2013, p57). For example, someone could have external female genitalia and internal testes. We are acknowledging intersex athletes in this paper, because they face similar struggles and arguments stating why they should not be able to compete at the elite level of sport. Although, this paper will focus on a solution for transgender athletes specifically, resolutions may be further applied to intersex