#DeGenderSports: Stories By Transgender, Intersex And Nonbinary Athletes Reclaiming Sports
From legislative attacks preventing transgender youth from participating in sport to news outlets sensationalizing trailblazers – transgender and intersex athletes are repetitively scrutinized by mainstream narratives that paint bodies as controversies. To challenge this historic misrepresentation, #DeGenderSports centers firsthand narratives by 41 trans, intersex, nonbinary and queer athletes, and folks committed to gender equity in sports. These stories were narrated to Ragi, and first posted on Pixstory. If you’re an athlete who would like to share your story, email: ragiwrites@gmail.com.
Taylor Rey: As an athlete who transitioned, I had to learn my sport all over again
Aubri: Nature is very queer. Nature is not binary. I am a natural variation.
Mya Tshimanga: Everyone has a biological advantage, we’re never all the same
Wren: Strong women beat me before I transitioned, and continue to do so now
Cairo Nevitt: I describe myself as the Phoenix: "I can rise from the ashes"
Seraphim Sol: My wrestling and drag borrow from each other
Cal Dobbs: Articulating my trans identity as an athlete has cured my eating disorders
Keira: Nobody is going through a transition just to be better at sports than cis women
Tyler C. Wilde: Bodysurfing is inclusive as gender doesn't determine one's performance
Amanda Branch: In disc golf, there’s much discussion by cis men against trans women competing
Mason LeFebvre: We’ve absolutely had our asses kicked by cis women on multiple occasions
Julian: With transitioning it feels like my sport doesn’t want me in it anymore
Mateo A. Ventura Bruer: People think trans folks are a threat, when we’re just begging for scraps
Heart: Yoga is an expansive practice that helped me realize that I am not my body
Kay | My arms feel like spaghetti: It’s challenging to see HRT’s effect on my strength
Jessica: Anorexia and bulimia are a constant struggle. My transition doesn't feel like mine.
L: Finding connection to our bodies outside of dysphoria
Amazin LeThi: Bodybuilding helped me on my journey to love myself
Kirsten Beverley-Waters: With yoga, I recognized that I was denying so much of what made me myself
Cameron Beltrán: In martial arts, I found a piece of my humanity when I didn’t know I’m non-binary
Truth Future Bachman: When people see us embracing our joy, they go into a self-loathing spiral
Jimmy Staley: I’m not a ‘respectable’ queer: I will take my space and won’t take punishment for it
R: Your masculinity and physical attributes become a currency in the cricket world
Lyla Harrod: Rather than a wholesale buying of all womanhood, I’ve constructed my own
Finn Oliensis: The conflict in desiring masculinity in binary environments
Sarah Van Vooren: I hope that in the future, gender doesn’t influence whether you can play
Charlie King: My body has inherent value regardless of my gender presentation
Afton Blake Brooks: As a trans woman, I have to work twice as hard as a cis female for recognition
Toby: I was very upset about how running was taken away from me by medications
Alex Cruz: I knew how to wrestle before I knew how to walk
Robert Panico: It doesn’t take hormones to build muscles. It takes hard work.
Lara Schenk: Parents felt I was stealing a spot as a girl on the boys team
Jake Fedorowski: Lifting the weight that comes with being a nonbinary person in a binary industry
Sage Morrisset: Bodybuilding helps me create the body I want for myself
Eric Quallen: You don't see a lot of us trans athletes in the ultra distances
Jacob Sibley: Toxic masculinity and homophobia dominate martial arts spaces
Kamal-Craig Golaube: As a Black queer man, I didn’t find myself represented in college
Gautam | In basketball, I realized that I’m perceived as a ‘secondary gender’
Brianne Rose-Myers Brinker: I think we’re all indebted to Lia Thomas for what she’s been put through
James Rehnvall: It’s weird to have to sacrifice between transitioning and playing sports
