I don't have a perfect answer for what’s preventing sports from being transformed into a space of comfort as opposed to surveillance, but I think sports are a magnified environment of society. Whatever society's morals and ethics are, they're magnified in a competitive athletic space. So if we exist in a sexist society wherein women of color, trans people, nonbinary and trans people of color experience significantly lower access to certain resources, over time that’ll be magnified in a competitive sports environment.

Watching and partaking in sports goes back to our primal needs as human beings. Exercise, competition, healthy communication, working together as a team – all these things are part of human existence that can lead to creating equitable human structures.

As a nonbinary person, curling has been hugely gender-affirming for me. I get to exist in sports and understand that my body has inherent value, athletic value, and community-driven value, regardless of my gender presentation and my identities. Regardless of where I am in my transition, I get to understand that my body is capable of existing in an equitable way with others.

It goes back to understanding how bodies are given value in society. In that very specific curling space, no body has more or less value than another. That inherently challenges any cis-heteronormativity outlined by societal standards. We might expect those hierarchical norms to be applied to every space, but we also challenge them by merely existing.

Curling certainly has been a euphoric space because it's been a space where I can exist without having to question my every decision about my gender identity, because it was sort of moot. That ability to distance from societal understandings and perceptions was inherently euphoric. Not because it was inherently positive, but because it was non-negative.

The spirit of curling and its potential to be a de-gendered sport

I started curling in college, where I joined the Harvard curling team as a fall freshman. It was an inclusive and wonderful space to be a part of. I've been president for two and a half years, and I'm also the national representative for college curling on the USA college curling governance board. It's really exciting to be a trans curling representative at the national level.

Curling has a really beautiful opportunity to be a de-gendered sport. I think it's a combination of two factors: the spirit of curling, and the de-gendered way in which the sport is constructed.

The spirit of curling is this idea that we lead with kindness and respect towards one another. If you make a misstep during a game or do unsportsmanlike conduct, you correct yourself.

In terms of the sport’s construction, curling at the college level is open regardless of gender. I compete as a nonbinary person and that doesn't matter. At the national level or any competition in college, you can field a team of four people who can be of any age, gender identity, gender presentation, or sexuality. We get this unique situation wherein we have teams of completely varied gender makeups including nonbinary and trans athletes, who have no obligation to disclose their gender identity to compete at a national level.

When you look at track and field, a bigger, taller, stronger body is considered important. And in the way that we gender bodies today, some bodies are considered to be less built for a certain sport.

But in order to succeed at curling, there's no ideal body type and you actually need a range in order to have the best outcome.

We can seek community in untraditional, inclusive ways

Creating a space where I as a trans nonbinary person felt secure, meant that there were other people who were in a similar space. My team has had trans representation on it for a long time, and I'm grateful for that. A lot of other teams can create those same equitable spaces and have opportunities to do the same.

At every level from recreational to internationally competitive, we need to create spaces that do not rely on socially constructed gender ideas. The more spaces we have, the more we will begin to unpack the culture of gender in sports.

Curling has a unique opportunity, especially at the college level, to completely de-gender itself because of the way that it is inherently built.

I think the next steps for us specifically, are to foster environments and cultures that are trans and nonbinary-inclusive and lead. We can almost advertise curling spaces and understand that they are a fully accessible, trans and nonbinary-inclusive environment where you can compete nationally, which is really unique right now.

I want to make this accessible and to get the word out so that people can play with us and experience the same security in whatever identities they hold, trans or otherwise. For trans+ folks who are craving community, that community doesn't need to come necessarily from trans-specific spaces. It just needs to come in trans+ inclusive spaces.

Curling is obviously focused on curling, it's not focused on trans folks. But it does have a significant population of trans+ people, and it's part of the culture, at least in my experience.

So we can seek out community in untraditional inclusive ways.