Duke It Out: NCAA’s First Transgender Player

November 5, 2010 9:00 am     Posted in Features, Reality  Lauren H - The New School g+ page

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like is photoshopping wrong!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]


By Lauren H

Recently Kye Allums became the first publicly transgendered student-athlete in NCAA history to play as a male identifying player on the George Washington University women’s basketball team. It’s a big step for transgendered athletes everywhere and first off I have to say kudos to him. Still, with any kind of groundbreaking change like this, some questions arise, and it’s time to weigh in.

The big, obvious question, of course, is where does Allums belong in the sexually segregated world of college basketball? Though he hasn’t yet undergone gender reassignment, Allums does plan to have the surgery over the summer before returning for his senior season. He has no plans to take testosterone, and therefore won’t have any hormonal advantage over the other players on the women’s team, so it seems as though it shouldn’t be an issue. But on a very base level one has to wonder how things are going to be affected. Obviously it would be unfair to expect Allums to play on the men’s team, because of the physiological differences including the lower testosterone levels, but at the same time, he is essentially a man playing on the women’s team.

What do we do with that? Where does that leave the lines that have been set up by the sport’s governing body?

If the only factor allowing Allums to remain on the women’s team even after gender reassignment is the different hormone levels, then should we allow men with similar lower levels to compete in the women’s leagues? Or what about women with very high testosterone levels? Should they be allowed onto the men’s teams? Where do Allums and other student-athletes like him belong in the world of college sports?

What do you think? Should Allums be kept off of the women’s team or is it time for college sports to recognize that there’s more to gender than genitalia? Duke it out!

12 Comments on "Duke It Out: NCAA’s First Transgender Player"

  1. Victoria says:
    Fri, 5th Nov 20104:56 am 

    I'm sure this is an issue that will come up within the school board… I can just see if parents/community members see Allums doing well on the team they will say he has an unfair advantage.. but once you bring up the point about men with low testosterone on the women's team and vice versa, it can get confusing. Would be interesting to know the opinions of his teammates. I think if this is the team he has played with all along, he should continue with them.

  2. Anne says:
    Fri, 5th Nov 20107:40 am 

    I don't really know what to think about this personally, but it will be interesting to see where it ends up. "advantage" in this case is a hard thing to judge… it might well be that this does give an unfair advantage…but then again it might not… this will be interesting, and I hope college candy will do an update if anything else pops up about this particular situation.

  3. Rachel says:
    Fri, 5th Nov 201011:27 am 

    wait im confused…if she decided she wants to be a guy, why is he still on the womens team?

  4. Bianca says:
    Fri, 5th Nov 20103:11 pm 

    Because she is still a female. She still has female sexual organs, and has no plans (that we know of) of having a sex change, so thats why she's still on the women's team, despite identifying as male.

  5. criolle johnny says:
    Sat, 6th Nov 201012:32 pm 

    So … what happens when, inevitably, a biological man wants to be identified as a woman and wants to play on the female teams?

    What happens when a biological man wants to be identified as a woman and interview the female players in the locker rooms?

    If that person is allowed to interview the female players, shouldn't the other male reporters be allowed in the locker rooms?

    Thank you Inez Sainz.

  6. Annie says:
    Tue, 9th Nov 201012:31 pm 

    If he wants to be a guy, he should have to play on the mens team, at least after he gets the gender reassignment surgery because at that point he will technically be male

  7. Annie says:
    Tue, 9th Nov 201012:31 pm 

    It said he did have plans for a sex change before senior year

  8. Michael Scott Hertzberg says:
    Tue, 9th Nov 20101:01 pm 

    I'm assuming you're trying to make a point about a biological man identifying as female to interview female players in a locker room as perverted? If the man decides to have gender reassignment surgery to identify as a female, I doubt they're going to have much interest in vagina and vice versa.

  9. Matthew says:
    Fri, 12th Nov 20109:52 pm 

    After the gender reassignment surgery, especially as he does identify himself as a man, he should play on the men's team.

  10. Christine says:
    Wed, 24th Nov 20105:07 pm 

    I'm one of those weirdos who thinks sports should be about fun, not about giving everyone a hormone test to make sure they fit the perfect definition of a male or female or else accuse them of cheating because of how their body works.

    Saying that, I think he should be on the men's team. I've known a number of trans athletes who have suffered a ton of discrimination from the policy makers… but rarely from their own teams. I just think it's pretty dumb to exclude a person from following their dream just because that person is transgender or their hormones aren't in the "perfect" range or any other reason.

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