Trans* Athletes in Sport: Not Ceding to the Sex/Gender Binary of Gender Critical Feminism

Abstract

Debates over the position(ing) of trans* athletes in sport have been reignited in the last decade because of the confluence of broader political debates over the provision of rights of self-identification for trans* people with the International Olympic Committee’s decision to place responsibility for transgender regulations in the hands of international sporting federations. The effect of this confluence has meant a regressive shift back toward hard essentialism with regard to sex categories in sport. This paper challenges the politically powerful, yet romanticized and historically inaccurate, narrative that so-called gender critical feminists have produced to support this regressive move.