In class last week we talked about
transgender athletes and among them mentioned was Kye Allums. He is a
transgendered male who currently plays on George Washington University woman’s
basketball team. Allums is considered a transgendered male because he has
female parts but feels as if he should have been born male with male parts. He
is 21 years old and he is totally public about his sexuality. He is dedicated
to winning and helping out the team win as much as possible. In his pursuit of
this he hopes to inspire other transgendered people to come out and not be
afraid to be who they really are. Kye feels like a man does, both emotionally
and mentally. He is attracted to other females, which for most teams that might
cause some tension but since the other players have been playing with her since
the beginning they are alright with it. His plan once his eligibility at GW is
up is to have testosterone treatments and surgery to have male parts. Allums
original plan was to open up after the eligibility was up but due to remarks
from others that were calling him “her” and a “girl” was too much for Kye to
take anymore. He felt like he was living a lie so he had to come clean and tell
everyone how he really felt. Since coming out his coach has embraced him and
treated him no different than he did before.
The question of conflict here is whether or not he should be
allowed to play on the woman’s team if he is a male? If he was born a male then
there would be no question on if he could play on the woman’s team, it would
obviously be no. Let’s say there was a male, born with male parts, but was
transgendered female so he felt like he should be a female. Would he be allowed
to play on a woman’s team or should he have to play on the men’s team? What are
your thoughts? Should Kye Allums be playing on the woman’s basketball team?
RJ,
ReplyDeleteI do believe Kye should be able to play on GW's women's basketball team because she's not a male yet. She was born with female parts and therefore is just as much female as the rest of her teammates. If she had been born with male parts but felt inside that she was a female and should have female parts, then she obviously wouldn't be allowed to play on the women's team. However, Kye's case is different. She was born a female, and contains all of the female reproductive parts and therefore should be allowed to play on the women's team. In other words, her "feeling" of what sex she is shouldn't play a role on which team she belongs to.
-Chris Cournan
RJ,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you brought this subject up in a blog. I found this situation very interesting, and I think the NCAA did the right thing by letting Kye play for GW's women's basketball team. However, to answer your question about a male that is born with male parts thinking that he should really be a female and want to play with and against females atheltes I think is wrong. If he has the same physiacl features as males, he should have to compete against males. I really don't think they're any acceptions in my opinion, unless he had a sex change. At that point I would think it's up to the NCAA to decide if they should be allowed to play against females.
-Brett Creamer
RJ,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic for you to bring up in a blog! This is a very good topic to begin a strong discussion and I appreciate it for that. But, I believe with Brett by saying that the NCAA did the right thing by letting Kye play for the Woman's Basketball team. Kye no matter the situation and everything that goes along with it is still a woman. I must admit, I am not too knowledgable on this situation or circumstances with transgender people, but what I don't understand how you can just choice what sex you want to be! It is not as if I could wake up tomorrow morning and decide from now on I am a woman. This world does not work like that! It is simply a confusing topic for me and something I do not understand! If you someone could explain it to me a little better that would be great! Thanks!
Nathan Riley
RJ,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic for you to bring up in a blog! This is a very good topic to begin a strong discussion and I appreciate it for that. But, I believe with Brett by saying that the NCAA did the right thing by letting Kye play for the Woman's Basketball team. Kye no matter the situation and everything that goes along with it is still a woman. I must admit, I am not too knowledgable on this situation or circumstances with transgender people, but what I don't understand how you can just choice what sex you want to be! It is not as if I could wake up tomorrow morning and decide from now on I am a woman. This world does not work like that! It is simply a confusing topic for me and something I do not understand! If you someone could explain it to me a little better that would be great! Thanks!
Nathan Riley
I agree with what Chris said about how her "feeling" shouldn't dictate what sex she is and that since she was born with female parts she should be able to play on the GW Women's basketball team. This situation is probably going to be very rare over the years, Kye is the only person I have heard of who is transgender in the NCAA.I feel like it's hard to judge whether or not Kye should be able to play but based on the fact that she has female parts I would say that is the evidence you need, and it also isn't like Kye can help that he was born this way. I don't know how else you could judge what sex someone is to play a sport better than the most simple way.
ReplyDelete-Joey D'Agostino
I think he should be able to play on the female team because he is at the same playing level as females. He still has all the same female parts and testosterone as the females, the only difference is his mental and emotional state. I don't think that would play a big difference in his abilities on the basketball court. Then, I agree that a male should not be allowed to play on a female team. Only because the males athletic built would be too much of an advantage.
ReplyDelete-Jacob Beverly
RJ,
ReplyDeleteLike the consensus here, Kye should be allowed to play on GW women's basketball team because she is a women still, not a male. Regardless of what her preferences are or what she thinks she is/wants to become, she's still a women and that should not be disputed. However, like you asked, if she was born a male then obviously it should be the men's basketball team because he has the male advantage in his physical body. These transgender topics will be debated for a long time (like castor semanya) and I think people just need more education on the subject. People are more hesitant to things they don't fully grasp/understand.
Nate Dudzik
RJ,
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting blog, and it reminds me of the one about Renee, with only a few other details being different. I guess Kye should be eligible to play on the George Washington University woman's basketball team. The situation was different for Renee because she already had surgery and testosterone treatment, so she was technically a woman when she entered the Women's U.S. Open. Since Kye is still a woman I guess she should technically still be able to play on the women's team. Now when Kye gets the testosterone treatment and surgery done, I think he should be able to play on the men's basketball team if that's what his plans would be. I think if anyone, male or female, got surgery done and took testosterone treatments, then after time they should be able to play for the opposite sex that they used to be. There would need to be tests done to confirm a complete sex change, but after that they should be able to compete in sports as a transgender male or female depending on what sex they used to be.
-Kody Burlingame
RJ,
ReplyDeleteThis post was very good. To answer your questions, if a male was born as a male with male part and felt as if he should have been a women they should be able to play with women. As Kye is doing is going to go through treatments so she could play with men. The young lady in this situation should go through the treatments and try it out. The only thing about this is that I feel it will be much harded for society to accept her rather than for Kye. I hate that society categorize life in this way but thats how it is. So if the young lady goes through the treatment and able to play she should play.
-Sparkle
RJ,
ReplyDeleteI think that Kye should definitely be able to play on the woman's team only because she was Born with female body parts, at the end of the day, that still makes her a female. The only way Kye should be playing on the men's team is if he went through with the treatment then he officially had male body parts. It is kind of weird how it works like that.
-Turea Moore
I think whether you consider yourself a female or male then anyone should be able to play on any team. Now, whether or not they get play time then that would be up to the coach and how well the player is playing. From my individual experience, I like playing with the boys just because they push me to be more aggressive and I have to step up my game. Plus, I like their outlook on the game more than I like a girl's outlook on the game.
ReplyDeleteSam Melchor
RJ,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your post I found it ironic that this hadn't been bigger national news. In my opinion a huge part of that is he isn't dominating women's basketball. I feel that if he were much better than all the girls, this would be a serious issue. I compare this to Caster Semenya. We heard about her because she was winning and causing controversy. I find it sad that people only seem concerned with the issue based upon how the athlete is fairing in competition. There should be an international standard set on this issue; such as a transgender athlete should be able to play on a women's team without any problems. This would stop confusion and get rid of this continuing trend of controversy.
Wes Gates
I agree with Wes. Media coverage makes such a big impact in today's sports. I wish this issue had more coverage, or even stories such as Holly Mangold's positive self-image. All of the media focus seems to be directed towards mainstream sports issues, and not enough on special interest cases.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Loomis
I agree with the above posts that kyle should be allowed to play for the GW women's basketball team and this this topic is very intriguing and controversial. I feel that kyle playing collegiate women's basketball is a very tough task because of the ridicule that he could face. Student sections at college games can be very harsh and the verbal abuse could be outrageous. I agree with Wes's comment about if there were more media coverage this would in turn be a highly controversial topic.
ReplyDeleteOllie Goss
This is a very controversial topic, but very intriguing. I agree that he should be allowed to play for the women's basketball team. There is no doubt that it has to have been hard on him, especially keeping it a secret from his coaches, teammates, and people who trust him. I'd be interested in finding out how other teams feel playing against him. Do they feel like they have any disadvantage? There is no doubt that student sections can be harsh especially when playing conference opponents. Any way you look at it this is a very sensitive issue.
ReplyDelete-Derek Brewer
This topic is very interesting. I think, he should be able to play at women's team. However, whatever he want to have male/female parts, he can choose place, and if he want to play male's team, he can play at there. Also, he was born female body parts that he still makes female. Thus, he can choose where do he want to play.
ReplyDelete-Junho Song-