In their own words

You have likely seen headlines about transgender inclusion in sports lately. But amid the discourse about what transgender competitors can or can't do, what often gets lost is their lived experience − what they are doing.

That's why Paste BN reporter Sammy Gibbons wanted to tell these players' stories differently. She wanted to share the perspective of transgender athletes and the laws, rules and health outcomes they encounter along the way. The result is "In Their Words," an exclusive four-part series by Gibbons for Paste BN about the champions and challenges within transgender athletics.

👋 Nicole Fallert here and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for Paste BN subscribers (that's you!). On today, Transgender Day of Visibility, we talk with Sammy Gibbons about her series that looks beyond the noise of lawmaking, rule-setting and health jargon to the embodied reality of transgender athletes.

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A different kind of visibility

A major theme in transgender athletics has been concern among cisgender (people whose gender aligns with their biological sex) athletes that anyone receiving hormone therapy would somehow unfairly advantage their competition, Sammy Gibbons said. But this perspective seems one-dimensional to Gibbons, who wanted instead to know: What do transgender athletes feel like when lifesaving hormone therapy is used against them — to alienate them from the sports they love?

Gibbons' interview as part of the In Their Own Voices series with former Harvard University swimmer Schuyler Bailar answered this complex question: "Testosterone isn't a magic juice that made (Schuyler) a better swimmer. But a whole series of changes were. With the hormone therapy, his mental health improved. Feeling better led to success. There's a whew slew of things that happen when people have access to the treatment they need that might make them better at their sport, but it isn't just because of this hormone."

Gibbons has reported extensively for Paste BN about the LGBTQ+ community. But stories about the challenges facing athletes who have a gender other than what they were assigned at birth kept coming up in her work, and she noticed these articles rarely heard from a transgender athlete directly. These players are often spoken about but never speak for themselves.

"We noticed in the coverage that we weren't hearing from the athletes themselves," Gibbons said. So she decided she would make a difference in Paste BN's approach. She reached out to transgender athletes on social media, and, after more than a year of research and interviews, has included their stories in a project that tells their side of the story In Their Own Words.

In addition to complicated attacks on hormone therapy, Gibbons has also been careful to point out that inclusion for transgender athletes begins within their teams. Cal Calamia, a runner, didn't feel as if they belonged on a men's or a woman's team and ultimately quit the sport they loved. Saying it's "unfair" for a trans woman to compete with cisgender women, Gibbons said, is misguided and ignores the diversity inherent to any competitive category.

"A cis woman can be way taller, or stronger than others, too," Gibbons said. "You can be defeated by anyone."

What Gibbons is really getting at is that any men's and women's categories in a sport have a range of different kinds of players already. So saying a particular person is too strong or too tall to fit into a women's category is highly subjective. And while some suggest creating third categories for transgender or nonbinary athletes, these can ultimately serve to "other" already-marginalized people or decrease competition because these groups are typically smaller.

Gibbons hopes that people learn from the series and that the stories provide a platform transgender athletes haven't always been given that appreciates their struggles as much as their victories.

"Paste BN hasn't done anything like this," she said. "I hope younger trans athletes see themselves in the stories these voices that have been missing."

Read the whole In Their Own Words series from Paste BN:

• Powerlifter Angel Flores wants people to understand these are frightening times for transgender athletes.
• The pool was safety for Schuyler Bailar. He wants it that way for other transgender swimmers.
• Cat Runner brought transgender representation to the sport of climbing.
• Runner Cal Calamia took on the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and won.

Thank you

I'm so proud to join other members of Paste BN's newsroom who are proud of Sammy's diligent and empathetic reporting. We hope these stories bring new light to the sports competitions you watch every day and bring new conversations about these competitors to light. Thank you for supporting our journalism with your subscription. Our work wouldn't be possible without you. 

Best wishes, 

Nicole Fallert