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Book part
Publication date: 5 December 2022

Lauren McCoy Coffey

After the first transgender athletes participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, some called for the immediate exclusion of transgender women in sports while others argue that this…

Abstract

After the first transgender athletes participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, some called for the immediate exclusion of transgender women in sports while others argue that this exclusion is discriminatory behaviour in violation of human rights law. Under current standards, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has sought to address the balance between fairness and inclusion by allowing eligibility to be decided on a sport-by-sport basis for all transgender athletes (IOC, 2021). What if an international federation or national governing body concludes that transgender athletes should be prohibited or subjected to rigorous conditions for participation? Would those qualifications stand up to legal challenge by an affected athlete? Will some athletes have better legal protection based on the location of their challenge?

The United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) have domestic legal provisions that protect transgender individuals from discrimination based on their gender identity whereas the European Union (EU) includes protections based on sex alone (Patel, 2021). This chapter will discuss transgender inclusion policies in Olympic sport and address how potential challenges to the policies will be handled in court using existing case law. Legal precedent in similar challenges is rare. However, when eligibility policies do not explicitly ban transgender athletes or appear to be a targeted response to a specific athlete or individuals, it becomes more likely that those policies will not be considered discriminatory. Courts are hesitant to interfere in a governing body's policies if that organization appears to have a legitimate reason for its sport governance decisions.

Details

Justice for Trans Athletes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-985-9

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Book part
Publication date: 9 November 2023

Estel Boix Noguer and Leslie K. Larsen

A number of anti-transgender bills were proposed in the United States during the first half of 2021, with several becoming laws. The passing of these bills has made it…

Abstract

A number of anti-transgender bills were proposed in the United States during the first half of 2021, with several becoming laws. The passing of these bills has made it increasingly difficult for trans people to gain access to lifesaving, gender-affirming healthcare and to participate in sport based on their gender identity rather than their sex assignment at birth. In light of these new laws, sport organizations such as the NCAA have made statements promising to support trans athletes. While these statements may promote awareness, in order for trans athletes to compete safely and openly throughout their collegiate careers, the NCAA must create policies and implement effective practices centred around trans inclusion. In this chapter, I (Estel, they/he) share my journey as a transgender student-athlete at an NCAA Division I university during the Spring 2021 season. During my collegiate athletic career, I felt both grateful for the chance to row and fear and frustration due to discrimination. Through memory work and participant case analysis, my co-author and I outline the ways that transphobic myths may have influenced my interactions with administrators, coaches and athletes throughout my collegiate athletic career and negatively impacted my wellbeing and performance. We also identify specific ways in which NCAA policies on trans inclusion are outdated and do not align with their expressed commitment to the well-being of trans student-athletes; we provide recommendations for changes to these policies. Further, we recommend trans-inclusive practices NCAA member institutions can implement to create an inclusive and empowering sports environment.

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Trans Athletes’ Resistance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-364-5

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Book part
Publication date: 5 December 2022

Richard Pringle and Erik Denison

This chapter critically examines the unprecedented 2020 decision by World Rugby's (WR) primarily male leadership (92% of board members) to ban transgender (trans) women from…

Abstract

This chapter critically examines the unprecedented 2020 decision by World Rugby's (WR) primarily male leadership (92% of board members) to ban transgender (trans) women from playing women's rugby union. We examined the process that was followed and found a lack of consultation with those directly impacted: women. To address this critical gap in the policy development process we conducted interviews and focus groups with cisgender female rugby players (junior to elite) of mixed ethnic backgrounds living in England, Canada and Australia. This was done with the support of rugby governing bodies and professional rugby teams. We found no support for WR's blanket ban. Rugby players felt the policy was a contradiction of rugby's claims it is a ‘game for all’. The minority of players with safety concerns supported exclusion on a case-by-case basis, with exclusion justified in a small number of narrowly defined circumstances (e.g. elite male players who transitioned recently). Importantly, the women and girls questioned why rugby's leaders had chosen to focus their energy on ‘protecting’ them from trans athletes but had ignored serious problems which cause them direct harm, such as a lack of funding, pervasive sexist and homophobic behaviour, sexual harassment, and substandard coaching and training facilities (relative to men). Our findings are consistent with and they support the position of women's sports organizations which have called on WR's male leaders to discard their blanket ban and undertake a rigorous, science-driven, collaborative policy development process.

Details

Justice for Trans Athletes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-985-9

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Article
Publication date: 11 June 2018

Jaclyn M. White Hughto, Kirsty A. Clark, Frederick L. Altice, Sari L. Reisner, Trace S. Kershaw and John E. Pachankis

Incarcerated transgender women often require healthcare to meet their physical-, mental-, and gender transition-related health needs; however, their healthcare experiences in…

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Abstract

Purpose

Incarcerated transgender women often require healthcare to meet their physical-, mental-, and gender transition-related health needs; however, their healthcare experiences in prisons and jails and interactions with correctional healthcare providers are understudied. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

In 2015, 20 transgender women who had been incarcerated in the USA within the past five years participated in semi-structured interviews about their healthcare experiences while incarcerated.

Findings

Participants described an institutional culture in which their feminine identity was not recognized and the ways in which institutional policies acted as a form of structural stigma that created and reinforced the gender binary and restricted access to healthcare. While some participants attributed healthcare barriers to providers’ transgender bias, others attributed barriers to providers’ limited knowledge or inexperience caring for transgender patients. Whether due to institutional (e.g. sex-segregated prisons, biased culture) or interpersonal factors (e.g. biased or inexperienced providers), insufficient access to physical-, mental-, and gender transition-related healthcare negatively impacted participants’ health while incarcerated.

Research limitations/implications

Findings highlight the need for interventions that target multi-level barriers to care in order to improve incarcerated transgender women’s access to quality, gender-affirmative healthcare.

Originality/value

This study provides first-hand accounts of how multi-level forces serve to reinforce the gender binary and negatively impact the health of incarcerated transgender women. Findings also describe incarcerated transgender women’s acts of resistance against institutional and interpersonal efforts to maintain the gender binary and present participant-derived recommendations to improve access to gender affirmative healthcare for incarcerated transgender women.

Details

International Journal of Prisoner Health, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-9200

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Article
Publication date: 5 August 2021

Elizabeth Goryunova, Anna K Schwartz and Elizabeth Fisher Turesky

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the workplace experiences and access to career-enhancing opportunities of transgender employees and to apprise…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the workplace experiences and access to career-enhancing opportunities of transgender employees and to apprise organization leaders of opportunities to create an all-inclusive workplace environment.

Design/methodology/approach

This phenomenological study used semi-structured interviews with transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in the US. Study participants (n = 12) varied slightly in racial and ethnic identities, the highest level of formal education completed and the industry sector they were employed at the time of interviews.

Findings

The data reveals a lingering presence of dominant narrative (cissexism) in US organizations and its adverse impact on workplace experience and access to career-enhancing opportunities of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. The participants’ narratives reveal recommendations for effective organizational practices for a transgender-inclusive workplace.

Research limitations/implications

The challenge of recruiting qualified participants from the marginalized group along with the selection criteria of English proficiency and legally adult age resulted in a relatively limited sample (n = 12) nevertheless adequate for the study.

Practical implications

Results of this study point at the urgent need to increase visibility and acceptance of the represented population and expand workplace diversity policies to create inclusive, just and equitable organizations for all individuals that will translate into job satisfaction and improved productivity.

Social implications

This study contributes to developing a culture of inclusion and prevention of discrimination in the workplace thus ensuring respect, safety and agency for gender minority employees.

Originality/value

This study contributes to a better understanding of workplace experiences, access to career-enhancing opportunities of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals and best practices for a transgender-inclusive workplace.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal , vol. 37 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 December 2022

Travers

While transgender people have had some success in gaining recognition and human rights in the collection of nations known colloquially as ‘the West’, a well-financed reactionary…

Abstract

While transgender people have had some success in gaining recognition and human rights in the collection of nations known colloquially as ‘the West’, a well-financed reactionary movement is attempting to roll back these gains. A constellation of white supremacist, conservative, and heteropatriarchal organizations and movements are in collusion with so-called ‘gender critical feminists’ to resist feminist and gender-inclusive challenges to traditional gender and sexual hierarchies by targeting trans girls and women – more so than trans boys, trans men and non-binary people – for surveillance and exclusion (Sharrow, 2021a, 2021b). In the past several years, bills designed to delegitimize and exclude trans people in various ways have been introduced in many US state legislatures. Within this larger anti-trans campaign, bills designed specifically to block trans girls and women from participating in ‘female’ sport have been signed into law in 11 US states to date and proposed in many others. It is no accident that organized sport is a site for contesting the inclusion of transgender people and that transgender girls and women are the primary targets of these campaigns. Debates about criteria for female eligibility and a succession of pseudo-scientific forms of ‘sex testing’ in elite levels of sport highlight both the ideological nature of the two-sex system and the intense material and cultural investment in maintaining its façade. In this chapter, I mobilize moral panic theory to focus specifically on anti-trans campaigns in the United States aimed at preventing trans girls and women from participating in ‘female’ sport as evidence of a testosterone panic.

Book part
Publication date: 27 October 2017

Megan Nanney

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to examine women’s college alumnae’s gender panics surrounding transgender admittance policies and negotiations on how to define the…

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to examine women’s college alumnae’s gender panics surrounding transgender admittance policies and negotiations on how to define the boundaries of the alumnae community in moments of these panics.

Methodology/Approach: I explore these negotiations by conducting a modified grounded theory approach of online discussion threads of one women’s college alumnae Facebook group from 2013 to 2016. These threads (39 threads; 2,812 comments) discuss transgender admissions policies at women’s colleges and the definition of woman more broadly.

Findings: I outline three strategies that define who belongs to a women’s college community in response to peers’ gender panics. First, I discuss the ways in which alumnae “call out hate” and label exclusionary peers as Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFS). Second, I discuss the negotiated boundaries of who is included within the women’s college community. Finally, I focus on the recommended suggestions and expectations for fellow alumnae to be allies toward their trans peers.

Social Implications: These findings imply that feminist boundary negotiation is not only simply based on external threats, but can also be debated among members within the community.

Originality/Value of Study: This study highlights the nuances and strategies of boundary construction in regards to the social category of woman. I propose that researchers expand theorizations of gendered boundary negotiation to consider the ways in which boundaries are drawn not only as a form of panic and exclusion but also as a response to such panics to promote inclusivity and diversity.

Details

Gender Panic, Gender Policy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-203-1

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 27 October 2017

Abstract

Details

Gender Panic, Gender Policy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-203-1

Abstract

Details

HR Initiatives in Building Inclusive and Accessible Workplaces
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-612-4

Book part
Publication date: 9 November 2023

C.B. Lucas and Matthew R. Hodler

Sport co-produces our notions of sex, gender and sexuality. Sport policies based on inclusion demand trans athletes become visible. This creates a problem within sport's…

Abstract

Sport co-produces our notions of sex, gender and sexuality. Sport policies based on inclusion demand trans athletes become visible. This creates a problem within sport's hierarchical gender order, and trans athletes' bodies become comprehensible only through mobility from one sex/gender to the other – literally the embodiment of movement through a static gendered space.

In this chapter, we examine the contradictory expectations placed on trans athletes to be visible within heterosexist, white supremacist ‘regimes of looking’ (Fleetwood, 2011). Our purpose is twofold: (1) to critically examine the construction of transness through white racial frames and (2) to grapple with the inherent harmfulness of sport. We ask why trans people would want to participate in an institution that actively limits opportunities for expansive subjectivity, ultimately concluding that the potential for queer futures lies in the very construction of limits themselves. We forward a belief in what sport could be when intentionally created through queer world building. We highlight teams, leagues and spaces that have developed processes that work against dominant forms of medicolegal recognition and visibility politics.

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