Photo by Jai-La Aponte.
It’s no secret that LGBTQ+ students face different obstacles, struggles and fears in their academic careers, life experiences and relationships. The story arc of questioning their identity, coming to terms with who they are, choosing to come out or not to the never-ending task of self-love and acceptance is one that is tiresome, emotionally laboring and terrifying for the individual. For transgender and non-binary students, athletics is not often a talk of conversation the way housing, inclusive language and bathrooms are discussed. In addition, education, resources and safe spaces are scarce in transgender student athletics. That being said, what protections and policies are in place for transgender and non-binary student athletes?
The NCAA Policy on Transgender-Student-Athlete Participation covers transgender student-athletes in regards to what team they can and cannot play on, dependent on whether or not they have medically transitioned. The NCAA published their “NCAA Inclusion of Transgender Student-Athletes” in 2011, which includes an overview, recommendations for trans-inclusive policies and trans student-athletes, terminology, resources and more.
To really get the best understanding of what it means to be a trans/non-binary student-athlete at WCU, I talked to two students who actively participate in our marching band and asked for their input regarding their experience. While marching band is not a NCAA sport, the conversation between the two students is still valid in their experience being transgender and playing a sport, though it is not NCAA regulated.
Sylvan Hiltke, (he/they) third-year environmental health major and River Michael, (she/her) second-year music therapy major, are both in colorguard for the WCU Marching Band and have been involved in the guard since the start of their careers at WCU.
Both marching band and colorguard are gender-inclusive sports, so I asked Hiltke and Michael about how that makes marching band, specifically the color guard, different from other sports.
“It’s a little bit different than [a] sport sport, like it is a sport for sure, but I feel like there’s still plenty [of] problems. But, I feel like accommodations and stuff are a little bit different in color guard,” says Hiltke.
Michael agrees: “It is a gender-inclusive sport, but there’s still issues with it.”
‘Navigating the world of sports is very different for a trans athlete than a cis athlete.’
Hiltke is also involved in club fencing and was able to give some insight on how sex and gender affect the type of protective equipment an athlete must use: “If you’re a cis[gender] woman [a person whose assigned gender at birth matches their gender identity], you have to wear chest protectors, and it’s like a mandated thing. If you’re trans-masc[uline], you have to wear those for a certain amount of time into your medical transition. I want to say it’s [for] two or three years; it’s a really long time, and that’s if you don’t get top surgery. And then if you’re trans-femme [feminine], cis[gender] men don’t have to wear chest protectors, but if you’re trans-femme, you don’t have to wear them until you’re a year or two into your transition.” Similar to marching band and color guard, club sports are not under the NCAA, therefore do not have the same regulations, but this is a representation of transgender/non-binary student-athletes on WCU’s campus.
Upon my research of protections and policies in place for transgender student-athletes at WCU, I was disappointed to see a lack of acknowledgement of trans student-athletes on the university athletics website and the university website. The NCAA handbook stressed the importance of transgender student-athletes having such policies on college campuses: “School-based sports, even at the most competitive levels, remain an integral part of the process of education and development of young people, especially emerging leaders in our society. Adopting fair and inclusive participation practices will allow school and athletics leaders to fulfill their commitment to create an environment in which all students can thrive, develop their full potential and learn how to interact with persons from diverse groups.”
Trans resources can be found on the university website which covers housing, name changes, the preferred name policy (enacted this semester) and bathrooms, but the fact that there is a complete absence of the inclusion of trans athletes on the athletics website and within their policies is unsettling. Because more transgender people are feeling safe and able to come out, the population of trans individuals is rising, meaning there will need to be more room for accommodations. “I know of a lot of people who are like, ‘Yeah I play like … football,’ or ‘I play a sport that’s sex separated and I don’t wanna come out ‘cause then that would be a problem in general,’” says Hiltke. “Mostly in high school I’ve heard about that, but I see that happens in college too because you still have sports in college.”
When asking Hiltke and Michael if there was anything they would want people to know about being a transgender/non-binary athlete and how it’s vastly different from being a cisgender athlete, Michael answered, “It’s a lot of just like, kind of a guessing game and hoping people are gonna react the way that you want them to about what you want to do with [the sport], and there’s so many different nuanced layers of what would be ideal, what the trans athlete is comfortable with, and then also what the administration is willing to let them do. All of that is just going through the trans athlete’s mind. It’s kind of stressful.”
Hiltke agreed with Michael: “Navigating the world of sports is very different for a trans athlete than a cis athlete because even though trans men are men and trans women are women, there’s still the whole trans thing. And even though it shouldn’t be a[n] issue, it is, and that makes navigating the world of sports, and the world of color guard for us, and the world of everything, a lot more different to navigate as River said because there’s so much going through the trans athlete’s mind to try and figure out [how] to calculate what they’re gonna do next.”
Although WCU has successfully implemented the preferred name policy, has gender-inclusive housing opportunities and support from on-campus resources and student organizations, there is a gap in implementing programs in the athletics department to include trans and non-binary individuals. The complete lack of mention for transgender and non-binary athletes in WCU’s policies while the NCAA published an entire informational booklet on transgender student-athletes leaves me to question why policy is only now catching up with name policies, let alone ones for transgender athletes should they want to play a collegiate sport at WCU.
My hope is that in future years to come, WCU will continue to improve their support for trans and non-binary students in every aspect, especially in athletics. There is still more work to be done regarding policy and inclusion on WCU’s campus in order to protect and advocate for trans and non-binary students attending WCU in every stretch of involvement. By addressing the needs and concerns for transgender students, we can better accommodate and advocate for the livelihood and quality of their experience here at WCU.
Jai-La Aponte is a fourth-year student majoring in English and minoring in creative writing. JA918974@wcupa.edu