Athletes, College Sports

Because sports teams have historically been separated based on a binary understanding of sex, the question of which team a trans athlete can play on has challenged sports organizations (1) to develop policies that enable trans students to participate according to their gender identity and (2) to address how biologically based sex differences might affect their participation on sex-segregated teams. This question is particularly salient for trans women seeking to join women’s teams. Trans female athletes often face opposition, as well as an assortment of eligibility rules, depending on the steps they have taken as part of their transition, as well as where they live and their level of play. But both trans women and trans men are becoming more visible in collegiate athletics, which ...