“Yes, I am a male on the females’ team, and I want to be clear about that,” says Kye Allums, the George Washington University baksetball guard who quietly (well, at first) became the NCAA Division I’s first openly trans player. “I’m a transgender male, which means, feeling-wise, how I feel on the inside, I feel I should’ve been born male with male parts, but my biological sex is female, which makes me a transgender male.” Kye, who started in 20 GWU games last year, averaged 7.4 points and 4.6 rebounds in 24.9 minutes and has a career-high 21 points in a 58-50 victory over La Salle.
mvps
Trans College Baller Kye Allums Is Awesomely Open About Being Trans
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Mike in Asheville
Snaps and more snaps.
Mike in Asheville
Snaps and more snaps. And however Kye works out the transformation, certainly one thing is for sure: Kye will always have “balls” bigger than basketballs! You go boy!
Baxter
You can’t have your cake and eat it too. It seems to me that he’s just picking whatever gender happens to be most advantageous at that moment. If you want to be male, you shouldn’t be able to play on the women’s team.
Lucas
@Baxter: Therein lies the difference between sex and gender. The reason why the sexes are separated in most sports is because of biological differences between males and females. Surely you wouldn’t suggest a transgender female should play on the women’s team?
He should be able to play the sport of his sex, regardless of his gender.
reason
@Lucas: Wow all these trans post I am becoming more aware of what should be obvious. Don’t mistakenly call a trans person by their biological name, and they see themselves as being of a certain biological sex but feel that their gender is different. Is that the norm for trans people or am I off? I always thought it would be offensive to mention their biological sex, thought most saw gender and sex as one in the same.
DR
@Baxter:
It’s an attempt to keep the scholarship; he plans on getting a radical double mastectomy before the next season starts but won’t take testosterone because he might lose his scholarship if he can’t play on the wmoen’s team.
If he wants to play as a man, then he needs to not go out of his way to skirt the system and play on a scholarship for female athletes. That’s the part that bugs me the most. He wants the scholarship for female athletes but demands to be known as a man.
fizzydrink
Gender identity should have no bearing on eligibility for sports teams. I assume it doesn’t, or hope it doesn’t. The only thing that should matter there is what chromosomes you’ve got (and your weight class, etc., if applicable). Otherwise, there’s the potential for unfair biological advantages.
Tori
@DR: Why do you care so much? He’s still physically female so it really doesn’t matter.
GrrrlRomeo
@Baxter & @DR: It’s complicated of course. Men have certain advantages in being male. And so we have these separate teams and scholarships for women to level the playing field.
However, being born as the sex you identify as with an aligning gender identity also has advantages. For example, such men and women have teams just for them. There are no trans men’s teams with scholarships. So how would being an openly trans man be advantageous in this scenario?
Aaron
@Baxter: He would be terribly disadvantaged if he played against cismales. His body hasn’t gotten the huge muscle-creating boost of testosterone which cismales get at puberty.
It’s not ‘having one’s cake and eating it too’- I’m sure he’d play on the men’s team if he could compete against them.