This week, 27-year-old Cal Calamia, a nonbinary transmasculine track and field and cross country athlete received a therapeutic use exemption for his gender-affirming medication from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Assigned female at birth, Calamia competed in track sports since middle school and several years in college under female divisions. In 2016 Calamia stopped competing, cutting his hair, and began questioning his identity; 3 years after Calamia began hormone replacement therapy and had “top” surgery removing breast tissue making his chest more masculine. Calamia now competes under male and nonbinary divisions for running events.
This July Calamia received a notice from USADA addressing his use of the hormone testosterone as a potential performance-enhancing drug. USADA works to prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs in athletics across the United States up to the world and Olympic levels. This forced Calamia to apply to USADA for a therapeutic use exemption in order to prevent being barred from the sport and future events. Calamia’s exemption has been seen as a large victory for the nonbinary and transgender community. On the other hand, Calamia doesn’t view his use of testosterone as doping, he sees it as medically necessary and gender-affirming.
USADA’s approach/approval may have been different if the exemption was for gender-affirming medication for a male born competing amongst females. There is much more controversy on this side of transgender athletics such as swimmer Lia Thomas. Thomas transitioned her junior year of college. With transitional medication, Thomas’ times dropped, but she proved to be more successful against her female competition, in 2022 being ranked 65th in men's and 1st in womens. This caused the International Swimming Federation (FINA) to ban transgender athletes from swimming in the women's division unless given athlete could prove that they have not undergone male puberty. I believe many sports federations will implement rulings similar to FINA’s to maintain competitive integrity. A possible but unlikely solution would be the creation of nonbinary divisions at all levels for all sports.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/507023/say-birth-gender-dictate-sports-participation.aspx
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12605063/U-S-Anti-Doping-agency-grants-San-Francisco-trans-man-27-taking-testosterone-prohibited-potentially-performance-enhancing-drug-runners-exemption-compete.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/10/06/trans-nonbinary-runner-testosterone-exemption/
6 comments:
I feel like you tackled a controversial topic quite well here. Although I know that transgender athletes compete in genders that are different than what they are assigned from birth, this is the first I've heard of a transmasculine athlete competing in the male division. I feel like this would be less controversial than a transfeminine athlete competing in the women division because there is still a significant competitive edge as a transfeminine athlete competing in the women's division. In the swimming world, there was significant controversy as Lia Thomas went from competing in the men's division to the women's division. She went from being a run of the mill swimmer, ranked around 500th, to a NCAA individual champion. Many swimmers were upset at this, and on one occasion she took away a podium spot of a swimmer she tied with, many saying that this only happened because she was transgender. I am not supporting or disagreeing with her competition in the women's division, but it is significantly different from transmasculine in the men's division. And I agree with what you said at the end; there isn't a significant edge that transmasculine competitors. I'm not sure how sporting associations will handle this: at the moment there doesn't seem to be a clear-cut and popular solution.
Appreciated the post regarding the sensitive topic of transgender athletes. I agree with much of what you said here, but also wanted to introduce another issue that is addressed with Calamia's USADA approval of testosterone use: the invasiveness of it. Curious about your blog, I read into the Washington Post article. It states that "athletes who use medically prescribed testosterone to treat hypogonadism, a condition where the body does not produce enough of the hormone, are not required to submit psychological records when seeking an exemption." The use of testosterone itself is well-enough normalized by cisgender athletes. It is only in Calamia's case, the case of a transgender athlete in which its use was questioned. Calamia's entire need for testosterone was questioned. His psychological records was necessary for approval of his exemption, a requirement that most are not subjected to. This clear distinction about establishing a cause for testosterone usage in only transgender athletes feels discrimatory. What about the Calamia's right, and the right of other transgender athletes like him, to privacy?
While Calamia does not have an advantage in his sport, he has a disadvantage being of smaller stature, having a smaller muscle mass, and so on. The general public does not seem as concerned with this inequality as they are with male-to-female transgender athletes competing in women's sports. This inconsistency speaks more to America's discrimination against the transgender community than the public's passion for sportsmanship. There is not as widespread of a complaint for taller people to have a different league in basketball which is a purely genetic-based advantage like Lia Thomas' sex at birth. While I do recognize how sex has a larger impact than height or hemoglobin levels, these other genetic factors illustrate how sports cannot be designed to be completely fair which is why I believe this debate is more about accepting transgender identities than fairness in sports.
I agree with your approach on this complex topic. While I was looking into the Daily Mail article, I saw that Cal Calamia supported the creation of nonbinary division. Since there is already seperate divisions for male and female devisions creating a nonbinary division for athletes who have transistioned would create less complications with the use of hormones. Being supported by trans athletes highlights how this idea is well recieved by some of those that would be this decisions. Though I do agree with your statement that Calamia is competing at a disadvantage so there is no real reason that he should not be allowed to compete within male races.
I think that the topic of transgender people in sports is extremely difficult to elaborate on for multiple reasons, so I applaud you for taking a stance on this issue. One thing in your post I found especially interesting was the idea that the consequences of a transgender woman joining female sports divisions are much more severe than the consequences of a transgender man joining male sports divisions. In the big picture, yes. This makes sense. The physical capabilities of testosterone-filled bodies are clearly and scientifically proven to be more than biologically female bodies. However, politically speaking, I believe that both circumstances should get an equal amount of attention from the media and from organizations working to find solutions to this problem. While some may not agree, saying that transgender males impact the sport league less, I see both people as equals. Why should we put more effort into a certain group of people simply because they are “better” or more athletically capable than a different group of people? This can also loosely be related to the fight for equal pay in womens’ sports (as the US Women’s National Soccer Team fought for), in which the main argument for unequal pay was that the skill level of the women’s team was less than that of the men’s team. The team had achieved equal pay after years of fighting for it, proving that gender equity is attainable, even in different circumstances. Another question I want to bring up is the presence of the issue of transgender people in sports in government policy, both state and nationally. Why are such policies so muddied? It feels like large organizations should be putting more effort into reaching equitable standards for all people in sports. I can’t help but think that this issue is less prevalent in the government simply because such a small percentage of athletes are transgender, causing administrations to place less value on their problems.
Quite insightful commentary on a recent event. As Olivia had mentioned, people have other advantages in sports other than their biological sex or their testosterone levels. People are varied by nature, and no person can be exactly the same as someone else. Therefore, there is no "fair" way to play sports. Even if we somehow made everyone equally physically capable, then only mental advantages matter. For examples, in basketball, People who mentally process faster would be at an unfair advantage. There is no way to regulate for fairness.
Cal Calamia's exemption, as Chin-yi said, was also invasive and difficult to obtain. They have been constantly questioned and put under scrutiny for something others would have just for being transgender. However, I believe that progress is being made here. As hard as it is to obtain a medical transition in many states, I appreciate that their gender is being respected among athletics, which will hopefully make it easier for other transgender athletes to qualify for an exemption.
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