Mentor/s
Professor Amanda Moras
Participation Type
Paper Talk
Abstract
In recent years the issue of transgender rights has come into questions in many aspects of society. There has been discussion about transgender people’s role in the military as well as social issues such as bathroom regulations as well as athletic participation regulations. By simply searching “transgender athletes” in the news section of Google many very recent articles come up discussing this very controversial topics. Individuals and groups such as Martina Navratilova, USA Powerlifting and the International Association of Athletics Federation have all made statements both for and against transgender athletes competing in numerous levels of competition and in a wide range of different sports. For me this issue came up recently as I was attending the New England Indoor Track and Field competition. As I was watching the sprinting events, I noticed a woman who was significantly faster then the rest, she was winning races with more than a 1.5 second difference, which is short sprinting events is extremely significant. I later found out that she was transgender and had transitioned from male to female. Seeing her winning those races made me think about this issue and made me want to learn more about the biological, legal, and social aspects of this topic and from this form a more informed opination.
Specifically, I’m interested in investigating the biological aspects transgender people in sports, especially in regard to male to female transitions. I think that this is a significantly divisive point between people who support transgender athletes competing as their chosen gender as well as one major argument for people who believe that biologically, male to female transgender individuals are at a significant advantage when competing against other females in athletic competitions requiring specific physical traits.
I also want to branch away from the science field and look more into the social and legal aspects of this topic. I think that socially there are many issues of inclusivity of transgender athletes, especially in high school and college athletics, as well as questions of how these regulations affect young transgender athletes in their long-term social and psychological development. Finally, I think that the legal aspect of this issue needs to be discussed. Both on a federal and state level as well as in the governing bodies of the sports themselves.
Overall, I think that sports are a major part of society and the issues within sports branch out into many other aspects of society. Through looking more into the different perspectives on transgender athletes and their right to compete, I think many other aspects of this topic will be clarified, therefor indicating the importance of discussing and understanding this topic.
College and Major available
Exercise Science UG
Location
Panel M: University Commons UC 106
Start Day/Time
4-24-2019 2:00 PM
End Day/Time
4-24-2019 3:30 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Prize Categories
Best Multidisciplinary Research or Collaboration, Most Scholarly Impact or Potential, Most Meaningful
Policies Related to the Inclusion and Exclusion of Transgender Athletes for High Level Collegiate and Professional Sports
Panel M: University Commons UC 106
In recent years the issue of transgender rights has come into questions in many aspects of society. There has been discussion about transgender people’s role in the military as well as social issues such as bathroom regulations as well as athletic participation regulations. By simply searching “transgender athletes” in the news section of Google many very recent articles come up discussing this very controversial topics. Individuals and groups such as Martina Navratilova, USA Powerlifting and the International Association of Athletics Federation have all made statements both for and against transgender athletes competing in numerous levels of competition and in a wide range of different sports. For me this issue came up recently as I was attending the New England Indoor Track and Field competition. As I was watching the sprinting events, I noticed a woman who was significantly faster then the rest, she was winning races with more than a 1.5 second difference, which is short sprinting events is extremely significant. I later found out that she was transgender and had transitioned from male to female. Seeing her winning those races made me think about this issue and made me want to learn more about the biological, legal, and social aspects of this topic and from this form a more informed opination.
Specifically, I’m interested in investigating the biological aspects transgender people in sports, especially in regard to male to female transitions. I think that this is a significantly divisive point between people who support transgender athletes competing as their chosen gender as well as one major argument for people who believe that biologically, male to female transgender individuals are at a significant advantage when competing against other females in athletic competitions requiring specific physical traits.
I also want to branch away from the science field and look more into the social and legal aspects of this topic. I think that socially there are many issues of inclusivity of transgender athletes, especially in high school and college athletics, as well as questions of how these regulations affect young transgender athletes in their long-term social and psychological development. Finally, I think that the legal aspect of this issue needs to be discussed. Both on a federal and state level as well as in the governing bodies of the sports themselves.
Overall, I think that sports are a major part of society and the issues within sports branch out into many other aspects of society. Through looking more into the different perspectives on transgender athletes and their right to compete, I think many other aspects of this topic will be clarified, therefor indicating the importance of discussing and understanding this topic.
Students' Information
Ioana Kondareva - Exercise Science major with honors minor graduating in 2019