Commentary: Masters Swimming Needs to Add Transgender Classification
By Jennifer Rines
This article is literally me begging for the world to allow trans kids to play sports.
I love sports so much. We all do. They’re so great. Wheeling my 84-year-old grandmother into Game One of the 2004 World Series to watch the Red Sox start their sweep of the Cardinals that ended their 86-year-old curse was amazing. Playing pickup tackle football with friends in the snow. Learning a brand new sport, soccer, with the people I worked with. Sports are fun, healthy, community-building activities that give life meaning for so many people.
Donald Trump and Stephen Miller and their minions decreed that trans people don’t exist. That we are delusional people intent on attacking the fabric of society. This just isn’t true. We do exist, and we want to be part of the world. I’ve made three wonderful kids. Done lots of good engineering work that saves lives. Volunteered my time to help others. I’m trying my best to make this place better. We have kids, jobs, hopes, dreams, just like everyone else.
I believe God made me trans. He made my brain just the same as he made my body. And my brain is a lot more amazing and wonderful than my body. I sure as hell don’t know why He made me trans. But that’s not my job. He’s in charge, not me. Being trans really isn’t that big of a deal when you’re on your own. It’s only a problem when other people get involved. Honestly, my gender is none of your business. It doesn’t impact you. It’s an issue between me and my God, who has told you explicitly you’re not the one who gets to pass judgement.
You might disagree with everything I’ve written above. You might think I’m going to hell and am delusional. I’m not begging you to agree with me that God made me trans or that trans people are just the same as you. All I’m asking is that you let us play.
Trump wrote something saying there are only two genders and trans people are attacking women. Then he wrote something saying we shouldn’t be allowed to play sports. Then the NCAA kicked all trans girls off their teams. So I went and swam a meet in Texas to protest and be visible. Then Texas sued USMS, USMS caved and kicked us out of there, too. Dawson Hughes called me twice to explain. There’s no explanation for exclusion. So I swam a meet and got excluded. I swam so hard that day – it had been so long since I’d been in the closet and I forgot the pent up frustration that exclusion and lack of belonging can bring.
Trans women are women. If we get some kind of competitive advantage from that, so be it. It surely isn’t a conspiracy. Let me know the next time you see someone 5’2” tall in the Olympic 50-meter final. But trust me I can see that many people think we are just delusional men and not women. It’s obvious by how hard it was to change my ID documents and be allowed to medically transition. It’s obvious when I answer the phone and people ask me incredulously if I’m really Jennifer. It’s obvious when I can’t use a public restroom or people misgender me or avoid me socially.
I’m not begging for full inclusion. I’m begging for separate but equal which we all know can’t actually be truly equal. I’m begging to let trans kids (me too, but I don’t really matter) play sports like swimming, running, biking and have our results count. These are individual sports with unambiguous measurable results. It’s us against a clock. Competitors are nice for motivation, but we’re not exactly lacking in that area. If you can’t accept us as one of you, then give us our own category and let us play.
We’ll swim in the men’s pool, the women’s pool, or you can force us into the diving well to swim alone. We don’t need 15 different five-year age groups. Just give us one big category with 18-year-olds swimming against 95-year-olds and let us show you there are enough of us to justify more divisions. Putting us in an open division swimming against men who don’t want to swim in the men’s division is just a method to erase trans women. Leave your existing men’s and women’s categories as is and give us our own grouping.
This isn’t a perfect solution. It doesn’t work for team sports. It leaves little competition at the local level. But it does allow trans women and girls to fully participate and have our times count. It does provide visibility that we exist and we are awesome. It does preserve the existing framework of recognition for cisgender athletes. It does allow data gathering to quantify any perceived advantages trans women may or may not have. It does allow immediate participation for all.
You might not think this matters. You might think there aren’t that many of us. One in 200 people are trans – do you know 200 people? And even if it’s just one person, just because they aren’t like you, they still matter.
I tried appealing to the meet referee, meet director, LMSC chair, Nation board of review, USMS board of directors, USMS CEO. I contacted my state and national representatives. I tried begging my fellow swimmers to convince USMS to change their policies. I tried finding a lawyer – ACLU, Lamda Legal, various civil rights lawyers to represent me. So many people expressed directly to me their support for trans people and their wanting us to have a way to play. And yet, no one was willing to put their foot in the ground and resist the authoritarian regime. This is as anti-democratic as things can be – to agree on a policy but be unwilling to protect civil liberties. It doesn’t matter if the fear is political retribution, jail time, financial repercussions, or personal standing within an organizational structure. I’ve been forced to file suit against USMS and the state of Texas legally asking for access to the sport I love.
None of that matters to trans kids who just want a chance to play a game. Trans people have nothing left to lose. I am literally begging all of you – please dear God – speak up. Tell USMS. Tell your politicians. Tell your boss. Most importantly, tell the trans kids in your life that they matter and they belong.
The above editorial was submitted to Swimming World for publication but does not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World or its staff.
