[Commentary] [USA] Transmissions: An Olympic moment

[Stephanie Stevens]

Bay Area Reporter, CA, USA


NEWS

Transmissions: An Olympic moment

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Published 06/28/2012


On July 27 in London, the Games of the XXX Olympiad will begin. It
will be the usual mix of pageantry, sportsmanship, and likely a dash
of scandal. If Keelin Godsey had had his way, he would have been the
first out transgender man to compete in the Olympics.

Godsey hoped to be a part of the United States track and field team,
and while he would have been competing in the women's hammer throw, he
identifies as male and plans to undergo surgery sometime after the
trials.

A lot of news agencies have reported Godsey, 28, as aiming to be the
first transgender Olympian, which isn't exactly accurate. There have
been a number of intersex competitors who have made it into the
Olympics, and at least one individual who underwent transition
post-Olympics. It's also statistically possible that there have been
others, likely forgotten to history.

Indeed, the Olympics themselves have had a history of gender testing
athletes, introducing tests officially at the 1968 Winter Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee discontinued mandatory gender
testing in 1999, though it still reserves the right to do specific
tests as desired to "prove" the gender of any given athlete in cases
of dispute.

The first time an Olympian was questioned was in 1936, when Polish
1932 Olympic track star Stanistawa Walasiewicz, also known as Stella
Walsh, was defeated by U.S. athlete Helen Stephens. Stephens was
accused of being male and went through genital inspection to clear her
name.

As a point of irony, it was Walasiewicz who – after perishing in an
armed robbery in 1980 – was discovered to be XXXY intersex and
possessed male genitalia.

Also at the 1936 Olympics, German high jump entry Dora Ratjen was
revealed to be male. The assumption is that Ratjen was put into the
running in a ham-fisted attempt to prove Aryan superiority. But Ratjen
came in fourth, and was later spotted sporting a five o'clock shadow
at a train station on the way home from the European championships.

There's Brazilian judo competitor Edinanci Silva, who was intersex and
had surgery in the mid-1990s in order to compete as a woman. There's
also Sin Kim Dan of South Korea, Iolanda Balas of Romania, and Tamara
and Irina Press of the former Soviet Union, each of who stopped
competing due to gender verification.

There's also Andreas Krieger, who was an East German shot put
champion. He was also doped up with steroids from around age 16, and
began to develop male characteristics by age 18. Krieger transitioned
to male some 10 years after striking Olympic gold back in mid-1980s.

Finally, back to the 1936 Berlin Olympics: USOC president Avery
Brundage began to work toward a system to test female athletes after
observing the performances of Czechoslovakian runner and jumper Zdenka
Koubkova and British javelin thrower and shot putter Mary Edith Louise
Weston. Both did eventually undergo gender reassignment surgery,
becoming Zdenek Koubek and Mark Weston, respectively.

These are not the only Olympians who may have, at the least, run afoul
of genetic gender tests. At the last games to require mandatory
testing – the Atlanta games in 1996 – eight women failed testing. They
were later cleared to compete. There are quite a number more outside
of Olympic circles, such as South Africa's Caster Semenya, who won the
women's 800-meter world championship in 2009, only to have her gender
questioned.

Back to here and now, and Godsey: the difference between Godsey and
all these others is that they were not public about their transgender
status. While still opting to compete as a woman, and fulfilling any
"letter of the law" requirements to do so, Godsey is out as a
transgender man. This is markedly different from Weston, let alone
Walasiewicz.

This is a remarkable change, akin to Jenna Talackova competing openly
for the Miss Universe Canada pageant only a few weeks ago. Rather than
hiding his gender identity as Koubek and Weston did, Godsey is out and
open.

I envision a time, perhaps not nearly as far away as I might think,
where transgender sports stars – and transgender people in other high
profile positions – will serve as role models for the next generation
of young transgender people across the globe.

It's not like there haven't been transgender role models before, mind
you. Christine Jorgensen, Carolyn "Tula" Cossey, Jan Morris, and Renee
Richards served my and other generations.

Yet many of them came out after the fact, or had their transsexual
status thrust into the spotlight in ways they never intended. This
again is the difference between the landmark moves each of them made,
and the actions of transgender people like Godsey and others who have
embraced their transgender beings and chosen to step out of the
shadows.

Unfortunately, Godsey failed to qualify for the U.S. track and field
team in the women's hammer throw. He finished fifth in trials last
week that would have qualified him for one of three slots on the team.
Godsey was disappointed, having expected the Olympics to be his swan
song. Nevertheless, he sounded a somewhat optimistic note. "I've still
done more than most people that are trans have," said Godsey. "I've
still competed at a level that most people haven't. I don't want to
let not making a team be what brings that down."

So you have, Keelin – and you may not have made the team, but you can
hold your head high for striking a victory for transgender people, and
adding your name to a long list of champions who came before you.

--

Gwen Smith was a nerdy child, and never had a chance in sports. You
can find her online at www.gwensmith.com.


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