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Kye Allums, NCAA Basketball Player, Comes Out as Trans Man

frau sally benz

I don’t know much about college basketball, but I know it’s a fairly big deal when a player comes out as trans. Kye Allums is on George Washington University’s women’s basketball team and is officially out as the first openly trans NCAA Division I player.

Queerty points out that things might get dicey for him because he’s on a basketball scholarship for the women’s team. If he’s taken off the women’s team, he loses his scholarship, and there’s no scholarship in place (not yet, anyway) for the men’s team if they let him play on that instead.

Kye has opened up about the positive feedback he’s been getting, including from people he doesn’t even know. It’s great to see the outpouring of warm wishes.

I’ve had numerous Facebook messages, text messages, people calling me, people I don’t even know, telling me how they’re proud of me and how I’m a really brave person, and it’s been really positive.

NYT mentioned that the NCAA is going to review their policies for transgender athletes. For now, they’re letting him stay on the women’s team because he hasn’t undergone any hormone treatments. It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on this as the season progresses — I’m sure this isn’t the end of it.

46 thoughts on Kye Allums, NCAA Basketball Player, Comes Out as Trans Man

  2. GWU states that he will be allowed to compete on the women’s team, which makes sense, because simply identifying as a man, while retaining XX physiology (without hormone tx) should not, in principle, create an unfair competitive advantage for Kye. I imagine there will be a great roaring and nashing of teeth on the ESPN.com message boards, but . . . isn’t there always?

  3. “* A female-to-male transgender student-athlete who is not taking testosterone related to gender transition may participate on a men’s or women’s team.
    * A male-to-female transgender student-athlete who is not taking hormone treatments related to gender transition may not compete on a women’s team.”

    I don’t know how I feel about this. My best guess is that out trans women wouldn’t want to participate on a men’s team because of rampant transphobia. If they aren’t taking super expensive hormone therapy, it means they can’t play at all.

    Are we scared that trans women without hormone therapy are going to take over women’s sports but trans men without hormone therapy will have no shot at overshadowing cis men? I don’t know. The double standard makes me feel icky about its transphobia and sexism.

  4. I know he’s planning to forgo hormone treatments to maintain his eligibility to play on the women’s team, but has any one asked whether he would prefer to take hormones now if he had another scholarship lined up? I’m not comfortable with the coercive situation in which he is making a medical decision. Has he stated anything publicly about his preference? Is there a possibility that the school could come up with an alternative scholarship/funding if he would like to do something else?

  5. Kristen, I think the problem with that is that testosterone is a banned substance in the NCAA and it would probably take the remainder of his playing time to try to work out the necessary waivers and what not. And that’s assuming they’d let him play on the woman’s team while taking the hormones at all, which looks like a big NO right now.

  6. @PA, yes, that last paragraph is basically the fear. It seems reasonable. There are very few born women who would have an advantage competing against born men; the converse isn’t true.

  7. Groggette,

    I was more wondering if he wanted to play on the women’s team at all or whether he felt he needed to in order to maintain his scholarship.

  9. I don’t see how it’s coercive, even if he does feel the need to continue playing to maintain his scholarship. Hormone therapy, reassignment surgery, and related medical procedures are optional. Some transgendered people undertake those procedures and some don’t, for a variety of reasons including financial. And with the high cost of care in the United States, and transphobia running so high that insurance companies can routinely deny coverage without public outcry, financial considerations regarding undertaking them are real for almost everyone, not just a scholarship athlete.

    In a perfect world, would financial considerations matter to his decision to undertake hormone treatment or other medical procedures? No. But financial considerations are the reality, and not just for someone with an athletic scholarship.

    1. libdevil,

      1. Optional? As optional as all medical treatment, I suppose. But I see few people calling blood pressure medication “optional” just because a person is not literally forcibly compelled to take it. Just because not all trans folks choose to undergo the same medical treatment doesn’t mean that said treatment is “optional” for those who do undergo it.

      2. It seems that your argument is basically “trans people are routinely coerced out of medical treatment; indeed, coercion may just be more of a norm than an exception. Therefore, we cannot call such coercion coercion anymore.” Not being able to access medical treatment because you can’t afford it — no matter what that treatment is — is coercive. You can’t argue that X situation isn’t coercive because it’s very similar to Y situation that totally is coercive.

  11. In college I played NCAA fencing, although it was for a club team, not varsity. We briefly had a transman play, and let him choose which gendered team (there was one awkward tournament where we only fielded a women’s team in his weapon, and he did choose to play that tournament on the women’s team for experience).

    We did require that since he hadn’t undergone top-surgery yet, he wear upper-body protective gear — we were in the process of ordering the “mens style” breast-plate when he quit, although I think we went through with the purchase for future need. Our requirement for protective gear was part of the reason he quit, and I think there was some miscommunication on all sides … one of the annoyances of the NCAA women’s Fencing policies was that women were regularly required to prove (through “knocking” or pulling down the jacket) that they were wearing the required upper-body plates / pads, whereas men never had to “knock” to prove they were wearing cups. Many men choose to wear the upper-body protection anyways, either for protection (stabbing in the boob hurts, yo) or because it actually had tactical advantages. I still feel we could have done better at explaining regulation to him in a way that wouldn’t have made him uncomfortable.

  12. Comrade PhysioProf:
    Um, honestly, I doubt there would be more compassion if a trans woman were on a men’s team. There would very likely be more homophobia and transphobia in that situation, as well as a vastly greater likelihood for violence.

    The only situation like that (and it wasn’t a team sport) was the MTF Thai kickboxer then known as Nong Thoom (now Parinya Charoenphol) who was a top rated fighter against men even though she came out as trans. She did eventually take hrt and it adversely impacted her fighting and she dropped out of the sport. Several years after transitioning she fought women kickboxers.

  13. I think that women (trans* and cis) should get to play in the women’s team and men (trans* and cis) should get to play on the men’s teams. Any hormone treatment which trans* people are on should not affect their access to the team of their gender.

    Additionally, due to the high rates of anti-trans* violence I think that trans* men should be allowed to compete on the women’s team and trans* women on the men’s team. People should not be required to expose themselves to high rates of violence to participate in sports. Nor should they lose out on their education as I believe is the case here (I am not quite sure I understand how USian tertiary education works exactly, but my impression is that a sports scholarship can be the difference between an education or not). Intersex people should have access to which ever team they wish (or both).

    (I am not trans* or intersex so I apologise for my privilege displayed in this post and how distressing it must be to see cis people debating these things, as if we have the right to decide them. I felt like posting was the lesser evil).

  14. @Beth:

    Um, ‘trans women should be allowed to compete on the men’s team to avoid violence?’ Have you never looked at the pictures and profiles on the Transgender Day of Remembrance? Whose faces do you see and who perpetrated those murders?

  15. Random Process: @PA, yes, that last paragraph is basically the fear. It seems reasonable. There are very few born women who would have an advantage competing against born men; the converse isn’t true.  

    Of course, because trans women aren’t born, we’re made in evil scientist’s test tubes.

    Also, you do realize that being on estrogen causes loss of muscle tissue and strength, yes? So that (after about a year) athletic performance of trans women and cis women is about the same.

    And the fail continue with this (which Cara already addressed, but still):

    libdevil: Hormone therapy, reassignment surgery, and related medical procedures are optional.

    While it is true that not every trans person needs medical intervention, to those who do, these procedures are *not optional*. Who are you to judge what procedures are “optional” and to whom?

    And yet more:

    beth: Additionally, due to the high rates of anti-trans* violence I think that trans* men should be allowed to compete on the women’s team and trans* women on the men’s team.

    Are you for serious? Do you realize how dangerous it would be for a trans woman to play on a men’s team? Do you have any idea how much of a threat of violence, up through and including death, that men pose to trans women?

    It seems that every single trans-related thread (here and elsewhere) is turned by cis folk into a referendum on trans* folk, our right to define our own needs, our legitimacy or lack thereof, our right to speak with our own voices and not be spoken over by cis folk. (And I want to make clear that this isn’t a knock against the Feministe mods – there’s only so much you can do to stem the cis fail when there’s so much of it.)

  16. The awful truth is that out or outed trans people are at greater risk for violence no matter what. I think the only thing that tends to help is having privilege on other axes (not being poor, of colour, a woman, etc.), but there are no guarantees.

    When it comes to placement on sports teams, I think a lot of time people overlook that there’s a great deal of variety of skill and physical capacity *within* the so-called binary gender groups (probably moreso than between them) and many excellent athletes, trans or cis, are quite exceptional in their physical capacities anyway. Additionally, in a complex team sport like basketball, one individual’s physical attributes are only a small component of a multifaceted causal network of both success-enhancing and failure-enhancing factors.

    But there’s a lot of investment in the ideas of fairness and meritocracy when it comes to sports because it’s just not as fun if it feels rigged somehow (although I’m not sure how the widely prevalent sports-related superstitions fit into that – some kind of acceptable supernaturally-endowed special “advantage”? Anyway), but in reality there are so many contributing elements and possible unbalancing factors (relative funding support and resource access for teams is always a big one) that it’s hard to ever say that all teams are on an equal footing.

    So trans people get shit on when it comes to stuff like this because they are viewed as “special exceptions” or “gimmicks” that exist primarily to disrupt the “natural order” of things (oh god, the scare quotes – there are never enough). Like cheesy plot devices, on TV and in real life. That trans people might be real people with real motives and goals and interests and choices that exist independent of however cis people assume they are affected by them doesn’t occur to a lot of people.

  17. Gallinggalla, I think you misread beth.

    Allowing trans women to play on a mens team is extraordinarily different from requiring trans women to play on a mens team. It gives agency to the player to make the choice; isn’t that the point? It’s not appropriate to require trans players to stay, of course, but it’s not our call to tell them that they have to leave without good reason. And there’s no good reason to forbid a trans women from doing what she wants, including staying on her old (mens) team.

    The reverse isn’t true; trans men may not be able to start on a women’s team and stay there–at least not if they (1) physically transition (2) with testosterone (3) during the four years that they happen to be playing college sports. But that’s because the split for gender in sports takes into account, to a large degree, the effect of testosterone on muscle development.

    The NCAA proposed rule seems fairly reasonable, in summary:

    1) don’t let people with lots of testosterone but no estrogen choose to play against those with no testosterone; and

    2) let people with low testosterone (or high estrogen) to choose to play against anyone they want.

  18. Cara,

    I meant optional in the sense that he’s not going to fall over dead if he does not undergo hormone treatment. And its worth noting that many athletic competitions also ban some forms of blood pressure medication (to use your example), beta blockers being the example that immediately jumps to mind. When even potentially life-saving treatments can give a competitive advantage to an athlete (other than not being dead), organizations making rules for those sports can and do bar competitors from undergoing those treatments. And I don’t think they’re wrong to do so – in a general sense.

    And as far as coercive – at least in the US you could argue that any financial setback for him would be considered coercive, given the cost of treatment. If, after college, he enters the workforce and at some point loses a job, would you consider his former employer to be coercing him into forgoing treatment? I think this scholarship issue is similar. People make decisions all the time about medical treatment based on their financial circumstances. If it were up to me, it wouldn’t be that way – we’d have a civilized means of providing medical care. But it is that way, right now. And people decide whether they’re going to get a new pair of glasses, or make due with the old prescription another year so they can afford to fix the car and make it to work. Without that car, they’d lose their job – but would you say their employer coerced them to choose to forgo a new pair of glasses? People decide whether or not they can afford to go to physical therapy, or counseling, or the dentist, or if they need to pay their tuition so they can get a better job. That sucks, but it’s the reality. Medical care costs money, and in the US, at least, we’ve unfortunately decided not to provide it as a right of citizenship or humanity, but rather as something for which each individual must bear the cost.

  19. Jadey, that’s the issue I have. We’re treating trans* people as so-called “special exceptions” – like we think the issue is really OMG HOW WILL IT AFFECT US CIS-FOLKS? And it’s not the case.

    I hope the NCAA has trans* people on staff so that it’s not an issue of cis people making rules for trans people.

  21. Do you realize how dangerous it would be for a trans woman to play on a men’s team? Do you have any idea how much of a threat of violence, up through and including death, that men pose to trans women?

    This is something I’ve thought about a bit in regards to trans men and “women only” organizations (mostly women’s colleges, rather than sports.) Because cis men, as a group, commit more violence than women it seems like the safest place for anyone especially likely to be targeted by gender-based violence to be allowed to hang with women rather than men*. Like GallingGalla says.

    But then it also feels like it’s sort of denying someone’s identity to say to a trans man, for example, “oh, it’s women-only here but you count, I guess!” And I wouldn’t necessarily feel comfortable saying “oh, you count!” to otherwise-marginalized cis men either, so it really feels like singling out trans people as not-quite-as-much their gender as cis people are.

    But, basically, I don’t think cis people ought to be worrying about the stuff I said in my second paragraph until the stuff in my first paragraph is perfectly solved. Because as a cis person I should focus on making it possible for trans people to go where and do what they want without being in danger, rather than fussing about how they ought to sort themselves.

    *not that cis women are necessarily a bastion of acceptance either, obvs…

  22. Which is to say, isn’t it funny how some (cis) people only start whining about unfairness when it’s sports being “threatened” and not actual living people under threat. As if I have to tell this group that. :p Once the murdering stops maybe we cis people can start talking about sports minutia.

  23. My first reaction upon hearing about Allums (from a friend’s Facebook wall, then in more detail here) was “Oh, shit,” and then, “How great that he’s getting support!”

    The former is actually close to my gut reaction to most trans* news stories, particularly in mainstream media (as opposed to, say, Feministe, or an email from GLAD)–guess I’m perpetually steeling myself against the possibility that I’ll get triggered and run away from the story, a common reaction for me to everything from the usual pronoun fails to discovering an article is actually about anti-trans* violence.

    The discussion here has led me to ponder this issue on a more personal level: I sure as shit wouldn’t have wanted to row competitively on a men’s crew team. Aside from the fact that I was always mediocre (at best) on the women’s team, wasn’t particularly enlightened about my own identity at the time, and was dealing with enough homophobia in my own boathouse to last me quite a while, thanks… actually, no, that’s a good enough list for now. (Why am I still awake? Blargh.)

    Is this a great analogue? No, not really. Is my anecdata helpful? Shrug. But I want to co-sign GallingGalla’s last paragraph, if I may:

    GallingGalla: It seems that every single trans-related thread (here and elsewhere) is turned by cis folk into a referendum on trans* folk, our right to define our own needs, our legitimacy or lack thereof, our right to speak with our own voices and not be spoken over by cis folk. (And I want to make clear that this isn’t a knock against the Feministe mods – there’s only so much you can do to stem the cis fail when there’s so much of it.)

    So very well said, GallingGalla. Thank you.

  24. Bagelsan: Which is to say, isn’t it funny how some (cis) people only start whining about unfairness when it’s sports being “threatened” and not actual living people under threat.

    Holy fuck… I never quite thought of it that way but you’re completely right.

  25. Usually Lurking: 1) don’t let people with lots of testosterone but no estrogen choose to play against those with no testosterone; and

    2) let people with low testosterone (or high estrogen) to choose to play against anyone they want. Usually Lurking

    To be clear, all human bodies produce testosterone and estrogen, unless there is some kind of specific biochemical impairment issue going on (and even then I think the issue is more to do with having responsive receptors than not actually producing the hormone). Different bodies produce these chemicals in different amounts and respond to them different ways.

    My point being, as ever, that there is a great deal of human variety not captured by gendered binary norms and erasing this diversity in favour of essentialist binarism sucks.

  27. Emeryn, trust me when I say that your life will be infinitely better if you do not read the comments on any US-based news site. That includes MSNBC. I can actually feel brain cells dying when I read comments like that. I do want to point out that CNN at least respected his preferred pronouns – something that CNN has had issues with in the past – so I’m at least happy about that.

  28. @beth:
    «Additionally, due to the high rates of anti-trans* violence I think that trans* men should be allowed to compete on the women’s team and trans* women on the men’s team.»

    I think it’s indeed easier for trans people if they can have the opportunity to choose and are not automatically “kicked” off a team once a coming-out is done. Yes, trans women suffer violence by men, but I guess it’s cool if a trans woman who is in a male team where she has friends and knows everybody can choose to stay a bit…

    On the other hand, I think the best would be if there was more “mixed gender” ability to do sports… I can understand that high level competition is segregated because of performance, but I feel it a bit frustrating that in most sports you have to pick a «gender» in order to play (or not play because you are afraid you won’t be accepted in the gender you identify) because there are no “unisex” clubs…

  29. Kristen, it probably only partially answers your question, but I found this on the ESPN article on Allums:

    Allums considered having his surgery and treatments now — and then playing on a man’s team.

    “I thought about it,” Allums said. “That wasn’t really my goal. Maybe for somebody else.”

    The article writer does mess up the pronouns in one paragraph but otherwise seems pretty respectful.

    For something not so respectful, Amanda Hess gathered up some cringeworthy ledes for stories on Allums here.

  30. Butch Cassidyke: On the other hand, I think the best would be if there was more “mixed gender” ability to do sports… I can understand that high level competition is segregated because of performance, but I feel it a bit frustrating that in most sports you have to pick a «gender» in order to play (or not play because you are afraid you won’t be accepted in the gender you identify) because there are no “unisex” clubs…  

    There are plenty of coed leagues where I live, although most do have different rules based on gender (Men can’t shoot in the paint for basketball, women’s goals worth double in soccer etc.)

  31. Dank, do your coed leagues have the clout of an NCAA team and offer scholarships to top universities?

  32. beth: I think that women (trans* and cis) should get to play in the women’s team and men (trans* and cis) should get to play on the men’s teams. Any hormone treatment which trans* people are on should not affect their access to the team of their gender

    um. . . what if that trans woman wasn’t taking any hormones. . . or ‘T’ blockers? and having her play on the women’s team?

  33. tbh. . . I don’t know how Kye could play on the women’s team without feeling like he’s being (un)gendered or “other’ed” all of the time. . . scholarship or not. . . I couldn’t do it.

  34. ****And then everyone acted like he took a dump on the floor instead of just said what everyone was thinking at an inopportune moment. And then the target of the truth bomb proceeded to hold a major league grudge, and act like this is the worst thing that ever happened. ****

    I’ve got to point out that the odds of him being able to play at a level high enough to make a scholarship for a mens team are slim to none. It’s not a matter of “letting” him play, it’s a matter of him playing at a high enough level to get offered a scholarship to play on a mens team.

  36. I’ve been reading more of the articles on him, most recently this interview on Lemondrop, and his responses to choosing to play for the women’s team or it only being fair that he join the men’s team aren’t incredibly clear.

    For example:

    Some people have alleged that it’s not fair that you’re playing on a women’s team. That maybe you should try out for the men’s team now. What do you say to them?
    Of course it’s fair! I’m just saying how I feel. It doesn’t change who I am. If I said, “I feel tired today,” then should I not play on a women’s team?

    It’s possible that maybe he hasn’t completely sorted through all of it yet and is sticking with what feels right. That would certainly be better than the alternative of feeling pressured to stay on the women’s team.

  37. So! Way up-thread, GallingGalla said this:

    It seems that every single trans-related thread (here and elsewhere) is turned by cis folk into a referendum on trans* folk, our right to define our own needs, our legitimacy or lack thereof, our right to speak with our own voices and not be spoken over by cis folk.

    It seems relevant to quote this yet again, as some commenters — you know, the ones being all, “but hormones! and can we talk more about trans* people’s bodies and medical treatment please, even if we don’t actually know all that much what we’re talking about? WHAT ABOUT FAIRNESS TO CIS PEOPLE???” — might not have taken the message that what GG is referring to is a BAD thing to heart. Sooooo, how about we try reading it again and start taking the message to heart? And stop centering cis concerns and start centering trans* concerns, and generally start being respectful and stop being asses?

    THANKS!

  38. Dear Julia:

    Julia:
    um. . . what if that trans woman wasn’t taking any hormones. . . or ‘T’ blockers?and having her play on the women’s team?  

    #1: As other commenters have already mentioned above, regarding strength, size, weight, how big our hands are, how deep our voices are, and any other measure that you might have in mind to separate trans women from “real” women: There is more variation within a particular sex than there is between the sexes.

    #2: Sex is as much a social construct as gender is.

    #3: ZOMG!!!!!!11!!ELEVENSES!!!!PANIC PANIC! The one in one thousand or so women who are trans are TOTZ ABSOLUTELEE a threat to every cis woman! Cos we’re so BIG and built like QUARTERBACKS and have hands that span TWO WHOLE OCTAVES on the piano … Just like Julia Serrano is! … owate … she’s 5’6″ and weighs 130 pounds … and, uh, gee, Sylvia Fowles, a basketball player, is 6’6″ and many of the women playing in the WNBA and in college basketball are at or above 6 feet, not to mention every one of these women … I guess they’re all trans?

    (Looks at self)…5’11”, 146 pounds, I MUST BE A LINEBACKER!! Because all linebackers have the stats of your typical female fashion model. Inorite?

    #4: What Cara said.

  39. Oh, going in the other direction, there’s always the cis man who was a coworker of mine, absolutely HUGE at 5’3″ and 110 pounds…

  40. @40: Height and weight are good and all, but if you don’t know exactly his testosterone levels and full medical history, how are we going to gossip about him and judge him properly? The public needs to know. What if he plays sports some day? Sports is serious business. Perhaps you could ask him for a blood sample and/or a photo of his genitals and we can really get this talk-about-stranger’s-bodies ball rolling. I mean omg what if he someday plays sports and we don’t know the precise size and shape of his balls and he ends up on a team with a different average ball count won’t someone think of the children.

  41. @41: Ah, Bagelsan, you do have a point. If he’s got big balls, he could swing his weight around in a very anti-competitive way. Unless he’s running the hurdles. Then big balls would be a liability.

    Hey, bringing up cis people’s genitals and hormone levels for public review, comment, and approval is so much fun!

    (FTR, the dude under examination was a nice guy and a highly competent computer system administrator. Heavy balls or no.)

  42. The one in one thousand or so women who are trans are TOTZ ABSOLUTELEE a threat to every cis woman!

    You’re usually very perceptive but I think you’re just too close to this and being emotional, GG. Obviously there is no stigma attached to being a woman, much less out and trans. Especially in sports. Therefore if you allow men (and thats really what we’re talking about here, isn’t it?) to compete on women’s teams, soon there will be no women’s teams as less competitive male athletes simply put on wigs in pursuit of those huge WNBA contracts.

    /snark

  44. “Intersex people should have access to which ever team they wish (or both).”

    I think you might be confusing intersex conditions with what used to be known as ‘hermaphrodites’ – to give an example, there are over 175,000 individuals with intersex conditions in the USA, the number of fully functioning hermaphrodites is 1 in 1 billion. There is ambigious genitialia which the OII (International Intersex Society) as well as the North American intersex society feels should NOT be operated on until the gender is clear, while other conditions don’t come out until puberty, 21 or even later. Which is why every female at the olympics who ‘failed’ or required further gender testing has always come back as being female.

    As Kye puts it, his gender is male, his sex is female (right now) and that sex (the primary and secondary markers) he plans to have aligned with his gender as soon as that is possible. But it isn’t possible now, and so….

    Is legislation of the gender of the brain something sports wants to do? Because that is why Kye says he should play women’s basketball – because he has a male brain and gender but his sex is female, and that means he plays on a female team. To kick someone off because their brain is ‘too male’ or ‘too female’ is a territory that is not one I think should be regulated.

    And didn’t a famous crossdressing basketball player named Rodney frequently wear women’s clothes, crossdress, show up in a bridal gown and was a star of the NBA (and not immediately transferred to the women’s league). Cross dressing falls under the trans umbrella as well (not in Kye’s case, but since these arguements come up under what people who are ‘trans’ should have happen to them).

  45. Elizabeth McClungAnd didn’t a famous crossdressing basketball player named Rodney frequently wear women’s clothes, crossdress, show up in a bridal gown and was a star of the NBA (and not immediately transferred to the women’s league).Cross dressing falls under the trans umbrella as well (not in Kye’s case, but since these arguements come up under what people who are ‘trans’ should have happen to them).  

    I think you meant Dennis Rodman, who cross-dressed a few times mostly for publicity sake. Yes, on some level crossdressers are part of the transgender umbrella but that doesn’t mean they share issues with trans people who have genuine mismatch between brain and body. Crossdressers (and granted, there are those who eventually feel they have trans issues) are people who associate with their assigned birth gender but wish to express gender from time to time differently from that birth gender. Therefore, Dennis Rodman, (infrequent) crossdresser = man; Kye, trans man = man. So bad example.

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