We recognise that sport and physical activity is an area where inclusion of trans people is still in its infancy. It is also a place, unfortunately, where hate crimes occur, here is how you can see, report and support victims of hate crime.
https://activehumber.co.uk/about-us/safeguarding/reporting-hate-crimes-in-the-humber
We believe that everyone has the right to participate in Sport and Physical Activity but also recognise that there are many barriers that can stop people from engaging. A community that is affected by these barriers is the trans community and we hope that by engaging with this community we can better shape sport and physical activity to be more inclusive for all.
In order to better understand why Trans Visibility in sport and physical activity is important, we have reached out to Hull based LGBT+ youth group, Step Out, to hear from their young people. Step Out is a group for 11-17 year old LGBT+ Young People, ran by Cornerhouse and The Warren. Information on how to contact Step Out is at the bottom of this document.
Here is what the young people had to say when we asked them the following 3 questions:
3 young people said the American swimmer, Lia Thomas.
1 said Caitlyn Jenner
Others new of the sports the athletes competed in but didn’t know names.
“I feel like the media make it seem like trans athletes only play to win and point out the potential advantages they have”
“The loudest voices are cis people, and its usually negative, trans people don’t often get to voice how they feel about it”
“Everybody should be able to participate and enjoy it, but the media makes it seem like trans people only have bad intentions when competing”
“Its always made out that trans people, especially male to female trans people have an advantage even though that’s not always the case and it villainises trans people from the get go”
“To me it seems like the media don’t want trans athletes to be normalised as its more interesting and more of a story if it always seems like their doing something wrong’.
“I think the media is quite transphobic in general and the topic of trans athletes seems like an excuse to publicly be transphobic”.
Young person 1
“Its important because trans people should be able to do anything cis people can, so showing that in sports can encourage other trans people to do what they want to”
“More representation helps normalise trans people in sport”.
“I think its important because it might encourage younger trans people to go down that career path without fear of being judged”.
“It’s just nice to see trans people succeeding and visibility lets more people see the success.
“There should be trans visibility everywhere so sports shouldn’t be an exception”.
“I think it might encourage people not to judge trans athletes based on what they’ve seen in the media”
We would like to thank the staff and young people at Step Out for taking time out of their session to share their views. We hope that using our platform as allies we can help to make sport and physical activity be more inclusive for all.
For more information about Step Out please contact Leah on 07542 554403/01482 327044 or email emma@thewarren.org
For more information on International Day of Trans Visibility and the on going campaign visit the website here: https://lgbt.foundation/who-we-help/trans-people/trans-day-of-visibility
