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Transgender Athlete Defends Caster Semenya From New Gender Criticism

08/24/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Kristen Worley is a trangedner cyclist from Toronto, and she helped South African runner Caster Semenya get reinstated into the world of running. Worley attempted to become the first transgender Olympian at the 2008 Beijing Games. She has lashed out at attacks leveled against Semenya in the wake of the runner’s return. Particularly virulent are the comments from Canadian Diane Cummins.

Cummins stated “As athletes we feel frustrated because everyone is allowed to give their opinion except us. If we give an honest opinion, we’re either seen as bad sports or we’re not happy because we’re being beaten. But that’s not the case. Unfortunately for Caster, she’s grown up in an environment that is complicated not just for her but for human science. Basically, is she man, is she lady? What constitutes male, what constitutes female? Even if she is a female, she’s on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition from what I understand of hormone testing. So, from that perspective, most of us just feel that we are literally running against a man.”

Cummins came in eighth in the Women’s 800 Meters at a major meet in Berlin. Semenya won that race. Other athletes also attacked Semenya.

Worley, who co-founded the Coalition of Athletes for Inclusion in sport, flatly stated that Cummins was making a fool of herself.

Worley said “She’s ignorant. You’ve got a bunch of athletes who are women who are upset because they’re not running fast enough. It’s bad sportsmanship, that’s what this is. … It’s totally sour grapes. Basically when Usain shows up, it’s a question of who’s going to be second and third. That’s a given. We make him king of the day. We make him world champion. We the media, we society say ‘Usain, go faster, show us what you can do.’ But when a woman does it, who didn’t actually set a world record (in winning at the Berlin worlds last year), who (more than 10) women have run faster than her, who didn’t set a meet record, we throw her into stirrups and virtually rape her. We did that because of the way her face looks and her voice.”

Worley will be competing in the upcoming Canadian track cycling championships in Bromont, Quebec. Worley worked behind the scenes with Semenya’s lawyer Greg Nott to help get her reinstated.

“She has what’s called congenital adrenal hyperplasia. It’s one of over 100 different types of intersex. In fact, we’re all intersexed to one level or another. Her adrenal glands, which are attached to her ovaries, are overperforming. That’s all it is. … There’s all these misconceptions.”

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia or CAH has been in the news a lot lately because of human experimentation on fetuses that might have the birth defect. Some doctors are giving women who might give birth to a baby with CAH a toxic drug which only tends to ‘cure’ the ambiguous genitalia that CAH can cause, and far more controversially, ‘cure’ non-feminine behavior such as lesbianism.

Regarding the fears that many of these athletes are expressing Worley stated “Anything we don’t understand, we fear. So when it comes to gender differences which are normal, it hits to the very core of us as human beings, it puts each one of us into question. That’s the challenge. (IOC president) Jacques Rogge said to me a couple of years ago from his office in Lausanne ‘Kristen, this is a medical problem.’ I said ‘Mr. Rogge, this is a social problem.’ I emailed him a few weeks ago (after Semenya was reinstated) ‘I guess I was right, huh.’”

The IOC recently lifted the ban on transgender athletes so long as they are two years post-op.

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