National Collegiate Athletic Association female's basketball enables transgendered athlete to contend

The controversy over George Washington University student Kye Allums has reached a fever pitch. Kye Allums can play women’s basketball next year. This is controversial because Kye is a female-to-male transgendered person. The decision was made in cooperation with the NCAA and George Washington University.

Allums changes to a male identity

The woman that matured as a tomboy had been Allums. He goes to George Washington and is 21 years old, and he stated that he "always felt like a man trapped in a woman's body" in some interviews. Over the last few months, Kye has been transitioning to a male identity. Kye is a 5'1'' guard. He had been quoted saying, "I did not choose to be born in this body and feel the way I do."

Women's basketball is what Allums is doing within the NCAA

Playing on the NCAA women's basketball team for George Washington University had been what Allums is presently doing. This is because she had a scholarship to do so. The transgender issue makes it hard for the University and NCAA to know how to proceed about this. Kye would like to continue competing in basketball. The school had been talked to by the National Center on Lesbian Rights and Women's Sports Foundation. The compromise reached allows Kye Allums, who is nevertheless physically woman, to continue competing in women’s basketball as long as he doesn’t undergo testosterone or drug therapy. The natural production of testosterone is all a woman can have in her body. This is what the National Collegiate Athletic Association rules state.

The difficulty of gender-divided athletics

The transgender issue has been talked about although the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball issue with Allums is the first. The Olympic athlete Caster Semenya had been questioned. The physical gender had been the concern. Lana Lawless, a male-to-female transgender golfer, is suing the LPGA for the right to contend as a professional woman golfer. Then some question the whole idea of separating men's and women's sports. They think the whole thing ought to end. The gender issue of transgender athletes will continue to be an issue unless all athletics become co-ed.

Data from

CNN

cnn.com/2010/US/11/03/transgender.basketball.player/index.html?npt=NP1