Transgender athletes and Canadian sport policy: a story of stigma and precarity

Abstract

ABSTRACT Policy can serve as a form of institutionalised stigma, working to create and maintain discrimination against groups of people. Some Canadian National Sport Organizations (NSOs) have developed policies that address transgender inclusion within sport. However, where these policies exist, they vary in their approaches to inclusion of transgender persons. This article examines how Canadian sport policies prohibit and/or police transgender persons’ participation in sport. In 2019, the publicly available policies of 53 NSOs were reviewed to determine the presence and content of so-called transgender inclusion policies, as well as policies related to equity, discrimination and harassment. At the time of the study, only 17 of the 53 NSOs had policies specifically related to transgender inclusion. In this study, we review these policies to understand the varying approaches to transgender inclusion in Canadian NSOs. We classified the NSOs into three broad categories: inclusive (n = 11), problematic (n = 1) and prejudicial (n = 5), in relation to naming, disclosure and medical specifications. Using Judith Butler’s concept of precarity, we demonstrate that participation in sport is a precarious choice for transgender athletes, as most NSO policies lacked clear guidance on inclusion and there were next to no policy statements on gender non-conforming people. The development of inclusive policy within sport should be proactive, actionable, consistent with best practices and must include meaningful conversations with transgender and gender non-conforming athletes, coaches and officials.