Kyle Allums

In class we discussed the situation that Kyle Allums is in.  He is an athlete on the women’s basketball team at George Washington.  Why?  Because he is a transgender.  Heis technically a female, but he believes that he is supposed to be a male.  As Andrew said in class when he had a discussion with the Gay and Lesbian organization on campus,”sex is between the legs and gender is between the head.”  Allums has not done anything wrong, he has female parts, he has female estrogen and testosterone levels, and he has not had any surgery or taken any supplements to be more manly, thus allowing him to keep his female status and his eligibility to play for the women’s basketball team.  His situation would be much different if he had surgery to become a female or if he started taking testosterone to be more manly, but as long as he does not do those things during his college years, he will be eligible for the women’s basketball team and if he continues his career by not doing those things, he should also be eligible to play in the WNBA, since they do not have any specific rules about transgender people playing in the league.  I think people are trying to look into this way more than they should be.  Honestly, there are plenty of women out there that feature extreme male qualities and even vice versa, but what separates Allums is that he is the first one to admit it while actually playing on the team.  I’m sure he will be the topic of a lot of talks and discriminated against, but he has done nothing wrong but life his loife and play the game he loves to play.