Fair Game
Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Foreword by Chris Mosier
A timely, illuminating plan for how trans and cis athletes can both fairly play sports
Fair Game offers an insightful, timely examination of the ongoing battle for equality in athletics. As LGBTQ athletes break barriers in the Olympics, transgender athletes still face harsh restrictions in many areas. With twenty-four states passing anti-trans sports legislation in the last two years, nearly half of Americans live under laws that restrict or ban transgender individuals from participating in sports. Fair Game explores why taking the next step and increasing the acceptance of trans athletes is important not only for everyone with an Olympic dream but also everyone whose kids just want to join the town soccer league.
Fair Game explores the role of sports in the lives of transgender youth and adults, offering a comprehensive, nuanced, and multivoiced picture of the transgender athletic experience. Through a woven collection of the narratives from a marginalized population, Fair Game examines the patterns of fear and gender stereotypes that undergird anti-trans legislation and offers helpful historical and political context about sex segregation in sports and how bodies (including trans bodies) work in sports.
Timely, accessible, inspiring, and rigorous, Fair Game presents a sports landscape beyond our current conceptions, a world changed by unrestricted and joyful movement in sports.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former college athlete Roscher (The Embodied Path) and feminist scholar Baeth deliver an affecting examination of transgender athletes' exclusion from organized sports. The authors address "myths" they say fuel opposition to full participation, explaining that trans people make up less than 1% of athletes and don't have physiological advantages over cis athletes. They also share interviews with trans athletes, whose voices they assert have been "ignored and silenced." Among those profiled is trans man Layne, who reflects on becoming a star high school and college basketball player before transitioning, noting that despite playing on girls' teams, he took on the mentality that he was one of the guys and could compete against any player. Now a coach, he's trying to make the sport more welcoming for young queer athletes. Addison, a trans woman, shares her experience navigating gender norms in sports like CrossFit, which has weights and exercises that differ for women and men. She found refuge in powerlifting, which, she explains, is "just you versus the bar and pushing your body to its edge, regardless of gender." Through these candid personal anecdotes, Roscher and Baeth illuminate how trans athletes are competing not to gain an advantage but to live as their true selves. It's an important addition to conversations about sports and gender. Correction: A previous version of this review misidentified the trans woman who found refuge in powerlifting.
