One of the policies for the Boston Marathon, allows transgender runners to compete under their self-identified gender. This has sparked up debate among the runners.
The Boston Athletic Association, which is the main supervisor of the marathon, told NPR that the organizers only ask that the participating runners compete under the same gender identity that they declared when they qualified for the marathon. That policy has been in for “several years” according to the NPR statements. The New York and Chicago marathons are governed by similar policies, said NPR.
Pink power takes Boston!
“We don’t require runners to describe their gender identity history with us. We cannot say with certainty how many trans riders they are in. We’ve had several transgender runners in the past,” said the Boston Athletic Association to NPR.
A requirement is that the brokers show an ID issued by the government to obtain an official number in the competition. BAA stated that: “We compare the identification with the gender description associated with the qualification of the person”.
The Boston Athletic Association told NPR that it does not have a specific policy on how it would handle a runner whose gender identity is not the same as that in the government ID. The BAA stated that it would try to solve this problem with “a strong emphasis on inclusion”
A great step for the trans community
The transgender theme sounds like never before. We are in the XXI century how is this still a taboo?
The broker community has had this issue in mind after seeing an article published in the Canadian Running magazine. It mentions three transgender women who are directed to the top for their excellence in what they do. Some commentators disagree on whether transgender women have an unfair advantage in the race because they may have higher levels of testosterone.
The three women who excelled at Canadian Running were qualified for the Boston Marathon 2018, among them are Amelia Gapin from Jersey City New Jersey; Grace Fisher of Hancock, Maryland and Stevie Romer of Woodstock, Illinois. Undoubtedly a great step for these powerful women!
The female gender was banned from officially entering the Boston Marathon until 1971. This issue was nationally known in 1968. It draw attention when Katherine Switzer was given a bib number after she didn’t identify herself a woman. The organizers of this race did everything possible to physically remove this woman from the race, but they were unsuccessful. The 122 Boston Marathon is the oldest annual marathon known in the world, will be held this April 16, are you ready to run?