Introduced in 2000, the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching provides timely, accurate, targeted information to aid in creating a healthier and more positive environment for women coaches – in Canada and around the world.
Transgender and non-binary athlete needs: Challenges and best practices
April 2023, Vol. 23, No. 2
By Amelie Keyser-Verreault and Guylaine Demers
Online
© 2018 Coaching Association of Canada, ISSN 1496-1539
How best to include transgender and non-binary athletes in sport, fairly and equitably, has long been clouded in confusion at best and aversion at worst. In the years since the “issue” first emerged, little has changed even though our world is generally more tolerant in many spheres of human activity. Indeed, research into transgender and non-binary inclusion in sport remains in its infancy, compounding the resultant polarization.
Not helpful is the myriad of myths which bedevil any discussion, from understanding something as basic as the terminology around gender identity to close-mindedness about the very real issues transgender and non-binary athletes face day in and day out, often with negative consequences in terms of mental health challenges and coping with the denial of inclusion and equal opportunity to participate in something as basic a human right as sport.
