Tag Archive for 'gender'

Inside The Games – London 2012 unveil design for gender pin badge
Thursday, 15 September 2011
By Tom Degun at the Handball Arena in London

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September 15 – London 2012 have this evening revealed the design for the new gender pin badge here at the Handball Arena at the Olympic Park.

The unveiling ceremony was designed to coincide with the opening reception for the 2011 European Women and Sport conference, which will take place in the capital over the next three days.

Dignitaries in attendance included London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton, Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson and deputy secretary general of the Council of Europe Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, while London 2012′s director of human resources Jean Tomlin unveiled the new gender pin badge.

This latest badge is the fourth to have been issued in celebration of London 2012′s six strands of diversity, engaging all communities to support London 2012.

The first of the six pin badges was launched last year in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

For Full Article “Click Here”

Published September 2011

AthletesCAN (CANADA) Canadian Olympian Nikki Dryden – Featured Article: “Hey International Olympic Committee – Your words are not enough”

The following article was written by Nikki Dryden, retired national team athlete and two-time Olympian.

“Sport, unlike anything else, brings the world together, has the power to change lives for the better, and is truly universal. “It has an almost unmatched role to play in promoting understanding, healing wounds, mobilizing support for social causes, and breaking down barriers”, says former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who believes that sport has the power to breakdown “myths and prejudices.” He also notes that athletes as well as sports organizations are critical in “unifying societies torn apart by conflict, tackling prejudices…and in breaking down gender inequality.”

Yet here we are in 2011 and women are not equal in the world of Olympic sport…not even close, and all 110 members of the International Olympic Committee (only 17% of whom are women) must be held accountable. Action, not words, must be demanded by athletes and coaches of the world, fans of Olympic sport, and corporate sponsors who lend their name to the Olympic movement. Without true gender equity in sport, the Olympic Games and the Olympic movement makes a mockery of women and their contributions to the world of sport.

On Friday, once again, Ms. Anita DeFrantz head of the Women’s Commission at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) named the three countries that have yet to send women athletes to the Olympic Games: Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar. But we have heard this before. She said it in 2010 too – but at the 2010 Olympic Games 19 countries sent men-only Olympic teams to Vancouver.

The list of inequities does not end there. In addition to the many nation-states who do not send women athletes, there still exists unequal sports and events for women athletes at the Olympic Games, there are an unequal numbers of women participants, an unenforceable sex harassment and abuse policy, and discrimination in gender testing. Add into the mix a disturbing lack of women on executive sporting bodies and in the coaching ranks, and what you have is an IOC and Olympic Movement that does not care about women in reality, but pretends to do so in theory.”

For Full Article on the AthletesCAN website “Click Here”

Also can be found on the Women in Sport International Blog “Click Here”

Published July 2011

Caster reveals her agony over sex test
BONGANI MDAKANE | 09 July, 2011 23:53

An emotional and depressed Caster Semenya has revealed the humiliation and anguish she endured when doubt was cast on her gender.

Goto Full Article: “Click Here”

Published July, 2011

IAAF – Releases Today HA Regulations – Explanatory Notes re Hyperandrogenism – Continued Aggression, Oppression and Medicalization of Women Athletes.

A tremendous setback for women’s participation in sport, human rights and Olympic Movement.

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“Despite the well documented sorry history of the medicalization of women, it medicalizes the definition of womanhood one more time, taking the expression of embodied gender identity out of the hands of the very humans involved, and setting up many other young people for the devastating treatment that Caster Semenya experienced. Moreover, it flies in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the tremendous hormonal variability among humans.

What is further shocking, the IAAF and IOC projecting the athletes health is at risk and or see as “abnormal” to purposely publicly mislead to legitimize their policy and unsupported actions.  Where in-fact most high performance female athletes have raised level of androgens for various natural reasons, ad that that they are some of the healthiest women on the planet.  Only to be presumed “unwell” when being ONLY confronted by the IAAF and IOC.

In the elite  mens division, there are are no set limits – in-fact promoted and take advantage of to push the male human performance barriers.

This is a social ethics problem, which in-fact has whatsoever nothing to do with the athletes themselves.  This is an entrenched  and historical problem of sport, IOC and IAAF and how ALL women are perceived as high performance athletes as women in sport.”

Kristen Worley – Canadian High Performance Elite Athlete/Gender Educator

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“The bad news is that the new policy seems sexist in its philosophy. Indeed, it is so sexist that it may even count as a violation of Title IX, which will matter because the international policies will undoubtedly trickle down to school-based sports.

The hormones in question are not naturally exclusive to men. Women and men naturally make androgens — sometimes called strength-building hormones — including testosterone.

Yet despite the fact that testosterone belongs to women, too, the I.O.C. and the I.A.A.F. are basically saying it is really a manly thing: “You can have functional testosterone, but if you make too much, you’re out of the game because you’re not a real woman…”

“…Yet this newly proposed biological reduction of women to a hormonally disadvantaged class of people — one medically made disadvantaged, if necessary — struck many of us as regressive from the standpoint of women’s rights. Indeed, it reminds me of those itty-bitty shorts that college women’s volleyball players must wear. They each sexualize the bodies of female athletes as a requirement of play. They each insist that a woman never be manly.”

NYTimes April 24th, 2011 – Redefining the Sexes in Unequal Terms
Prof. Alice Dreger, clinical medical humanities and bioethics.
Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
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“How can the I.O.C. and I.A.A.F. claim that they support the full inclusion of women when they reimpose a medical test for their very identity? It’s a huge setback for human rights and the integrity of the Olympic movement.”

April 24th, 2011 – Redefining the Sexes in Unequal Terms
Former Canadian Olympian, Dr. Bruce Kidd
University of Toronto.

Download Official IAAF Document PDF Release “Click Here”
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Other Supporting References of the Historical Impact of Gender Testing
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Journal of Human Sport & Exercise
An approach to the biological, historical and psychological repercussions of gender verification in top level competitions

JOURNAL OF HUMAN SPORT & EXERCISE – VOLUME 5 | ISSUE 3 | 2010 _________________________________________________________________________________________
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The University of Western Ontario Medical Journal
Gender verification testing: Necessary for the integrity of international athletics, or inexcusable breach of personal privacy?

Volume 79, Number 2 – Endocrinology -Published Spring 2010

Published May 2nd, 2011

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Immediate Response to  IAAF approving the adoption of new rules and regulations governing the eligibility of females with hyperandrogenism to take part in women’s competition:

The Guardian “IAAF approves new rules on hyperandrogenism”
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Press Association

YouTube – Mianne Bagger – Tournament in Spain 2010/Talks about gender challenges in sport

Entrevistas 425 : Mianne Bagger

For Full YouTube Interview “Click Here”

Published March 29th, 2011

The Wall Street Journal|Health – As Little Girls and Boys Grow, They Think Alike
March 22nd, 2011

By AVERY JOHNSON

Boys’ and girls’ brains are different—but not always in the ways you might think.

A common stereotype is that boys develop more slowly than girls, putting them at a disadvantage in school where pressure to perform is starting ever younger. Another notion is that puberty is a time when boys’ and girls’ brains grow more dissimilar, accounting for some of the perceived disparities between the sexes.

For Full Article “Click Here”

Published March 23rd, 2011

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Olympics Wise Up On Gender Testing, Finally
Jeremy Hsu
Originally Published August 5th, 2008

“No competitive advantage

Good intentions did not turn up any imposters during gender screening. Instead, the gender tests punished athletes with disorders that affected their sex chromosomes or genitalia appearance.

“It was unfair not to allow them to compete, particularly since there’s no plausible reason to think they would have had an advantage,” Simpson said.”

“I lost friends, my fiancé, hope and energy,” said Martinez-Patino in a 2005 editorial in the journal Lancet. “But I knew that I was a woman and that my genetic difference gave me no unfair physical advantage.”

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Lancet 2005; 366: S38 María José Martínez-Patiño – Personal Account A woman tried and tested

As well…

An approach to the biological, historical and psychological repercussions of gender verification in top level competitions
Martínez-Patiño et al. / Gender verification in top level competitions JOURNAL OF HUMAN SPORT & EXERCISE – VOLUME 5 | ISSUE 3 | 2010 |

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Genel when referring to Santhi’s case at the Asian Games December 2006 in Doha:
“My suspicion is that she has one of these rare disorders of sexual development,” Genel said. “The way it was handled with all the publicity was totally inappropriate. Part of the rationale to come up with concrete procedures was to avoid this.”

For Full Article “Click Here”

Published March 18th, 2011

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CBC’s The Passionate Eye – Too Fast to Be a Woman
Wednesday March 9 at 10 pm ET/PT & Saturday March 12 at 7 pm ET on CBC News Network

As Caster Semenya achieved her dream of winning the 800m World Championship in 2009, rumours of a failed gender test spread. A vicious and voyeuristic media storm erupted and Caster’s triumph was turned into public humiliation. With exclusive access, this film follows the shy teenager from a remote South African village as she struggles to come to terms with what has happened and fights to return to competition.

With the support of her family, and a top legal team, Caster takes the fight to the IAAF, the world’s leading body for the sport of athletics. As international lawyers and eminent scientists thrash out what it means to be a woman, the 19 year old at the centre of the storm wants only to run. A heart-rending and uplifting story of a young woman who overcame incredible odds to become the world’s best, only to find that her biggest challenge still lay ahead.

Produced and Directed by MAXX GINNANE, Rise Films Ltd., for the BBC.

For Full Online Review of Documentary – “Click Here”

As a personal note, the Canadian connection, and Canada’s commitment and engagement to stopping the horrible acts carried out by false developed policy against women leading to HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE AND RAPE by the IOC/IAAF over several decades, touching on the extreme simple and vulnerability of the women, Caster, Santhi Soundarajan and other great women and athletes who lives have been devastated do to the “social ignorance” of the IOC/IAAF as it relates to gender.  The women, coming from rural areas of their countries – and the viciousness and vulnerability to an athlete is massive, with little to no recoil with those who committed the harm in the first place. Now with the understanding, their policies and practices prove nothing other then great harm.

It is important to note with all the sensational reporting that created a hyperbole of hysteria of a global proportion in international sport never seen in our history. Experts and international sport those engaged behind the scenes for the 11 month period recognize the IOC/IAAF had committed tragically the worst human rights abuse and rape of young healthy women in international sport history.

We have ethical protocol, set standards and guidelines through our universal anti-doping program citing the highest standards, to protect the very identities of athletes who are using drugs and other techniques to cheat the sports system. In-fact, millions of dollars are paid to the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) by governments around the world as part of the commitment to the Olympic family. But when it comes to a person(s) gender, the most private and very essence of a human being, we project globally – The IAAF goes even one step further Friday September 11th, 2009, STATEMENT ON CASTER SEMENYA, creating a Press Release of her very personal matter making it the worlds business.  Where in-fact in the end, sadly none of it was true.  Only to be seen as furthering the tragedy, moreover the incompetence, lacking ethics and accountability of the IAAF and IOC, and assuring Caster the athletes privacy and her protection.

The production touches on IOC/IAAF did not want to see this go to court, as it would open pandora’s box, regarding gender testing and the history and impact on dozens of women, over several decades. The hesitation of Caster’s reinstatement back into World Athletics had nothing in-fact to with Caster. But all to do with the IOC/IAAF concerns of the public awareness in-fact what they had done to her and women before her. Hence the (2) line press release by the IAAF the first week of Tuesday July 6th, 2010, releasing Caster into competition anywhere in the world, without any explanation from the IAAF.

Logistically for the IOC and IAAF, a public relations nightmare was about to unravel for them. Ironically, if there is any found humour in any of this, sadly they got caught up in their own policies and practices around gender, gender verification testing and Stockholm Consensus, committing the offenses themselves.

For Full Online Review of Documentary – “Click Here”

We society, sport leaders and media let it happen, thinking the IOC and IAAF new what they were doing. In-fact, we accepted and we felt we could punish the athletes and felt we even had a right to do it, for (their) normal human difference due to our own ignorance.  In-fact like so many athletes, Caster being one of them deserved it!

It is the IOC and IAAF that need to be punished and held accountable now, not the athletes. This is a man-made issue at the highest level of international sport.

THAT’S ABOUT TO CHANGE… AND CANADA IS LEADING THE CHARGE! AWESOME!

This production put a smile on my face, and to know having such amazing effect and reaching those and making a difference for those around the world.

HUMAN DIVERSITY IN EACH ONE OF US IS TO BE CELEBRATED!

I don’t say this very often as there has been few well-done productions that articulate the issues accurately around gender in sport –

Bravo CBC and BBC! GO CANADA GO!

We will TOGETHER stop this, and assure safety and inclusion for all to participate in sport and in society, no matter ones individual diversity.  This will only happen through a collective effort and education on how we understand NORMAL human development and what “diversity” really means.

Caster will be the last woman this will ever happen too!

For Full Online Review of Documentary – “Click Here”

Published March 13th, 2011

Congratulations to Michael Whan (Chair) LPGA, Athletes, Coaches and LET Touring Professional Mianne Bagger.

A huge thank-you to Michael for his leadership and the LPGA community for their courage and commitment to facilitate greater awareness and social change, that is dynamically occurring in international sport around the world on how we as a ONE society TOGETHER understanding our individual diversities, cultural, social and physical differences which embraces each one of us.  Understanding as a global society, we have way more in common then we do difference. No matter the colour of ones skin, culture, sexuality, gender and or physical needs, that each one of us is unique and special.  As today, was yet another example by many around the world in our global system taking steps to removing the boxes and stereotypes that divide us as a society and taking a moment to understand and appreciate each person(s) diversity – as each one of us has a story, no greater or less than anyone else as part of the greater NORMAL.

The LPGA recognizes they are not alone, but has become part of a greater family today within international sport, committed to sport and greater social inclusion. Moreover understanding the power of sport off the playing field, on how far reaching it can be to bring greater social awareness and change effecting millions of lives so positively around the world.

WELCOME LPGA TO THE GLOBAL TEAM!

One other comment I feel is fitting personally, as I would like to dedicate this moment to game of golf’s pioneer, Ms. Mianne Bagger. Who since 2002, courageously on her own stepped into the world of professional golf as the pioneer on her own with no support.  With absolute grace, composure, professionalism and leadership, Mianne  has brought great understanding and embrace, bring  change to policy in (4) of the (5) professional tours since she became a professional.  Through Mianne’s career, she has educated and created a language where athletes around the game of golf, other professional sports as well sport international leaders, embrace her for what she has done and given of herself to the game of golf and international sport, to drive social change on how we understand diversity.

There are few people I know or have met like her in my lifetime.  A true champion in every respect, recognizing here accomplishments and legacy to the game of golf will one be her great game play on the course, but as well off the course, the lasting effects and greatest contribution will be the laying of the foundation for young athletes that come behind her, that their individual diversity will not prevent them from seeking their dreams  and participating in the game of golf or any other sport.

Janice Moodie LPGA Tour player said in a Golf Digest Interview on December 1st, proceeding the vote;

“The girl on the Ladies European Tour [Mianne Bagger]  is really nice, and I don’t think there seems to be an issue over there,”

Mianne, has been a courageous face and professional for the game of golf at every level around the world, carrying and respecting the game she so passionately loves and those within it, and continues to play as a touring professional.

I am honored to know her, and to work with her professionally and continue to bring greater education, language and universal awareness around diversity in international sport around the world.

Brilliants in sport occurs in many ways – and this is on of those moments. Congratulations and thank-you ALL for your courage, expertise and commitment to social ethics and inclusion, and a sports system that properly reflects our dynamic, diverse and ever changing global society.

Professional Regards,

Kristen Worley
Canadian High Performance Track Cyclist

Lawless’ Legal Case Against the LPGA “Appalling”. NOT a “transgender” issue, but one of Education, Language and Social Ethics.

I woke this morning, deeply disturbed by what I was reading in USA Today titled;
“Lana Lawless’ suit puts gender in sports in spotlight again”.

Sadly, what journalist Douglas Robson wrote is NOT factual and untrue.  There is great work going on behind the scenes internationally. Saying this, since Mr. Robson felt he could use my name and Mianne Bagger’s and write about us which is also untrue (not thinking the impact on us to be presumed associated let alone how we felt about it – god forbid you actually ask the athletes), as neither of us are “transgendered”. Furthermore do NOT approve of Lana Lawless’ efforts to sue a private organization such as the LPGA because she wishes to play in women’s golf in the United States.

In the real world it does not work this way. We live in a world of give-and-take, of which Mianne and I have worked tirelessly over many years with sports leaders and experts around the world behind the scenes with the leaderships of Canada to drive universal change through research and language, of which diversity effect’s each person as EQUALS.

This is a continuum of a much greater social ethics issue, NOT a “transgender” issue as is being presented and great example yet again, of our societies inability to understand ‘NORMAL’ human difference because of lacking education, to appreciate each one of is diverse either it be cultural, social or physical, or a combination there of which effects each one of us universally around the world.

Working behind the scenes, with international leaders from around the world get this very clearly. But it is incidents and articles just like this that is a proven example of how hatred and violence towards those most vulnerable in society are portrayed, and that because of our societies lacking understanding impacts their lives greatly.

I want to make very clear;

“I do NOT support Lana Lawless, as you do not sue a private organization because you feel you deserve something and suggesting this is a “human right”. The world does not work that way – This is an education issue, NOT a human right issue. EFFECTIVE CHANGE comes through EDUCATION and GREATER LANGUAGE, bringing together expertise with a broader brush approach, as DIVERSITY effect’s each one of us EQUALLY –

You get a lot more bees with honey.

It is being presumed we are the “SAME” in the media because one has transitioned in their life.  It is like saying because I was a breast cancer survivor as was another girlfriend of mine, one that our experience was the same dealing with it, and that our lives are the same as well too.  That is just not so for anyone. Moreover, Ms. Lawless and Ms. Richard’s  are (2) generations older than either me or Mianne. Our experiences are very very different in EVERY way.

Our goals are to create awareness and support of young people and their families to help empower and educate to create opportunities, education and language as equal participants through extensive leadership bringing global stakeholders together in and out sport to change the NORMAL of greater society which effects each one of us.

IT TAKES TEAM WORK BY EVERYONE.”

Continue reading ‘Lawless’ Legal Case Against the LPGA “Appalling”. NOT a “transgender” issue, but one of Education, Language and Social Ethics.’

Breaking the Silence – IOC/IAAF the Biggest Threat to Women’s Participation and Growth in International Sport – Gender, Diversity and Social Ethics in International Sport.

This in response to Stephen Wilson’s of the Associated Press [AP] on November 19th, 2010 titled; IOC, IAAF finalizing rules on gender cases.

*This made my heart ache to read this article, and to hear from athletes around the world of what Ljungqvist has said and presented in the AP. Hearing from Sports and Legal experts just aghast and lost for words by what he has done after so many warnings.

In response direct to Mr. Wilson’s article, it is unrepresentative of the truth of the issues around gender in sport and gender testing. Though consistent in the last year of the International Olympic Committee [IOC] and International Association of Athletics Federation [IAAF] around these issues, moreover consistent over several decades of the miss handling of gender in sport, thus (25) years of Arne Ljungqvist failure en-fact, decades of human right abuse and psychological and physical rape of high performance female athletes, most recently as it was determined with young Caster Semenya by the IOC and IAAF, August 2009. Of which it was determined, Caster gender in-fact was never and question, and that in-fact the she had been raped, leading to human rights abuse by the IAAF of which they have been trying to cover up ever since.

Continue reading ‘Breaking the Silence – IOC/IAAF the Biggest Threat to Women’s Participation and Growth in International Sport – Gender, Diversity and Social Ethics in International Sport…/’

The Times of India -

Kristen Worley is a Canadian high performance track cyclist who has been speaking publicly on issues of gender discrimination and treatment of gender variant athletes.

She is also co-founder of Coalition of Athletes for Inclusion in Sport formed in 2009 to address the IOC Gender Policy. Worley’s activism recently ensured world sporting bodies lift the ban on South African runner Caster Semenya, who had to sit out for 11 months after the world champion’s gold medal was revoked as she failed ‘gender tests’.

Published – August 1st, 2010

For Full Article – “CLICK HERE”
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The Times of India - Semenya backer now takes up Santhi’s case

Nandita Sengupta, TNN, Jul 31, 2010, 03.35am IST

NEW DELHI: There is hope yet for athlete Santhi Soundarajan. The Tamil Nadu athlete was barred from racing and stripped of the silver medal she won at Doha’s Asian Games in 2006 after failing gender tests.

But now Canada-based elite cyclist Kristen Worley, who successfully fought for South African athlete Caster Semenya, has taken up her case.

Published – July 31, 2010

For Full Article – “CLICK HERE”
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