A right to compete? A gender critical response

‘ANDRAYA YEARWOOD KNOWS SHE HAS THE RIGHT TO COMPETE’ by Mirin Fader. Dec 18, 2018

She is one of the fastest teens in Connecticut. So why do people not want her to run? Because this 17-year-old Black transgender girl represents what they are afraid of: no longer being the norm.

No. No one is saying Andraya must stop running. People are simply asserting fact and saying that as he is male he needs to run in male competitions. It is not the breaking of “the norm” that people are afraid of either. It is the unfairness and illogic of it that bothers the average person. It is not fair on girls and women to have boys and men allowed to compete in their sporting competitions.

There are people who do not want Andraya Yearwood to run. They are bothered by the sight of her. Angered by the thought of her.

This is hyperbolic and emotional without providing any evidence of the assertions. Maybe there are a few truly transphobic people around, but by and large critics of Andraya competing are angered by the disregard for the young women who will never be able to beat him. This characterising of people who disagree as monstrous bigots is ridiculous.

Andraya Yearwood

The black scrunchie on her wrist, the ponytail down her back. The steely stare she offers as coaches, parents and fans hurl insults toward her at track meets, not caring that she’s an earshot away. The vitriol intrudes before races. Afterward. In her Instagram comments. They say she has a “biological advantage.” They say allowing her to run isn’t fair. They do not recognize her as a girl. They insist she is a boy — a boy who shouldn’t compete in the girls division.

Abuse is not okay. However, in this case the outrage and the objections are quite reasonable even if the delivery is not. Andraya does have a biological advantage. There is a plethora of scientific information out there that has been tested and proven showing the differences in female and male bodies in athletic potential. It is completely reasonable to say that Andraya should not compete in the girls division. He is male. People are “insisting” he is a boy because material reality, facts, science, logic, and anyone with decent eye sight say he is.

When Andraya is on the track, about to burst out of the blocks, she doesn’t hear this noise. Doesn’t feel it. She travels somewhere else. “I don’t have to think,” she says. So she zooms. Pumps her arms harder, moves her legs more quickly. The 100-meter dash is where she shines most. The last two seasons, she finished second in the state open in the 100, with a time of 12.29 in 2018. In 2017, her freshman year, she won a Class M title in the 100 and finished second in the 100 at the New England High School Outdoor Track and Field Championships. “Unheard of” for a first-year, according to her coach, Brian Calhoun.

The poetic language and heroic narrative are a bit much. We are talking about a male student who sees nothing wrong with competing in the girls division despite everyone on the planet knowing he carries significant biological advantages.

And it seems a little lacking in self-awareness to start listing the “unheard of” achievements of the kid right after passive aggressively shaming those who have pointed out that his maleness gives him unique advantages. Of course it’s unheard of, he is a male in a female competition!

Now in her third year competing for Cromwell High School, in Cromwell, Connecticut, she feels unfazed. Confident. Probably more than she ever has. “Because they don’t want me to run, I have to run harder,” she says. “I want to go to nationals in order to prove them wrong, to be like, You guys don’t want me to run? But look, I qualified for nationals.”

What is he proving? Qualifying for nationals doesn’t disprove the theory he has an advantage. If anything it does the opposite. The first time I read this article it was this paragraph that made me begin to consider how much conditioning this kid must have gone through to not properly comprehend why so many people are angry at him running in the girls’ division. He has been taught there is nothing wrong with what he is doing and everyone who disagrees is a hater.

Andraya is a 17-year-old transgender girl. A Black transgender girl in a small town that is 90 percent Caucasian. A Black transgender girl in a world that is intent on policing and erasing girls like her. She is perplexed by the lengths to which some people have gone to drill into her their underlying message: You’re free to be yourself, just not here. Over there. Not with us. Over there.

First of all, the central issue of this article is sex and gender so I will set aside the issues of race here. The assertion that the world is “policing and erasing” Andraya has not been supported at all in the article thus far and to be frank, the fact that as a male he has even been able to race in the girls’ division is evidence that he is far from erased.What has been erased is a fair and level playing field. The message (that is being ignored by race organisers anyway) isn’t that Andraya cannot be himself, the message is that it is a fact that he is male and so to run he must compete in the boy’s races.

When Andraya is on the track, about to burst out of the blocks, she doesn’t hear this noise. Doesn’t feel it. She travels somewhere else. The noise has been loud since her freshman year, when an adult man, whom she had never met, posted a video about her on YouTube. He spoke furiously into the camera, calling for her competitors to boycott. He titled his video: “How to Stop Andraya Yearwood from Beating Girls for Three More Years!” It hasn’t worked.

It is not an ideal situation to have grown men making YouTube videos about whether a young person should participate in sport or not, however, every other avenue that parents and other concerned adults have taken to discuss the issue has been shut down. The adults around Andraya and those who have made the decision to enable her competing have allowed the issue to escalate.