Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Transgender to Play Women's Basketball

Which one, is not like the other?

From ESPN.com

A female-to-male transgender member of the George Washington women's basketball team wants to be identified as a man this season.

Junior Kye Allums -- who used to be known as Kay-Kay -- is referred to on the school's website as a "male member of George Washington's women's basketball team."

"GW has been supportive during this transition. This means a lot. I didn't choose to be born in this body and feel the way I do. I decided to transition -- that is, change my name and pronouns -- because it bothered me to hide who I am, and I am trying to help myself and others to be who they are," Allums said in a statement posted Tuesday on the website.

"I told my teammates first, and they, including my coaches, have supported me. My teammates have embraced me as the big brother of the team," continued Allums, who turned 21 last month. "They have been my family, and I love them all."

A story posted Monday on outsports.com reported that "Allums will be the first publicly transgender person" to play NCAA Division I college basketball. NCAA spokesman Rick Nixon did not immediately reply to a request for comment Tuesday from the AP.

Not to worry, NAGAYT has tracked down the story and has received comment from NCAA Spokesman Rick Nixon. Nixon was surprised to learn of the story yesterday and when asked what the NCAA intends to do he was candid.

 "How the hell should I know? I mean what do you do with something like that? This Shim seems to be using an unfair advantage playing on the women's team.  The good thing is that with this being women's basketball, no one cares.  This story will pass in a few days and everyone can go back to ignoring the sport. 

George Washington has throw their support behind Kyle, formerly know as Kye.  Nixon believes GW is at a loss for what has taken place.  "I mean in this day in age you can't ask someone to drop their pants before they play.  You can't check the equipment down there, coaches have gotten in trouble for that in the past.  GW is being PC and is taking the high road.  Its the female sport with possibly the lowest form of entertainment so what do they care? 

Allums started 20 games for George Washington last season, averaging 7.4 points and 4.6 rebounds in 24.9 minutes. Allums scored a career-high 21 points in a 58-50 victory over La Salle on Jan. 24.

La Salle's coach last season has since been fired.  Some believe it was in large part to the embarrassing defeat to GW.  Tom Locker disagreed with the fact that Kye impact made a big difference.  "I could have used our whole men's team and we still would have lost the game.  I mean have you seen how awful Giannini's team is?"

A side note, there is a former Cherry Hill East player on this team.

1 comment:

  1. I really thought this was true for a minute until I realized we would have been swarmed with OTL specials about it if it were indeed factual. Nice job.

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