Discrimination against trans Olympians has roots in #NaziGermany
The forgotten Olympic history of #TransAthletes.
by Alex Abad-Santos
Updated Aug 1, 2024
Excerpt: "Outside of the [Olympic] Games, trans people face so much backlash, often for simply existing. The conversation around sports is particularly fraught, from children’s athletics right up through the pros. Despite the International Olympic Committee vowing to be more inclusive, the future for trans athletes is unclear.
"It all raises the question: How did we get to this point, and did it always have to be this way?
"The answers found in historian and journalist #MichaelWaters’s The Other Olympians: #Fascism, #Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports might be surprising. Waters’s book traces the emergence of #ZdeněkKoubek, a track and field star representing the country formerly known as Czechoslovakia who, at 21, won two medals — a gold in the 800m and a bronze in the long jump — at the 1934 Women’s World Games. (The Women’s World Games was the precursor to women competing at the Olympics). In 1935, Koubek announced that he would be living life as a man and swiftly became an international celebrity.
"Perhaps the most intriguing facet to Koubek’s story was in the public response. Koubek was more welcomed and celebrated than we might imagine. There was an open-mindedness and empathy to the reception of Koubek and his gender identity and expression in the 1930s.
"Waters also pinpoints where and when that changed, specifically at the #1936Olympics in #Nazi Germany. Armed with a propensity for #eugenics, #GenderAnxiety, and a startling lack of scientific evidence, a small set of Nazi officials influenced the International Olympic Committee into #GenderSurveillance and #TransPanic — stuff that eerily mirrors the #transphobic attacks that athletes, cis and trans alike, face today."
Read more:
https://www.vox.com/culture/364032/trans-athletes-olympics-2024?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
#TransgenderAthletes #SexTesting
#TransRightsAreHumanRights
