Sports
New rules allow trans athletes to compete
IOC, Out Games changes could prompt wider policy updates
Chris Mosier starred in a Nike ad highlighting his status as a trans athlete. (Photo via Twitter)
New rule changes at the International Olympic Committee and the World Out Games are affording new opportunities to transgender athletes in time for major events amid the ongoing Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Both organizations have loosened the qualifications for transgender athletes to compete, which is what allowed Chris Mosier, a transgender athlete, to compete as part of the men’s U.S. national team in the Sprint Duathlon World Championship in Spain.
Earlier this month in an interview with Rolling Stone, Mosier said changing gender identity wasn’t going to stop him from achieving his goals as an athlete.
“When I think back to growing up as an athlete, every positive thing that I learned about goals, dedication, leadership, and values I learned from playing sports — this was an area of my life where I felt the best about myself,” Mosier is quoted as saying. “That shouldn’t change because a pronoun has changed. I took this on because I think all athletes and all people should have the opportunity to play sports and have a place where they can feel their best about themselves.”
Although neither Mosier nor any openly transgender athlete is participating in the Olympic Games, Mosier gained notoriety by starring in a Nike ad that aired on NBC highlighting his status as a transgender athlete during the event in Brazil.
Prior to Mosier’s challenge of the IOC policy, the organization required gender reassignment surgery and at least two years of hormone therapy for both transgender men and women to compete.
But under the new policy announced in January 2016, female-to-male athletes can take part in the Olympics and other international events “without restriction” or a surgery requirement. Surgery is also no longer required for male-to-female athletes, but they must demonstrate their testosterone level is consistently below a certain cutoff point for at least a year before their first competition.
Ashley Grove, an ambassador for the pro-LGBT group Athlete Ally, said Mosier is the most prominent example being able to compete as a result of the new policy, but maintained he’s likely only the first.
“What we’re going to see is just probably more transgender athletes being able to compete in general,” Grove said. “The surgery requirement for trans people who are not athletes is very difficult and sometimes not wanted. We’re still going to see more trans athletes compete at the Olympic level.”
The Out Games, an international sports event that started after a split from the Gay Games in 2006, adopted a new policy for transgender athletes in August 2015 allowing athletes to register on a self-declaration basis with the gender team consistent with their gender identity.
Although the Out Games seeks identification affirming the gender identity of athletes looking to compete, the organization will accept a letter from a healthcare provider, mental health counselor, an educational institution or a community-based or religious organization in case of transgender athletes who are unable to change the gender markers on their IDs. In the event such documentation isn’t available, the Out Games will accept transgender athletes without ID matching their gender identity on a case-by-case basis.
Grove said the policy established by the Out Games makes the organization “more lenient” for transgender athletes than the International Olympic Committee.
“There’s nothing about hormone testing,” Grove said. “There’s nothing about surgery. It’s pretty much the policy sports groups advocate for, but it’s not as rigid as the IOC’s policy or the NCAA’s policy.”
While no Out Games competition has taken place since the federation adopted the rules in 2015, Grove said she “imagine[s] we’ll see a difference” in the number of transgender athletes at the event in Miami 2017.
Grove said the change at the International Olympic Committee and the Out Games should enable other sports organizations and schools to update their policies to allow transgender athletes to compete.
“We’re pushing for rec leagues to have a change, we’re pushing for international sports leagues to have a change,” Grove said. “I guess for high schools that’s the next biggest institution. We’re going to need to be like real change across the board because we have it now at the Olympic level, we have it now at the collegiate level, we do not see it at the high school level.”
Sports
Attitude! French ice dancers nail ‘Vogue’ routine
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry strike a pose in memorable Olympics performance
Madonna’s presence is being felt at the Olympic Games in Italy.
Guillaume Cizeron and his rhythm ice dancing partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France performed a flawless skate to Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Rescue Me” on Monday.
The duo scored an impressive 90.18 for their effort, the best score of the night.
“We’ve been working hard the whole season to get over 90, so it was nice to see the score on the screen,” Fournier Beaudry told Olympics.com. “But first of all, just coming out off the ice, we were very happy about what we delivered and the pleasure we had out there. With the energy of the crowd, it was really amazing.”
Watch the routine on YouTube here.
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
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