Sports…

From lesbians in the stands to trans athletes we have a target on our backs.

Seattle Mariners tell lesbian couple to stop 'being affectionate'
At first the Mariners apologized to the lesbian couple, but now the team spokesperson says reports claim the women were inappropriately kissing during the game, something the couple denies.
Out Sports
By Cyd Zeigler
August 10, 2016

An incident involving a lesbian couple at a Seattle Mariners game Friday night has the team both apologizing to and pointing fingers at the couple. The two women are left wondering why they were told that their basic displays of public affection were deemed inappropriate by the people who complained, including a Mariners staffer.

On Friday, Giuliana Garcia and Calista Nabors attended the Mariners' home game against the Anaheim Angels. Garcia, a San Francisco Giants fan, was there to watch the Angels' new pitcher, Tim Lincecum, a former Giant who lasted three innings that night against some hot Mariners bats.

Sometime around the seventh inning, the couple was on the concourse waiting for friends when they were approached by an usher and told that a complaint had been filed against them; They needed to stop "being affectionate" because this was a "family friendly environment" and their actions were against the park's code of conduct, the women said they were told. That code of conduct bans "displays of affection not appropriate in a public, family setting."

The team issued an apology and offered to treat them to another game and they said that “hugging and embracing is totally fine.” which satisfied the couple, but then…

Hale said the usher received two complaints — one of them from a fellow Safeco Field staff member — that the two lesbians were "making out" with one another and should be stopped. Plus, despite Swisher telling the couple that the usher regretted the encounter, Hale told Outsports that the usher's own written statement maintained that the couple was "making out" and that the usher "felt it was not appropriate for the public setting."
[…]
"That's not true at all," Garcia said. "They never said that to us. The entire line they've given me is that they recognized we were just embracing and we shouldn't have been approached in the first place. So that's interesting that they have never shared that complaint to me in any correspondence. We would never make out in public. We would never do that in public. It was just a quick kiss."

I don’t watch much sports (almost nothing at all) but I do see highlights on the news and I don’t know how many times you see a couple kissing and they even put it up on the big screen but it seems like if a lesbian or a gay couple does the same thing it becomes an incident of public displays of affection. It seems to me that the Seattle Mainers have a double standard when it comes to PDA.

And now to…

The Colorado Springs Independent has an article about a trans athlete and her transition. They tell the story her turmoil in deciding to transition in sports.

Bearden finds her true self as transgender athlete
Good Dirt
By Tim Bergsten
June 29, 2016

[…]
For the first time, Bearden shared his story with another person. He told his mother that from about age 6 — perhaps much younger — he had identified as a female. He had wanted to wear his sister's clothes. He wanted long hair and pierced ears. He longed to play on the girls sports teams and to be a Girl Scout. In high school he wore girls clothes under his clothes "so that I could feel comfortable in my own skin."

His mother, of course, accepted him. And Jonathan Bearden began the process of becoming the transgender Jillian Bearden, a female cyclist and runner determined to help other transgender people meet the challenges of daily life, and create awareness about the transgender issue.

The next steps ... Jillian told her wife, Sarah, who helped her find a psychiatrist specializing in helping transgenders. They attended therapy sessions and "worked on our relationship and this idea that there was going to be another woman in the house," Bearden says. They are raising daughter Anna, who calls Bearden "Mama." Bearden also has a son, Conor, who still calls her "Dad."

And then the long process of transitioning.

Throughout her life, she loved cycling. Not long ago she was a strong, accomplished male rider in the Ascent Cycling Series mountain bike races. USA Cycling allows male-to-female transgender riders to compete in sanctioned races, as long as their hormone levels are kept at prescribed levels. Bearden was invited to join a women's cycling team and says the riders have been accepting and supporting. She does well in races, but she is not the fastest girl on the course.

She stepped to the starting line in April for the XTERRA 12K trail race at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, where she finished second in a battle with elite runner Amanda Lee of Boulder. At the time, Lee did not know she was racing against a transgender woman.

But not everyone is okay with a trans athlete,

Lee says some women runners may be angry about racing against, or losing money to, a male-to-female transgender...

Because of her hormone therapy she lost muscle mass and her testosterone levels are lower than a woman of her age. After two years of Cross Gender Hormone therapy our muscle mass compares to that of a natal woman or man and there is no reason why we can’t compete in our true gender.