Sarah Palmer, Staff Writer |

Nearing the one-year anniversary of the group’s establishment, QriTical—Mount Royal University’s queer and transgender research hub—hosted the Transathletic Teach-In panel on Friday, Nov. 8.

Patrons attended either virtually via Zoom or in person at the Riddell Library’s Ideas Lounge. Listening to the insight of five guest speakers, the panelists spoke about the current state of transgender inclusion in sport from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Dampening the research hub’s launch party, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced a range of controversial policies aimed at the province’s transgender population last March. Overshadowing QriTical’s festivities once again was the United Conservative Party’s tabling of Bills 26, 27, and 29 on Oct. 31—barely a week before the panel.

From medal-winning Paralympian Valentina Petrillo to professional hockey player Jessica Platt,

Competitive athletes and academics from a variety of different sports and identity-diverse backgrounds shared their thoughts while dissecting the proposed legislation.

The possible approval of the three amendment acts would reshape the level of access that Alberta’s transgender youth have to gender-affirming care and self-identification in pre-secondary school—while shifting the eligibility that transgender athletes of all ages have to competitive sports.

Panelists spoke specifically about the possible impact of Bill 29, the Safety in Sport Amendment Act, which would ban transgender athletes from competing in non-designated co-ed leagues while allowing school authorities and sports organizations to report eligibility concerns of current players or people requesting to create mixed-gender leagues.

During the first reading of Bill 29, Minister of Tourism and Sport, Joseph Schow, indirectly called the allowance of trans-women competing in sports leagues alongside biological women “an unfair advantage” and described that the proposed legislation would enforce that a person’s registered sex at birth would determine their competitive eligibility.

Particularly focusing on fairness in women’s sports, the legislation would effectively make female leagues available to biological females only while limiting trans-women to competing in co-ed leagues.

“That unfair advantage that people think we have really comes from a misogynistic viewpoint that women are inherently worse than men, that they’re smaller or weaker than men,” said Platt. “Those kinds of viewpoints really take away from the work that myself as a trans-athlete would put in.”

Announcing her gender identity as a trans-woman on Instagram while playing for the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) team, the Toronto Furies, Platt became the first openly transgender person to play professional hockey in Canada in 2018. Having now ended her professional career, Platt remembers feelings of support while looking back on her time spent playing on the team. Learning about Alberta’s proposed legislation makes her thankful to have been accepted into a woman’s league, and reminds her about the challenges she faced as an athlete who transitioned.

“When I transitioned, I lost my sense of safety,” said Platt. “People have this idea that people transition to win, but people transition to be happy.”

Sharing that she’s seen an abundance of online rhetoric of people saying that they think biological men transition so they can place higher in women’s sports leagues, Platt questions this opinion in finding that trans-women continue to face barriers—regardless of them achieving elite-athletic status.

“Who’s going to give up their privileges as a cis male for little to no money as a pro athlete in women’s sports?” Platt said. “You have to worry about being judged constantly, you’re going to risk rejection, harassment, [and maybe even] violence.”

Having completed their thesis on the experiences of trans and non-gender conforming persons in sport, panelist Eva Bošnjak agrees that the legislation reinforces harmful gender stereotypes and finds that this idea is informed by biological men having naturally higher levels of testosterone, the hormone responsible for muscle and bone strength, according to Harvard Health Publishing.

“What this misconception does when it is embedded into a policy is that it masks transphobia under the guise of fairness,” said Bošnjak. “People think that testosterone is a predictor of sport performance, and the data shows us that it is not.”

Citing the 2021 review by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), Bošnjak summarized that there is limited evidence proving that having an increased amount of testosterone makes for better athletic performance and that the collection of biological data is methodologically flawed and often overused when informing policies.

Noting that sports like gymnastics don’t consider traditionally-masculine features as an athletic advantage, Saskatchewan-based national trampoline gymnast and panelist Eb Campbell believes the sport is “exceptionally gendered” nonetheless. Seeing that men’s and women’s categories are completely different sports, Campbell explains that gymnasts start specializing in their areas of interest incredibly young—posing challenges for transgender athletes hoping to continue the sport after announcing a change to their gender identity.

“Some trans athletes will, because of this, just decide to wait until they’re done to come out,” said Campbell. “Or they will come out but stay competing in the category they started in because moving over isn’t really a choice.”

Identifying as non-binary, Campbell finds that non-cis-gender people should be permitted the opportunity to compete in categories that best align with their skill level instead of their gender identity. Campbell, for example, enrolls in men’s categories for trampoline and tumbling while participating in a woman’s roller derby league because those are the sections they feel their athleticism matches their teammates most accurately.

Suggesting a solution to how sports are categorized, Bošnjak recommended that men’s leagues should be renamed to “open” and exist as a category where anyone can participate regardless of their gender. For women’s leagues, Bošnjak said the category should be made available to anyone who’s a member of a marginalized group—including biological women among non-binary and transgender people.

Having quilted a mosaic informed by their individual perspectives, panelists agreed that Bill 29’s passing would be a backward step for Alberta. By restricting transgender people from enrolling in co-ed leagues, Bošnjak feels that this would reinforce the narrative that sports are intended for cisgender people.

“I want to see [sport] categories or criteria where it doesn’t matter if a person is taking hormones or not taking hormones,” said Bošnjak. “I just want them to be able to participate in the category they are most comfortable in [and] I want them to feel respected. I want them to feel seen.”

Sarah Palmer is a Staff Writer for The Reflector 2024 -2025.