General

Is Applause For I.O.C.'s New Rules For Transgender Athletes Premature?

The new International Olympic Committee guidelines for transgender athletes’ eligibility to compete in the Olympics have been hailed as bringing the IOC into the modern world, but the applause for the IOC may be premature says one international expert in sex, gender, and sport.

A Victory for Dutee Chand and Female Athletes

The decision by the International Court for Arbitration in Sport to reinstate Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, who had been banned in 2014 by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) from competing against women because she was found to have levels of testosterone considered too high for a female was as surprising as it was it was enlightened, says an international expert on gender, sexuality, and sport.

Gender Policing In Women's Sport Continues

For the second time in five years, a non-western female sprinter in her teens has been targeted by the two major international sports governing bodies, subjected to invasive medical and media scrutiny, and found to be too "masculine" to qualify as a woman in sporting competition.

Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Misuse Five Times Higher For Gay and Bisexual Boys

A new study from The Fenway Institute, a Boston health center for the LGBT community, shows that gay and bisexual boys use anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) at rates much higher than their straight counterparts. One of the reasons is an obsessive desire to look better, which is behind the use by more and more teenagers, gay and straight.

Sexual Diversity and the Sochi 2014 Olympics: No More Rainbows

In her new book, Sexual Diversity and the Sochi 2014 Olympics: No More Rainbows, Helen Jefferson Lenskyj examines Russia's 2013 anti-gay laws, their implications for the Sochi 2014 Olympics, and world responses to calls for a boycott.

Caitlin Cahow: Being Openly Gay Not Only Reason For Inclusion In U.S. Delegation To Sochi Olympics

Sometimes, when it feels like all I read about in the newspapers and hear on television is about war and conflict, along comes a young woman with wisdom, grace, confidence and dignity beyond her years, an "old soul", if you will, ready to bring us together, to teach the world that we are all one people.  Catlin Cahow is just such a person.  

The naming by President Barack Obama of Caitlin Cahow to be a member of the U.S. delegation to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia came as no surprise to Brooke de Lench, not because she is openly gay but because offers the world a perspective on the power of sport in general, and the Olympics in particular, to unite, rather, than divide nations and people.

Mostly Positive Response To Jason Collin's Coming Out Story Is Good Start

In the last few weeks, three events have brought sex and sport to the forefront of public and media attention again, but, this time, two of the three stories have been positive, one even prompting President Obama to issue a statement of support.

"Winning Takes Care of Everything" and Other Sporting Myths

Nike's latest edgy ad in which Tiger Woods claims that, "Winning takes care of everything," has evoked a wide range of responses in the media, and, one might hope, around the family dinner table. After all, why miss a teachable moment when you're a parent of a young athlete? But what exactly is Nike's message, wonders one commentator on sports and society.

Sexual Non-Conformity In Sports: Are All Men Straight And All Women Gay?

Despite progress in women's and LGBT rights, the way the mainstream media portrays non-conforming or sexually ambiguous athletes has not changed much in three decades, argues a leading expert on gender in sport, citing the treatment of Olympic athletes Caster Semenya (left) and Johnnie Weir.
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