Transgender Debate More of a Marathon Than a Sprint with Much at Risk for Athletes

Around the country, talk of transgender equality is a hot topic.

For Anchorage, Alaska Haines High School senior, Nattaphon Wangyot, it is his life. 

Born in Thailand with male anatomy identifying as a female, Wangyot qualified for the girls 1-2-3A 100-meter and 200-meter state finals May 27. 

Tukta Panyawong, Wangyot's mother told the Chilkat Valley News, "You don't have to be afraid. If you are transgender, you should be yourself. There's nothing wrong. You're still human. You're a good person."

"I am a girl born in a boy's body," Wangyot reportedly said about himself.

The Alaska School Activities Association's board of directors decided in May 2015 to accept any participation decisions made at the local levels. ASAA will not make certain gender identifications or take appeals from districts that object to decisions made by other school districts. If the school district does not have a transgender policy, the ASAA policy states that students would participate on the gender assigned to them at birth. 

Haines' district policy states, "For the purpose of gender identification for interscholastic activities, the district will consider the gender identity based on the student's consistent declaration of gender identity, their actions, attitude, dress, and mannerisms."

Basically, if a person's sex is declared and they act like that sex, they are considered by the school to be that sex and are granted whatever gender pronouns they wish to be associated with.

Taking 3rd place in the 100-meter race with a time of 13.14 seconds at the Region V meet May 21, Wangyot one of the 8 runners took Saskia Harrison's place in Alaska's state finals.

Harrison reportedly commented saying, "I'm glad this person is comfortable with who they are and they're able to be happy in who they are, but I don't think it's competitively 100-percent fair."

Peyton Young is also on the girls track team. She won the Class 4A girls 3,200 meter race. 

"I don't know what's politically correct to say, but in my opinion your gender is what you're born with. It's the DNA," she said.

"Genetically a guy has more muscle mass than a girl, and if he's racing against a girl, he may have an advantage," Young stated.

Wangyot told reporters that he takes female hormones and other drugs to suppress testosterone levels saying, "The people who are going to think, 'It's not fair to play with the boys'—well, you don't know that. It's not easy. It's not like I wake up and 'Okay, I'm a girl now.'"

President of the conservative Alaska Family Action group Jim Minnery held a press conference supporting the idea of team competition remaining in groups based on male and female identity from birth.

He said, "We are here today as a voice from the community to ensure that female athletes are not denied the playing opportunities and scholarships otherwise available to them and to make the playing field even again."

The larger problem is the loss of scholarship availability for young girls participating in sports hoping to play at a higher level. 

"Allowing students to play on teams of the opposite sex disproportionately impacts female students, who will lose spots on track, soccer, and volleyball teams to male students who identify as female," Minnery said.

Wangyot played on his school's women's volleyball and basketball teams earlier this year and gleaned hardly any media attention. The lack of team atmosphere and individual timing in track meets may have contributed to this rush of mass attention. 

Minnery reportedly stated that the ASAA strayed from Title IX boundaries, however ASAA's executive director Billy Strickland believes ASAA's transgender policy complies with Title IX.

The international Olympic Committee and NCAA both let athletes compete based on gender identification, as long as the athletes born male identifying as females are undergoing hormone replacement therapy.