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First Transgender Man Plays on Women's Team

By Laura Strachan, Esq. on November 05, 2010 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Basketball player Kye Allums has a lot to celebrate these days. The transgender George Washington University junior will be the first transgender man to play on a women's Division I basketball team. The 20-year-old interior design major said the hardest part of the whole process was telling his basketball coach.

"I used to feel like trans anything was really weird and those people were crazy and I wondered, 'How can you feel like that?' And then I looked it up on the internet and thought, 'Oh my God I am one of those weird people," Allums recently told Outsports, reported The New York Daily News.

Now, Kye Allums is also a trailblazer for transgendered athletes.

Transgendered athletes and sports have received a tremendous amount of publicity lately from the recent lawsuit between a transgendered golfer and the LPGA. In Allums case, he identifies as a lesbian but his playing time on the women's basketball team comes with certain restrictions -- he is not allowed to undergo any type of surgery or take hormones.

The inclusion of transgender athletes in sports has been an equality challenge for sports governing bodies.

Many college sports serve as a gateway for a professional career. It will be interesting to follow Kye Allum's career and any potential controversies that may follow if she attempts to play in the WNBA. For now, the NCAA (the governing body for collegiate sports) is looking into how to handle any sensitive locker room issues that may arise.

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