Rules technically state
That entrants must compete as their gender-at-birth.

Which is all well and good, but what if Semenya doesn't slot nicely into one of those 2 categories? Who gets to decide what gender she is?

I have a friend called Jaimie who was born with female organs but male quantities of horemones - i.e. She had the outward appearance of being (quite abundantly) female, but could grow a beard and all sorts.

He has always identified as male, regardless of outward appearances, because (and I'm simplifying, I know) his horemones were telling him he was a boy, not a girl. He underwent gender reassignment therapy and is now certificated as male.

Gender isn't limited to "cock or fanny". Sex is, but gender isn't.

Will be interested to see how this turns out.
(Biscuit Burlesque wants to be Dita von Teas, Thu 20 Aug 2009, 11:22, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

Not quite true
if you've had sex reassignment including hormone treatmnt before puberty, you can compete as your current sex; post puberty, and you have to wait until two years post completion and then undergo a bunch of tests. I think this is more applicable to male-to-female though. The rules are there to stop people competing as women who have high levels of testosterone which gives you a natural advantage in sports. There's other rules regarding androgen insensitivity syndrome and the like (where you're born XY - a bloke - but your body doesn't respond to testosterone, so you go through puberty as a girl)

To be fair, having looked at her picture...she does look fairly ambiguous, but I hope she passes her tests.

*EDIT* and I agree with your point above - gender isn't necessarily defined by what bits and pieces you have.
(berk, Thu 20 Aug 2009, 11:40, Reply)