THE notion that transgender athletes participating in the girls’ division at next year’s Fiji secondary school athletics competition will destroy women in sports is “fear-mongering” at best, Haus of Khameleon board member and trans-female Dr Isireli Biumaitotoya (Leli Darling) said.
The doctor said the claim was still speculation because it remained unproven to date. The doctor said sports was for everyone and allowing trans people to compete in whatever sport they wished — and in a category they identified with — augured well for their physical and mental wellbeing.
“This is a small mercy in a life often downtrodden and hated and I’m all for it,” the Nadi-based doctor said.
“I stand by my fellow transgender woman athletes in their absolute right to compete in the women’s category provided they fulfil the regulatory criterion demanding one year of transitioning hormones and a testosterone level below 5-10 nanomoles per litre (nmmol/L), whichever it may be for the particular sport involved.”
The doctor also labelled comments by Jasper Williams High School Old Girls Association president Mereoni Rokoca as “transphobic hate speech”, claiming the comments reeked of hatred, careless disdain and lack of concern for transgender children and youths facing real life hardships and torment.
“She must know that transgenders in sports debate did not arise when Mr Vuli Waqa adopted the IAAF rules recently as he tries to align Athletics Fiji to the world, which is a necessity if this sport was to progress.
It also was not ushered into the Fijian sports-scape by any transgender person in Fiji, most of whom remain clueless as to what is going on.”