Recently, five transgender players participated in a women’s college volleyball game in Canada, causing controversy as female players were pushed out as candidates one after another.
It was a women’s college volleyball match between Seneca College (Senecasting), a public university in Ontario, and Centennial College (Centennial) team in Toronto, Canada, on the 24th of last month.
This is because three men appeared to be men in the Senecasting team and two men in the Centennial team.
Transgender athletes played full-time without even replacing them and led the entire game with overwhelming power, but some female athletes didn’t even get a chance to play and had to stay on the bench throughout the game.
The match ended with Senecasting’s victory. “Since Senecasting had more male players, it could be a natural outcome,” he said.
Franz Lagadas, one of the transgender players in Senecasting, was a member of the men’s volleyball team during the 2022-23 season. Then, in less than a year, he became a female player, claiming that he had a “gender change.”
Six transgender athletes are said to be affiliated with the University of Ontario Athletic Association (OCAA). Five of them were said to have not undergone hormone therapy or surgical operation.
“Transgender athletes are also directly linked to safety issues,” he said. This is because there were actually two major injuries caused by transgender athletes in OCAA. On November 12 last year, a transgender athlete was diagnosed with a concussion by hitting another player in the head instead of a ball, and on January 22, he hit the opponent in the head with a ball, injuring him.
As a result, there were criticisms that other players were suffering because the exact rules for transgender athletes were not established.
Accurate rules for transgender athletes should be established quickly so that female athletes will not be pushed out as candidates and that safety problems will not arise.
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
