Izzy Munson / The Mossy Log
Jinsun Yang, a visiting professor in the Asian studies department, spoke on Sept. 29 about LGBTQ+ sports competitions in East Asia and how they are responding to the International Olympic Committee’s new requirement that athletes in the women’s category take a one-time genetic test. The colloquium, hosted by the Asian studies and sociology and anthropology departments, was held in JR Howard and drew about 30 students and faculty.
On March 26, the IOC announced that beginning with the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, all athletes competing in the female category must complete a one-time screening for the SRY gene, which is typically found on the Y chromosome and is associated with male sex development. The test uses a cheek swab, saliva or a blood sample. Athletes who test negative are permanently eligible. Most athletes who test positive will be barred from the female category, with rare exceptions for athletes with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome or other rare differences in sex development. The policy also bars transgender women. The IOC has said the policy is “based on science.”
Yang’s talk focused on protests against the policy and on queer sports events that are becoming more widespread in response. Some athletes, such as Caster Semenya, have filed lawsuits in previous cases of sex testing and won, claiming the tests were sexual harassment in the workplace, as the sport was their job, and forcing medical tests is against guidelines.
The presentation examined the framing and social movement of these events, with the research question “How and why do LGBTQ+ sports competitions in South Korea and Hong Kong develop different gender policies and strategies?”
“It’s very serious and problematic, very against human rights, because they’re only screening and censoring the female league,” Yang said in an interview with The Mossy Log.
They explained how they think the Olympics seem to be targeting women, especially trans women, with a process last used at the Olympics in 1996.
In an interview with The Mossy Log, Yang explained that they began with researching the social aspects of gender, gender policy and sex segregation, especially in sports, in South Korea, where they advocated for LGBTQ+ rights.
“In sports, binary gender is very institutionalized,” Yang said. “But because sports has very rigid sex segregation, there are also many activists trying to create alternative versions beyond binary sex and sex segregation. That’s how I ended up studying sports and gender.”
The Queer Women Network protests concerning homophobic policies led the group to begin the Queer Women Games in 2018. Yang knew the organizer of the games and initially felt pessimistic about games with a lack of sex segregation, seeing it as a different issue than LGBTQ+ rights. However, after playing basketball in one of the first queer games, they saw the way it brought oppressed groups together.
“It’s not just sex integration. This is a totally new space, not allowing sex and gender policing,” Yang said.
Yang then traveled around East Asia, interviewing around 60 people over the course of four years on how gender policies and sex segregation has affected them. They have also spoken on multiple college campuses about these issues and published several papers on them, such as “Localization of Sex Testing: Transnational Knowledge Production of Sex” and “Creating a Non-Gender Binary Sports Space: The Nonbinary Policy of Korean ‘Queer Women Games.’”
Other activists have turned toward promoting nongendered versions of the Olympics, such as Gay Games in Hong Kong and Queer Women Games in South Korea. In East Asia, many LGBTQ+ rights are not recognized, so events like these can bring attention to marginalized communities and give individuals a way to express themselves and have fun without fear. The games have unique ways to demonstrate inclusivity and promote fairness.
Queer Women Games in South Korea is a relatively small event, organized by local queer and women’s rights activists, and is open to all, regardless of skill level. It was the first public LGBTQ+ sports event in South Korea and has hosted about 400 participants a year since 2018. The organizers have had several conflicts with the South Korean government through their protests. They have also experienced difficulty holding the games on public property due to officials claiming moral problems regarding the event.
Queer Women Games has recently reacted to the transphobia and sex testing in the Olympics by including a “nonbinary policy,” essentially having all games be completely blind to gender and sex, with athletes of any gender identity allowed to play against anyone else.
“Queer Women Games wanted to highlight that gender and sex weren’t important for the events: It was about sports and including everyone,” Yang said.
Gay Games was first held in San Francisco in 1982 and has been hosted in different cities around the world every four years, sometimes drawing around 14,000 participants. The games were scheduled to occur in Hong Kong in 2022, but due to travel restrictions related to COVID-19, they were postponed to 2023 and Guadalajara, Mexico was chosen as a second venue.
2023 marked the first time the games were held in Asia. The Gay Games, according to Yang, has a “negotiating relationship” with Hong Kong’s government — at times, the government criticizes the games, but has also been supportive of them. The games focus on gender diversity and are framed as a festival rather than a protest, giving them more leeway to promote inclusivity without being shut down by the government.
Yang advised people who are passionate about rights for queer athletes to speak up. That includes proposing alternative ways to organize gym classes and sports events, researching more about what’s happening in the Olympics and other major sporting events, and making your opinion heard.
“There are times where it is necessary to assign spaces for women,” she said, “but it’s also necessary to make space for other gender or sexual minorities as well.”
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