Trans People Struggling To Be Human in Sports and Exercise: Passing, Mediating, and Challenging Cis- and Heteronormativity

This study explores how trans individuals struggle to make themselves intelligible as humans in a cis- and heteronormative context of sports and exercise. Ten trans people with present or prior experience in sports and exercise were interviewed. The analysis draws from Butler’s idea of trans people’s exclusion as a question of unintelligibility instead of oppression. The study demonstrates three overreaching ways trans people make themselves discursively intelligible as humans: by passing as cis, by coming out as trans yet mediating potential inconvenience this may pose on others, and by coming out as trans paired with challenging cis- and heteronormativity. We argue that practices aligning to intelligibility as humans are key for trans people in sports, exercise, and possibly in other walks of life.