Perception of Filipino Cisgender Women on Transgender Women Involvement based on their Lived Experience as Combat Sports Athletes

The research focuses on the stances of actively competing Filipino Cisgender Women Athletes (CWA) in combat sports regarding the inclusion of Transgender Women Athletes (TWA). Adopting a qualitative research design to uncover the discourse around the participation of TWA in combat sports, the researchers interviewed ten (N=10) actively competing CWAs. The researchers integrated the arenas where discourse occurs—sporting experiences, media interactions, and social relationships—in the questions in order to understand how the stance of CWA is constructed. Results showed emerging themes namely Sense of Fairness (SF) between CWA and TWA, Invasion of Women’s Spaces (IWS) in combat sports, Kind of Openness (KO) in TWA inclusion, and Cancel Culture or Avoidance of Topic (CC/AT) surrounding TWA participation. The themes lead the researchers to their findings, which contend that CWA are reluctant and unwilling to compete against TWA due to their belief in Men’s Physical Advantage, Strength outweighs other performance components, TWA is changing the women competition landscape and anxieties about intimacy, and security in CWA private spaces. On the other hand, reception to TWA participation were also discussed, deepening CWA’s LGBTQ relations and equal platforms for all genders with TWA category in competitions. It is noteworthy that responses were given with hesitancy of voicing opinions with the fear of cancel culture. It is recommended that follow-up research should be done including ethnography, content analysis, and focus group discussions to capture more authentic and holistic data.