CEC Announces Transgender Inclusion Policy
Climbing Escalade Canada has announced its new Transgender Inclusion Policy that will allow climbers to participate in their choice of category.
On June 22, 2021 Climbing Escalade Canada (CEC) made the monumental decision to adopt their Transgender Inclusion Policy. For transgender climbers in Canada, this step offers accessibility at an unprecedented level.
In the past, National Sporting Organizations and sport have not offered transgender athletes access to high-level competition. The arguments surrounding this issue largely concern themselves with the physical and hormonal differences between the sexes. This thought has prevented transgender athletes from competing in sport without hormone therapy. Sporting policy often fails to meet athletes where they are.
As such, the CEC decided to move forward on their Transgender Inclusion Policy for a number of reasons. To begin, the CEC said that they believe all individuals have equal right to a respectful and inclusive environment in climbing. They continued in saying that they believe it is up to the sport to adapt to its participants and not the participants, in their identity or otherwise, to adapt to the sport.
This suggests that the format of climbing competitions could change to better suit equity. The IFSC recently tested competition that included both male and female competitors. This team-based event differs from individual competition. Still, this opens the door for conversations regarding the different ways sport might categorize its athletes.
The CEC’s Transgender Inclusion Policy summarizes to four core beliefs. The first describes the thought that individuals should be able to participate, develop, and recreate in sport in the gender with which they identify. Hormone therapy should not be required of an athlete that wishes to compete in high-performance sport. Furthermore, individuals should not feel compelled to disclose their identity or history to the sport organization to participate at a high level.
This policy differs from the IOC’s current guidelines in which female-to-male athletes can compete without restrictions where male-to-female athletes must undergo hormone therapy to be able to participate. According to the CEC, the IOC is waiting until after the Tokyo Olympics to publish new guidelines on transgender athletes. These guidelines should protect inclusivity, safety and fairness in sport. Whether this might be achieved will not become clear until after the Games concludes.