Sports and the Limits of the Binary: The Contested Terrains of Trans and Nonbinary Athlete Inclusion

In this introduction to the second special issue on Sports and the Limits of the Binary: Trans and Nonbinary Athletes and Equity in Sport , we offer a snapshot of the landscape around trans and nonbinary athlete inclusion as of May 2025. We attend to the intensifying political backlash and cultural anxieties surrounding trans and nonbinary people’s participation in sport within the Global North, highlighting the critical interventions of scholars, activists, and advocates operating within and beyond the bounds of academia. Alongside this landscape, we synthesize recent interdisciplinary scholarship to trace the contours of this rapidly evolving field. We conclude by situating the contributions of this special issue within the intersecting sociopolitical and academic terrains, underscoring their necessity in this contested moment.