The Collision of Trans-Experience and the Politics of Women's Ice Hockey

Transgender identified athletes have competed at all levels in sports, though most remain hidden and silenced. In the Spring of 2003, USA Hockey banned a transsexual male-to-female (MTF) athlete from participating in the Women's National Ice Hockey Tournament. By deeming her ineligible, USA Hockey demonstrated how tightly they aim to control sex and gender in women's sport. A series of four open-ended interviews were conducted with a trans-identified hockey player who was banned from competition. The reading of sex and gender through a feminist lens is employed to further view the subjectivity of transgender bodies in sport. Through the voice of one transgender athlete, we confront ideas of body policing, identity marking, and identity self-maintenance within ice hockey in the United States.