In the modern world trans people are increasingly not allowed to participate in sports, including fencing

As a trans person, it is my opinion that it is generally wrong and unfair to forbid trans participation, in case it wasn’t clear.

Trans people taking cross-sex hormones are generally comparable across strength measures to cis people of their gender, if not slightly worse, across most metrics – https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/58/11/586. Most advantage trans women have due to skeletal structure is gone when you consider that tall cis women exist.

It’s particularly egregious in the recent case, as has already been pointed out in a variety of places, since modern fencing is one of the sports that is largely not sex-segregated at the lower-to-mid levels. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/trans-fencer-sports-interview-1235315722/ is a solid overview and includes an interview with the trans woman involved.

In SCA Rapier, what does a fair fight look like?

We are here to have fun, and we fight on the honor system across fields that are generally open to anyone at all levels of the SCA.

Is it unfair for me to fight a Master of Defense in a tournament? Is it unfair for me to fight someone who passed their first authorization for the first time today? Is it unfair for me to take my 38” sword against someone with a 45”, due to the advantage in reach that the longer sword has?

The answer to all of these questions is generally that it depends on context.

  • We do have non-MoD tournaments at events I’ve attended, or split the beginning of the tournament such that qualifier rounds before the finals have all the highest-level fencers in the same pools.
  • We do have tournaments which are only open to people in their first 2-3 years of fencing and it would be unfair for me to join one today after years of doing this.
  • I choose to take my 38” sword on the field because I enjoy it more than I would enjoy a 45”, and on the melee field I am generally at a disadvantage as a result, but I don’t care because my main goal on the melee field right now is not to have the most kills. (Right now my melee goals are to (1) stay alive & (2) bind opponent swords down so that my teammate next to me can get better shots)

We do have gender-minority-only tournaments in the SCA, and depending on the organizer they may or may not describe this as inclusive of nonbinary people so I may or may not choose to participate. These tournaments have been inclusive of trans women every time I’ve seen them held at Pennsic etc. I see the function of these tournaments as about building a welcoming community for a minority group, and not about determining who the best non-male fighter is.

I have also seen tournaments you can only enter if you’re under 5’4”, and tournaments you can only enter with a curved blade.

But Anne, it’s easy for you to say this as a transmasculine person – you also have a biological advantage

I’m also 5’6” and fat, and rapier practice is generally the only exercise I get in a given week. I’m not exactly out here destroying cis people of comparable experience levels on the rapier field. People I have fought in novice tournaments with have gotten grant-level fencing awards before I was given any fencing awards.

We are all fighting our own different battles and our main opponent is ourselves. I love that the SCA takes all kinds of people and not just elite athletes.