The Lived Experiences of Transgender Footballers in the UK.

Abstract

Transgender athletes have always been under extreme scrutiny when it comes to participating and competing in sport. Transgender policies in sport often exclude trans* participants making it difficult for them to access sport. This is due to the notion that trans* athletes, especially trans* female athletes have a supposed athletic advantage over cisgender athletes, which is often not the case. Recent research regarding trans* experiences in sport take place in either educational or leisure settings but less so on lower-level competitive sport that is governed by a national governing body. There is also no recorded literature of transgender footballers in the UK, leaving this gap unexplored. Therefore, the aim of this research is to capture the lived experiences of transgender individuals navigating through organised competitive football in the UK. Drawing on qualitative narrative research methods, stories were gathered through in-depth interviews in order to capture the experiences of the participants. These were completed either face-to-face, via video call or via instant messaging. The participants of this study included 3 trans* men and 1 trans* woman between the ages of 24 and 37 years old (mean = 29 years), who currently or have previously competed in Football Association (FA) regulated competitions pre or post transition. One participant no longer plays football, one only plays recreational, non-FA affiliated 5-a-side, and two participants play for a non-FA affiliated LGBTQIA+ team. Through thematic analysis, two themes emerged; For the Love of Football and Beyond the Binary: Finding a Place in Football. The findings suggest that accessibility to FA-affiliated football as a trans* person is difficult. All participants struggled to access FA paperwork regarding their eligibility as well as experiencing frustration due to the lack of education around trans* guidance in football. It was shown from the data gathered that all participants felt safer in a female football environment compared to a male football environment and two participants experienced transphobia within male “LGBTQIA+ friendly” football teams. Participants also expressed concerns about the anti-trans rhetoric in the elite sports media and how this affects them participating in lower-level sport. This study supports the need to further explore the experiences of trans* people in low-level competitive sport and how football and other sports can make themselves more inclusive of trans* participants through their policies. This research makes an important contribution to knowledge as the first piece of research to bring to light the personal experiences of trans* people in football.