Álex Alcaide is a footballer in the European Sports Cluba team of some relevance in Catalonia whose first men’s and women’s squads play in the Third and Second RFEF respectively.
He plays as a striker with the 9 on his back in the subsidiary, and this Monday it has gone viral on social networks because the team in which he plays his games every week is the women’s team.
Alex is a trans man. In other words, she was born a woman and, although she began her transition three years ago, the feminine box continues to appear on her official identity documents.
The photo that illustrates this news, taken from a tweet from the team itself, has been the subject of criticism of all kinds, the vast majority by users of the social network who interpreted that Álex was another case ‘Lia Thomas’, the famous swimmer transgender that has caused the International Swimming Federation (FINA) to put a fence on the participation of trans people in the category according to their felt sex instead of the one corresponding to their biological one.
Álex does precisely what Thomas is criticized for not doing: he plays the games in the category according to the sex with which you were bornwhich has further fueled the debate on networks.
The commotion generated has caused the Europa Club to rule on the matter, defending its player to the death and announcing that they would block any user who poured hate on him.
It is not the first case in the Europa Club
The famous Catalan club, which has a successful quarry, has already jumped to the spotlight for an issue related to trans people. And it is that Valentina Berr, a transgender player -born a man and who was a member of the women’s ranks of Europe- decided to hang up her boots because of the insults she often received because of her condition.
The participation of trans athletes in categories according to their gender or felt sex is one of the hottest issues in sports today, especially with the Trans Law on the political debate table.
What do the federations and the IOC think?
At the international level, and in addition to the aforementioned example of FINA -which vetoes those trans women who begin their transition after going through puberty-, several federations are studying the ways to follow for inclusion, including the option of creating a category special.
For its part, the International Olympic Committee stated in its proposal after the Tokyo Games – where the first transgender athlete in history, weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, made her debut – that “no athlete should be excluded from the competition on the assumption that they have an advantage due to his gender”, although he left the decision in the hands of federations.
The International Swimming Federation decided to ban those trans women who began their transition after puberty from participating in the female category.
The advantages of biological sex or the transition process must be determined by the experts –What does hormone hormone entail?– they represent for trans athletes and, therefore, the physical disadvantage in which the rest of the athletes in the category may find themselves.
For the moment, and in the specific case of Álex, he continues to play in the category indicated by his National Identity Document.
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