When I first joined my derby league, I remember complaining to a friend, "I thought there would be more queer women."* What else had
Whip It! taught me, if not that at roller derby after-parties, cute women would be seducing each other in the hot tub? Hadn't my league skated at Pride London? Where were all the gay ladies at? As it turned out, there were plenty of awesome women all over the sexuality spectrum. I had just assumed that I was alone.
Why were my expectations so specific? Women's sports are often stereotypically associated with the presence of gay ladies, which reminds us that the assumption that all gay women are butch and that all supposedly butch women are gay is still prevalent. And roller derby is seen as a very queer-positive sport in particular. In Toronto during Pride, there's the annual
Clam Slam, a bout between queer derby players from all over Canada and the US. And what environment could be more conducive to bringing in queer women than a feminist, women-focused space that happens to feature the occasional pair of booty shorts?
As a queer derby player, I've always felt welcomed by my league. They really came to my attention because they skated in the 2010 Pride London Parade, which was part of why I assumed the league would be a queer haven. And it is. Though we can never rest and say, "Oh, we're supportive enough," I must say I'm happy with my league's attitude toward queer players.
One area where we (and by 'we', I mean every league, every player) need to keep working is trans issues.
WFTDA's gender policy states that a female is someone "living as a woman and having sex hormones that are within the medically acceptable range for a female". While the fact that WFTDA is not perpetuating trans invisibility is a good thing, the policy is far from perfect. Some, myself included, would say it's still intensely discriminatory. Why?
In the first place, WFTDA's policy places the burden of 'proving' oneself to be a woman solely on the shoulders of trans players. As a cis-gendered woman, I simply don't have to jump through the same hoops that a trans player does. That's discrimination. Additionally, placing a player's status as a woman in a medical professional's hands robs that player of the right to simply say, "I am a woman," and be heard.
The issue of having hormones determine someone's sex, let alone their gender, is also dubious. When it comes down to it, there's no good way to 'test' for gender and sex except asking. Just ask. Ask and then take the answer at face value. I once had a (deeply transphobic) partner "accuse" me of being trans. While I couldn't care less if people think I'm trans (because trans people are brave and unbelievably strong and frankly, I'd take it as a compliment), I remember being deeply offended that my answer regarding my gender and sex wasn't assumed to be "honest". I felt trapped by that person's refusal to just believe me. I felt reduced to the status of a non-person, because my claim to my gender was, according to that person, supposedly insufficient.
In short, I believe the WFTDA policy needs to be changed if the sport is going to continue to progress and prove it really is a feminist sport we can be proud of.
Read the policy and decide for yourself. But accord a fellow derby player the same respect you would give a friend or a person on the street. Believe them when they tell you who they are.
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* A note on my language: I'm using the word 'queer' as an umbrella term for folks, in this case largely women, whose sexuality is not limited to opposite-sex attraction. I know not everyone likes the word queer, but it's my word and I use it freely.
Rock the Rainbow
