South Africa Athletics President Admits Lying About Semenya Sex Testing

My experiance as a IS person.

So far I've seen two articles out of over a dozen that are respectful of Caster and try to treat her and her condition with respect.  The others range from ignorant to out racist, homophobic and transphobic bullshit.  The only two articles I've seen where the writer shows any sign of compassion are wondering how someone Intersexed feels when they're told this news....

Well, I'm IS and I have a good insight on this.

I was gendered as a boy.
Starting around 8 I started to get harassed by the other boys.
At 10 I blossomed and mothers around me noticed and commented. Mostly positives, but if my family spoke up and corrected them then it typically turned negative.
At 13 I was routinely mis-gendered by everyone. Once again my family would step in and correct them often leading to more harassment.
The whole time my family kept telling me that people were just joking around with me or just seeing if they could get a rise.
As I grew up people continued to mis-gender me and harass me. I grew up learning to ignore the remarks and to avoid activities that exposed me to those things that caused me the most stress.

Eventually I needed to find a job. It was impossible to find one at the time. I ended up joining the Navy.  All of the activities that I avoided before I now needed to do. I did them, but the harassment was non-stop.
"what are you? Some kind of he-she?"
"I think he's one of them she-males!"
"You're pretty enough to be my girl friend, come visit me tonight after lights out!"
That's just a snippet of what I had to endure. The harassment was far more than just verbal.

It's depressing to have to put up with that. But, you can ignore it, after all my parents told me I was normal, they were just seeing if they could get a rise out of me.  They were laughing with me... that's what I was always told growing up.

During a routine physical some years later a corpsman noticed some lab tests were off. He took them to the doctor, I was called in and questioned on what I was taking. They insisted I was taking hormones, medication to cause my estrogen levels to be through the roof and my testosterone below that of an adolescent boy.  The doctor speculated that the tests were screwed up at the lab. They would take another set of tests. We would have a meeting when they came back.

I walked back to my command shocked and wondering what it meant, yet knowing. When I got there I was greeted by the 'guys'. The ones I never liked or hung out with. They knew, they knew everything.

The tests that were ordered came back nearly the same. We had a meeting.
They took more tests, we had another meeting.
More tests, another meeting... the doctor was concerned. All of my tests pointed towards one impossible thing. He put me on some vitamins, "just in case".

I walked back to the command yet again. Again they knew everything that had gone on in my private doctors visit. They knew about the vitamins, they knew what the doctor was afraid of. What I was afraid of.

More tests and meetings. They determined that I didn't have all the parts and couldn't get pregnant. I was taken off the prenatal vitamins.

I was told that I should have known, that all of this was my fault. They said I didn't belong in their Navy.  They were going to kick me out because I didn't belong, because I was different.
The doctor insisted it was a medical issue and stood up for me. He said I was healthy, just different.

How did I feel?
Everyone knew but me. They were always harassing me and making me feel bad about myself. But I stood firm knowing I was 'me' and no amount of harassment could change that. But they were right all along weren't they? What else were they right about but I ignored? To say I was shaken to my core really doesn't even come close to how I felt. I questioned every moment and aspect of my life with the realization that I was a freak, an it, a monster in my own skin. I was afraid of myself, a person that I didn't know at all. I was embarrassed...

I was embarrassed because I always felt that I was 'different' the whole time. I went thru the motions because it was what I was supposed to do and I didn't know how to do anything else. I didn't think that it was possible for me to be female in anyway. But as I've learned, my body knows how to do what it's best at and with a little help from my endo it's working a bit better now days.

Caster will be ok, just give her time to let her sort herself out. It would be better if she has a good deal of mental health care available to her.  Let her figure out who she is. She is a unique individual who has a few more choices available to her than the rest of you do.  
It took me about 3 months (with no help at all from the Navy) to come to grips with it.

Casters coach who hid so much from everyone just to put Caster on a podium? Someone needs to do something mean to him. Pushing a kid out to compete with that hanging over her head shows a complete lack of...  grrrr... can I just kick him one time? Please?

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by: Gina9223 @ Sat Sep 19, 2009 at 18:32:01 PM CDT

How is an IS/endo challenged person supposed to compete?

First off, pardon me for my ignorance.  I suspect I'm offending someone just by asking the question, but I'd appreciate some honest opinions on this issue.
Do the international athletic organizations need to set some sort of height, weight, limb, endo measurements and create competitive classes without gender as factor?  Sort of like boxing with the various weight classes?  

Or maybe athletics needs to move toward a individualized form of competition where everyone who achieves a certain standard gets some sort of award?

I can't help but think of Phelps with his unusually long limbs and flipper like feet.  Should he lose his medals because his feet are too big?

It seems like no credit is being given to Semenya.  Gee, she's the one who trained for hours on end for years to get to this point. I know I couldn't do that.  Where's the acknowledgment for her hard work?

As far as Leonard Chuene, I'm pissed with him because he didn't tell this Semenya about a medical issues that concerned her.

That's one strange advantage to being in the US military.  When I was in the Service, NOTHING was private - any medical and personal issues were passed on to my command to do with as they saw fit - which was normally to broadcast them to the rest of my unit (no matter if it was unit business or not).

But I know of several cases in the "real world" where the parents of a teenager carried out a number of medical tests, the results were then kept from the child.  The law on getting away with this really depends on the state.

And I know of cases in athletics where coaches lied or concealed info from athletes so they would continue to compete.  I'm thinking of the old dictatorships in Bulgaria, Romania and Eastern Germany, as well as ongoing problems with the Chinese.  Didn't the coaches on those teams pump their girls up with T, steroids and other drugs without their knowledge?  In professional sports there have been numerous accusations by pro players around the world that were told that they were okay to play by the team doctors.  Then they found out later that the team just wanted another win, after said athlete is crippled for life.

It seems to me that teenager Caster Semenya may have been  mislead about her about her medical status and her endocrine output deliberately withheld from her by her coaches. So in addition to all the garbage she's getting from the media, she's having to deal with having her trust betrayed by her coaches and medical team.

At best Leonard Chuene should lose his athletic coaching credentials for lying to Caster about an important medical issue.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..."

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by: littlelight @ Sat Sep 19, 2009 at 22:58:10 PM CDT

The solution...

is to have them compete with men. Most athletics associations would not put up much of a fight if an IS person were competing with me. This is because the qualification requirements for men are usually highest possible standard. Thus an IS person would not have much of an advantage one way or another. This is why men are generally not tested. There is no higher standard that one could possibly compete.

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by: SciFi Geek @ Mon Sep 21, 2009 at 09:30:27 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Tina's Comment Part I

From the IAAF's own website-
6. Conditions that should be allowed:

(a) Those conditions that accord no advantage over other females:

- Androgen insensitivity syndrome (Complete or almost complete - previously called testicular feminization);

- Gonadal dysgenesis (gonads should be removed surgically to avoid malignancy);

- Turner's syndrome.

(b) Those conditions that may accord some advantages but nevertheless acceptable:

- Congenital adrenal hyperplasia;
- Androgen producing tumors;
- Anovulatory androgen excess (polycystic ovary syndrome).

http://www.iaaf.org/mm/Documen...

As I read the above, the only bit of wiggle room that might make the cheating accusation stick in Semenya's case is the part about "Complete or almost complete" AIS...it would all fall to the question of whether or not her AIS is complete enough...and the rules don't define that.


There is no situation so complex it can't get even worse

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by: ZoeB @ Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 20:22:50 PM CDT

Tina's Comment Part II

Besides that, there's this-

B.Current IAAF Policy

In 1992, the Medical Committee recommended and the Council adopted the current policy on gender verification, which states:
1. the general "health check" is strongly recommended, but no longer required.

2. Visual examination of the genitalia during the delivery of a urine specimen in the women's doping control station is a sufficient method of determining whether the athlete is male or female.The risk of a male being discovered during the doping control procedure is sufficient deterrent to prevent males from attempting to compete as females.

http://www.iaaf.org/mm/Documen...

Seems to me that she did everything according to IAAF rules, so I fail to understand why she is being demonized rather than those who wrote those rules...?

Credit and Kudos to Tina.

There is no situation so complex it can't get even worse

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by: ZoeB @ Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 20:30:47 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

With gonadal strips (streaks?) being alleged though...

...sounds like she is more likely to have something like Swyer Syndrome.

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~~Autumn~~

As if there were safety in stupidity alone.
--Henry David Thoreau

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by: Autumn Sandeen @ Sun Sep 20, 2009 at 22:07:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

So I was right all along...

I got slammed around these parts for saying so....but it turs out I was correct that ASA sent her out there knowing full well that there was an unresolved gender issue. They turned a blied eye and lied to the IAAF.

The IAAF should not have leaked the news (and whoever did so should be reprimanded), but Athletics South Africa was the real culprit. As I've been saying all along, they should NEVER have allowed her to compete until these questions were resolved to everyone's satisfaction. ASA bears the burder for this turmoil and the emotional damanga done to Semenya.

They let her run knowing that there was a good chance that she would be disqualified.

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by: SciFi Geek @ Mon Sep 21, 2009 at 09:24:40 AM CDT