When TENI launched the Transgender & Intersex Sports Inclusion Policy Guide, for the first time, intersex inclusion was not an afterthought, not a side note, but named. That word alone, intersex – appearing in a national policy on sport is a small act of defiance in a country that still hides behind silence when it comes to bodies like mine.
I was proud to contribute on behalf of Intersex Ireland. We reviewed a draft document, wrote a section, and were involved in final approval. I was delighted that Teni included the voices of stakeholders , and the finished document reflects this, because this document isn’t just policy. It’s a challenge to a system that has built entire hierarchies on who gets to compete, who gets to belong, and who gets to exist without interrogation. Sport in Ireland – like medicine and law, has too often been a site of control masquerading as fairness.
Fairness has never been neutral. Fairness is a political choice. And for decades, it’s been used as a weapon against trans and intersex people, especially women. Our bodies have been pathologised, measured, and disqualified for daring to exist outside someone else’s definition of what’s real.
The guide is an important first step, but the first step is never enough. The intersex section is short, almost symbolic , a nod in our direction without yet granting us full presence.
There are no demands for reparations, no structural accountability for the medical violence still happening in Irish hospitals. And while the trans inclusion framework is strong and necessary, it’s still trapped inside the same binary sporting categories that exclude those who don’t fit neatly into “M” or “F.”
But this is how it starts: not with perfection, but with possibility.
Arcane Cycling Team, the club I help lead, as proof that inclusive sport doesn’t have to be theoretical. It can exist on Irish roads, in clubs and teams where non-binary, intersex, and trans riders train, race, and thrive together.
We don’t ask who someone “used to be.”
We ask what cadence they hold, or what direction we should head for a spin.
That’s the difference between tokenism and transformation.
Sport can be liberation ,when it’s ours. When we build it from the ground up instead of waiting for governing bodies to catch up.
The TENI Guide is a step. But steps become marches, and marches become movements.
If the sporting world is ever to mean what it says about inclusion, then the next stage must be intersex-led, trans-centred, and feminist in its bones.
Because when the most marginalised are included, everyone gains, in fairness, in safety, in joy.
And if they’re afraid of us gaining hormones, imagine what happens when we gain power.
To the creators of the guide, thank you.
To every coach, club, and athlete reading, take this as your cue to change your own structures.
And to my siblings across every gender and none: the track, the road, the field, they’re already ours. Let’s reclaim them.
Download The Teni Sports Guide Below: