California women's juco player: She was a man, baby!

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_22132492/transsexual-woman-50-years-old-6-feet-8

Gabrielle Ludwig is a 6-foot-8, 220-pound center with a nice shooting touch. She also is a 50-year-old Desert Storm veteran who played JUCO ball as a man in 1980 and thus is believed to be the first person to play a college sport as both genders.

The key was having a new birth certificate issued declaring Ludwig a woman, which re-started the time left in her college career. It doesn't sound like she is much of a contributor at this point -- I would imagine being 50 and out of shape would be a bit of a problem -- but story does say she's a foot taller than anybody else out there and thus rebounding is slightly easier for her.

 

Awesome.

 

Real Sports did a feature on her last night.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/03/19/real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel-tells-story-of-transsexual-ncaa-athlete-gabrielle-ludwig/2000045/

One thing that struck me was that her "life partner" (the term they used on the HBO piece) is a woman. At the risk of sounding like an insensitive ignoramus, that seems odd to me.

If you're attracted to women, why go through the trouble of becoming a woman? Yes, I realize that gender identity is about more than to whom you are romantically and/or sexually attracted, but I would think it's a huge part of it.

Am I wrong?

 

You're not an insensitive ignoramus, but gender identity issues aren't necessarily attached to who you're attracted to sexually.

The NCAA (and some high school athletic associations) have policy on transgender athletes. Generally, if you identify as male but you're physically female, you can play on an all-male team. If you identify as female but you're physically male, you're likely to have to prove you've reached a certain point in hormone therapy for your transition in order to play on an all-female team.

That may not be a hard-and-fast rule everywhere. Massachusetts says its transgender equality laws apply to school sports, though it doesn't spell out how that plays out in practice.

 

If I were a woman, I'd definitely be a lesbian

 

Bumping this one because the team in question is playing in a tourney in our circulation area this weekend. Was doing some preview caps Thursday afternoon, saw her averaging 17 ppg and 17 rpg. Slapped the name into Google, figuring with stats like that someone had an interest in her as a player, and voila!

 

I love the flasback threads.