BOI PARTS, Person to watch: Kye Allums, first transgender player on a Division I basketball team

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Meet Kye Allums, a transgender student at George Washington University playing on the Division I basketball team.

Allums, who currently plays on the women’s team, came out as transgender earlier this week after a long struggle with his identity. He says he won’t pursure gender reassignment surgery until April 2012, when he’ll no longer qualify to be a student athlete.

Allums’ story, as well as his role as a pioneer for transgender athletes, has drawn attention from national media and has made him a type of hero in the transgender community. It’s a role he said he knew he was stepping into when he announced his decision to self-identify as male. The attention, both positive and negative, is something he’s also comfortable with.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “I guess that’s good because that means I’m going to be getting out an issue and clearing things up, or trying to clear things up for people who don’t understand something. That was a good thing.”

This is a great story for larger media outlets to cover.

Athletes tend to serve as idols for their communities and for our general culture, and addressing transgender issues as they relate to sports could be a fantastic way to reach a population that’s not normally interested.

Rock on, Kye. And thanks for the reference, justinsanak!