Ellia Green Comes Out As The First Transgender Olympian
At the opening address at the Bingham Cup’s international summit on ending transphobia and homophobia on Tuesday, August 16, rugby player and Olympic athlete Ellia Green came out as transgender.
GREEN COMES OUT AFTER RETIRING
In his address, Ellia mentioned that after retirement in 2020, he had made a promise to himself to live his life the way he wanted. This meant living openly as a transgender man. Ellia Green played women’s rugby sevens for nearly a decade and is the first Olympic athlete to come out as transgender. The pressures of being in such a spotlight would make it difficult for anyone to feel free to identify openly as transgender.
“I promised myself that when my rugby career ended, I would continue to live the rest of my life in the identity and the body that I that I know I am meant to be in,” says Green.
“Being open about my gender identity is a really difficult thing to do these days. All you have to do is turn on the TV, look on social media platforms, and you can see the amount of bullying, harm, and discrimination that goes on about gender identities. It’s extremely harmful, so for someone to be open and honest about their identity to the public eye is absolutely daunting.”
Looking at recent news, violence and discrimination towards the LGBTQIA+ community is growing stronger with transgender people being targeted specifically in a game of politics. Trans people are finding themselves at the hands of legislation that criminalises gender-affirming care, families are being investigated for seeking medical help for their trans children, and mentions of gender identity and sexual orientation are being banned in US schools.
According to Bingham Cup, Professor Elizabeth Saewyc, from the University of British Columbia’s School of Nursing, believes that Green’s fears are wholly substantiated by research. Professor Saewyc conducted a study of 7 large rugby clubs in Canada, and 14 clubs in Australia and the UK which showed that 16% of men and women have heard others use transphobic language. There were a further 57% who have heard sexist slurs used at their club and 22% have heard homophobic slurs.
It’s important for strong role models like Ellia Green to have the freedom to live their lives authentically. Progress stagnates when there is a lack of awareness; Ellia’s bravery and strength show other transgender folks that it is okay to be who they are.
The President of Bingham Cup Ottawa 2022, Jean-François Laberge says, “Ellia’s bravery in sharing his story will save lives and it will also shake-up the sporting world. To have a trans Olympic Gold Medal winner in rugby is groundbreaking and I think it’s going to help challenge and dispel many of the myths about trans people in sport.
“Over the last two years I have spent a lot of time speaking with and listening to women who play rugby. The research which was presented confirms what I had been hearing from women, that they are opposed to people being banned from playing their sport and there is no evidence that trans women are a safety risk to others,” he says.
