user: News article: South African Runner Keeps Medal But Loses Identity

This week, South Africas sports ministry issued an announcement that 18-year-old runner Caster Semenya would keep her medal for this summers much-contested 800-meter win in Berlin, along with $60,000 in prize money and title of World Champion. The issue at stake? Not her ability, but her gender.

Semenyas gender identity made headlines this summer after she won the 800-meter final this August in Berlin. Almost immediately following her win, questions were raised over her speed and physical appearance, and rumors sparked over her potential disqualification for not being entirely female.

Sex-determination testing was standard for female Olympic-bound athletes as recently as 1999. But it has since been phased out and is now reserved for specific cases.

For Semenya at the World Championship level, the backlash from the athletic community and the media was immediate--Olympic Gold-Medal Winner Michael Johnson criticized the IAFF for its insensitivity in responding to the incident while civic leaders, politicians, journalists and activists characterized the judgment as an affront to Semenyas privacy and human rights.

Months passed and no conclusions were made public, until this weeks announcement--one that left those who had followed the situation scratching their heads.

Officially, Caster Semenya had been found innocent of any wrong and would not be disqualified. But while Semenya was told she could keep her medal, title and prize, no verdict was announced of the gender testing that occurred--or even whether the track star would be allowed to participate in future competitions--in either the male or female category.

Sports commentators, particularly Kenyans--their contender, Janeth Jepkosgei, took the silver medal behind Semenya in the controversial heat--are outraged on a platform of fairness. Its not fair that a woman might have a set of hormones that make her faster stronger and better than her competitors; its not fair that she gets to compete against women who arent, strictly speaking, her genetic equals. Until this summer, was simply a girl who could run fast. Since then shes been thrust into an international media circus.

Its a girl! The first words out of a doctors mouth upon bringing a baby into the world. Youre a girl. Boom. The F box is checked and you are neatly packed into a blanket and a little pink hat. (Or perhaps you were one of the Its a boy! cases. The M box was checked. You got a little blue hat. You get the picture.) For many of us, this is how life began. For many more babies born today, there isnt even the element of surprise in the delivery room. Of the multitude of boxes a person is put in over the course of his or her life--race, nationality, economic status, age--gender is a constant that we carry with us from our first breath. In most cases.

We have laws and regulations, says Anne Vitale, Ph.D, a gender specialist from California, that categorize people from birth into one of those two groups, and theres never been a place for anyone else. But as it turns out, there are others.

Is it because sex is this most personal of identifications, because we hold it so near to our sense of self that we are so loathe to comprehend, embrace--or even discuss these others? Are we so hard-wired to identify gender, in others and in ourselves, that the thought of any ambiguity is a subject to be handled at a distance--or in the impersonal arena of public humiliation?

In the case of Semenya and so many others, all signs point to yes. To be sure, in recent decades we have seen a rise in the acceptance of a variety of new or less common gender roles--homosexuals, same-sex marriages, transgendered couples--many thanks to the medias coverage. And yet the squirming, uncomfortable truth remains that we are not as comfortable as we claim to be.

Felicity Huffmans astounding performance in Transamerica opened lines of discussion we never thought possible, and still we make a spectacle out of this years Pregnant Man. And Caster Semenya certainly isnt even the first athlete to have her sex questioned publicly--three years ago, Indian runner Santhi Soundarajan was made to hand back her silver medal at the Asian Games in Doha after "failing" a gender test. The public humiliation was too much for Soundarajan to bear--she later attempted suicide.

One can only hope that Semenya wont have such an unhappy future as a result of the media frenzy were running up around her. Still, while the IAFFA hasnt made an official statement about her professional athletic future, it stands to reason that this single gold medal might be her only one. She is not 100% female, and to be fair, she cant race with the women--but neither is she 100% male, and it certainly wouldnt be fair for her to compete among men.

But talk about fair, Dr. Vitale says. Casters one of a kind, so she may be denied the right to compete at all. How's that for fair?
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assistant: Until this Summer, Caster Semenya was simply a woman who could run fast. Now her gender has thrust her into an international media circus.