Transgender Issues facing Co-ed Slowpitch

[teebob21]

Originally Posted by bsnalex

So...I'm sure this will eventually be a larger issue. What happens if and when there's a transgender player? The ruleset doesn't say anything about "man" or "woman" refers to sex at birth or identified sex? For that matter, how do we deal with gender binary/fluid gender individuals?

Say a manager protests what they perceive to be two men batting consecutively, but the second is a transgender woman. Do we ask preop/postop? Do we defer to the governing federation and simply say play on under protest?

This is an issue for the tournament director, not the umpires. If I was the TD, I would refer to the gender shown on the individual's driver's license or other official ID. Let some other agency make the determination. It's not in the TD's job description to offer an opinion or ruling about someone's fiddly bits. If the boy named Sue has an F on the ID, Sue bats after a man. If the ID says male, Sue bats after a lady. Once the rosters are set and accepted by the TD, there is no rules interpretation to protest during the game.

Originally Posted by bsnalex

How should a federation handle an umpire that refuses to call a game with transgender players?

Replace him/her with someone that will work the game, and get it played. We're independent contractors (in most places) and have the right to refuse to work for any reason. At the same time, assignors are free to refuse to assign us future games for any reason (excluding protected discriminatory actions such as skin color, and yes, gender).