Another running race makes shitty decisions

[sonrisa]

Bay to Breakers is apparently run by Trumper QAnon bigots *and* won't award nonbinary athletes. 

www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-to-Breakers-no-nonbinary-awards-17169366.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight

www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/CEO-of-Bay-to-Breakers-race-operator-donated-to-17166763.php

[mrsslocombe]

Unfortunately, very few races have awards categories for non-binary athletes, or allow participants to register as non-binary. The San Francisco Marathon, which is run by a different organization, does not. Nor does Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. New York Road Runners is one of the few race organizations that offers prize money to non-binary athletes, which I think they only started offering that in 2021. All NYRR races, and NYC Runs (the other big race organizer here) offer a non-binary category.

I think a lot of race organizations hide behind the USATF rules & regulations, which currently don't offer any support for non-binary athletes.

So, yes this race org has shitty politics and political donations, unfortunately they are in good company and there is a lot of work to be done across the country to recognize non-binary athletes.

[wawa]

I think it's odd that you can register as non-binary but there's no non-binary awards. Seems like a strange decision.

But yeah, this is a challenge that hasn't been dealt with for several different sports - even though it seems like it should be not a big deal to make the change at a local level, when they have a governing body and those governing bodies haven't yet made the necessary changes to figure this shit out it's hard to navigate for local race directors. It's an issue in biking, running and triathlons. (and probably others, but those are mine, and I know it's a thing there)

Like, if you are a USAT member (USA Triathlon), as far as I know there's still no non-binary option when you register. And sanctioned races have to confirm your USAT membership in order to allow you to race. So even if the local race wanted to allow a non-binary option, you're still registered linked to this USAT membership that lists you as male or female. And your results have to reported in one of those categories as far as USAT is concerned. So the local race could decide to allow non-binary registration, but you'd still have that underlying binary requirement. USAT has a trans inclusive policy that I think is decent (their process to allow for hormone therapy is a hassle as I understand it, but...that's not what we're talking about), but they just haven't grappled with non-binary athletes as a thing AT ALL.

[wanderingback]

Yeah I don’t think this is a problem just in running, unfortunately. I hope the rest of sports as well addresses this and make strides to be more inclusive. I’ve wondered if sports in general will eventually have less competitions defined by gender (like everyone competes together) or more competitions with more categories defined by gender (for example male, female, non-binary, agender, etc).

[fernweh]

May 13, 2022 8:47:47 GMT -5 wawa said:

I think it's odd that you can register as non-binary but there's no non-binary awards.

**not saying it’s right or I agree***
I assume they use the same logic as people who think men are going to claim to be trans just to dominate at women’s sports. Since there will likely be far fewer non-binary than male/female if they awarded it people who are not in fact non binary could register as such so they place where as they wouldn’t if they registered male.

[mrsslocombe]

May 13, 2022 15:37:45 GMT -5 fernweh said:

May 13, 2022 8:47:47 GMT -5 wawa said:

I think it's odd that you can register as non-binary but there's no non-binary awards.

**not saying it’s right or I agree***
I assume they use the same logic as people who think men are going to claim to be trans just to dominate at women’s sports. Since there will likely be far fewer non-binary than male/female if they awarded it people who are not in fact non binary could register as such so they place where as they wouldn’t if they registered male.

I'm sure that thinking exists, but I also think there is a mindset that there isn't going to be a large pool on NB athletes in a race, so there isn't enough competition for awards. 

NYRR does give out equal prize money to man, women, and NB athletes (though there is currently no NB prizes for wheelchair/para participants). But in the United Airlines Half, which had 22,000 finishers, there were only 21 registered NB athletes. Our most recent 5k had 2700 finishers and 9 NB athletes. Hopefully those numbers are only going to increase as more people become aware that there is an option to register as NB, and more NB people will feel like they are welcomed in the sport.