Transgender basketball player makes history

Kye Allums

When I first read about this, I was moved to tears by the bravery and guts of Kye Allums, the first openly transgender player in NCAA Division I women's basketball history. And I feel an almost maternal, home-state sense of pride in this barrier breaking young person since Allums grew up in Hugo, Minnesota, and was a star on the Centennial High School basketball team. 


Big props also to George Washington University for their support of Allums as this wall comes tumbling down for athletes. The locker room closet is still fierce. 

While Allums wants to be identified as male, he is not taking any hormones or doing any medical protocols in order not to risk eligibility to play. Read the whole story on outsports.com. A few excerpts here:

"Not many people noticed a slight change on the George Washington University website earlier this year. It concerned a player on the school’s women’s basketball team named Kay-Kay Allums. Just a couple letters were taken away, a Y was moved and an E was added to form the player’s new name: Kye Allums. To most people it was meaningless, but to Allums the change was the most significant of his lifetime.

“A name is just a bunch of letters, but the letters make up a word and the words that make up my name have so many more emotions behind them,” Allums said. "My old name, that’s just not me. When I hear Kye, everything feels okay, everything is right.”

For the last 20 years, Kay-Kay Allums had appeared to the world as female. She was born with the anatomy that other women have. Her mom tried to dress her in only the most feminine clothes. But inside was a man waiting to burst out of the female body he was born in. 

On Nov. 13, Kye Allums will introduce himself to the NCAA basketball world at the Best Buy Classic in Minneapolis in a game against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. When he steps foot on the court, Allums will be the first publicly transgender person to play NCAA Div. 1 college basketball. 

Allums grew up in the small town of Hugo, Minn., a half hour north of Minneapolis. Head coach Mike Bozeman scheduled the tournament appearance as a homecoming for him, long before he transitioned to male. The junior guard’s inaugural game identifying as a man will also be the first time he has played in front of his hometown crowd. While Allums is making a change now, most of his family and friends will recognize him as the same old Kye..."

Here is a video that shows a self-assured Allums talking about being transgender:





You go, Kye! 


Related recently released report: "On the Team: Equal Opportunities for Transgender Student Athletes"